 Champlain reported no evidence of Native habitation in the valley.By then the "Haudenosaunee" used it as a hunting ground and avenue for war parties.As the historian Pendergast argues, the determination of identity for the St. Lawrence Iroquoians is important because, "our understanding of relations between Europeans and Iroquoians during the contact era throughout Iroquoia hinges largely upon the tribe or confederacy to which Stadacona and Hochelaga are attributed."