A palisade, also known as a stake wall or a paling, is a defensive structure or enclosure consisting of iron or wooden stakes or tree trunks. Palisades can be used to create a stockade. The Iroquoian peoples, who formed tribes around the Great Lakes, used palisades to defend their settlements. People lived in communal groups in multiple longhouses within the palisades, occasionally in populations of up to 2000 people. Numerous 15th and 16th-century locations in Ontario, Canada, and New York, United States, have archaeological evidence of such palisades.