The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, forming part of the border between Ontario, Canada, to the west, and New York, United States, to the east. The origin of the river's name is debated. Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger suggests it is derived from a branch of the local Neutral Confederacy, referred to as the Niagagarega people on several late-17th-century French maps. George R. Stewart posits that it comes from an Iroquois town named Ongniaahra, meaning "point of land cut in two."