John Norton (Teyoninhokarawen) (born 1770, Scotland (?) – died 1827, Upper Canada) was a Mohawk chief, Indian Department interpreter and a school master. He was adopted by the Mohawk at about age 30 at their major reserve in Canada. After deserting the British military in the late 18th century, he became a military leader of Iroquois warriors in the War of 1812 on behalf of Great Britain against the United States. Commissioned as a major, he led warriors from the Six Nations of the Grand River into battle against American invaders at Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek, and Chippawa.
Likely born and educated in Scotland, he had a Scottish mother and a Cherokee father. His father was born in Keowee circa 1740, and was saved by British soldiers when they burned the town during the Anglo-Cherokee War. They took him to England and placed him with an English family. As an adult with the baptized surname Norton, he married a Scottish woman, who he had a son with.
The junior John Norton joined the British Army, serving in Ireland before being assigned to Lower Canada after the American Revolutionary War. While there he became interested in the Six Nations of Grand River, ultimately learning the Mohawk language and culture, and being adopted into a family of the tribe. In 1804 on a diplomatic trip representing the Iroquois to England, he translated the Gospel of John into Mohawk for the British and Foreign Bible Society. This work was distributed in Upper Canada beginning in 1806.
Norton traveled in the American Southeast in 1809–1810, visiting many Cherokee towns and meeting some of his father's relatives. He documented much about Cherokee culture and included this material in his journal, which primarily recounted events of the War of 1812. It is unique for his perspective on the war as an acculturated Mohawk raised in the British Isles. The memoir, The Journal of Major John Norton, 1816, was not published until 1970 in an annotated edition by The Champlain Society; other annotated versions have also been published, including the Society's 2011 version.
Early life
John Norton was likely born in Scotland in the early 1760s to a Scottish mother and an English father of Cherokee descent. The elder Norton, born in Keowee, had been saved as a boy by British soldiers, after they burned his home village of Keowee during the Anglo-Cherokee War. They took him back to England, where he was raised in an English family and given the surname Norton. He is believed to have married a Scottish woman, and they had a son known as John Norton.
The younger Norton began to serve as an apprentice to a printer, but ran away to join the army. He was assigned to Scotland, where he married. Next he was stationed in Ireland, where there were numerous Scots and border English immigrants, forming the Anglo-Irish ethnic group. In 1785 he was assigned to Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) after the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.
While stationed with his regiment at Niagara (Upper Canada) in 1787, Norton deserted the army and was discharged. For a time, he taught at the Mohawk settlement of Tyendinaga on the Bay of Quinte, west of Kingston, Ontario. In 1791 he traveled through the Ohio Valley of the United States as a trader, establishing many contacts.
During this time, Norton became increasingly involved with the Iroquois of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. In 1794, he returned to Fort Niagara, where he served as an interpreter for the British Indian department. He became known to Joseph Brant, the prominent Mohawk Nation leader, who became his mentor. While in his early 30s, Norton was adopted into a Mohawk family and clan, with Brant serving as his adoptive uncle.
Norton was given the Mohawk name of Teyoninhokarawen (roughly translated as "open door") to mark this passage. He settled in the Grand River reserve in Ontario. There he married Catherine, a First Nations woman from one of the six Iroquois nations.
Before the Canada (Constitutional) Act of 1791, on the authority of the Haldimand Proclamation, John Norton acted as interpreter in the transaction of farm land granted to 10 recipients.
Mohawk chief
Norton was strongly influenced by Joseph Brant (Thayendanega), the most prominent Mohawk chief, who had led much of the tribe through the end of the American Revolution and their resettlement in Upper Canada. Norton became a protégé of Brant, learning the Mohawk language and culture; he was adopted into the people as Thayendanega's nephew. Later he was appointed as a "Pine Tree Chief", in a public ceremony, according to Iroquois custom. This was an honorary position and was not within the hereditary line.