John Norton (Mohawk chief)

John Norton Teyoninhokovrawen
Teyoninhokovrawen (John Norton)
Born	Unknown 1760's Unknown, likely Scotland
Died	Unknown - sometime after 1826 Unknown
Nationality	Mohawk (adopted)

John Norton (Teyoninhokovrawen) (b.c. 1760s Scotland (?)- d.after 1826, adopted as Mohawk) was 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 father who was born Cherokee in Tennessee but raised from boyhood with the English. 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 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; it was distributed in Upper Canada beginning in 1806.

John Norton was likely born in Scotland in the early 1760s to a Scottish mother and a father born Cherokee in Tennessee and raised from boyhood in England. His father had been rescued as a boy by British soldiers when his hometown of Keowee (Tennessee) was destroyed during the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War. The boy was taken back to England and raised in an English family. John Norton was likely educated as a boy in Scotland.

He served an apprenticeship as 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. In 1785 he was assigned to Lower Canada (Quebec) after the end of the American Revolutionary War.