A Mohawk Memoir from the War of 1812: John Norton – Teyoninhokarawen ed. by Carl Benn (review)

With this book, Carl Benn does more than offer us a new edition of a highly significant contemporary account of the War of 1812. He provides a model of how to enhance a historical text through its critical apparatus. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a compelling subject. John Norton/Teyoninhokarawen was born in England, in 1770, to a Cherokee father and Scottish mother. He came to America in the late 1780s, dabbled in teaching and trade among First Nations, and became a staunch advocate of Indigenous rights. His participation in the 1791 Battle of the Wabash speaks to his militancy. Duly adopted by Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, Norton settled at Grand River. No doubt owing to his experience fighting in the Ohio country, he became a war chief. During the War of 1812, he participated in the capture of Detroit and in most of the important engagements on the Niagara Peninsula. In 1816, on a trip back to Great Britain, Norton produced a thousand-page manuscript that recounted traditional Haudenosaunee history, the American wars against First Nations in the Ohio country during the 1790s, his journey to Cherokee communities in the American South, and his wartime experience. Norton likely envisioned that it would be published in Britain and was therefore writing for a European audience. Surprisingly, the manuscript languished for more than a century and a half until a scholarly edition was published by the Champlain Society. Even then, its sheer sprawl limited its accessibility. Without impugning the historical significance of the rest, Benn has extracted the sections that focus on the War of 1812 and made those the basis of the present book.

Benn's footnotes are extensive; indeed, on many pages they exceed the length of Norton's text. They serve to orient casual readers and introductory-level students to events, people, places, and issues described in the text. However, they also offer other historical sources, interpretations, and historiographical asides, and so enter into dialogue with other specialists. An example is the way that Benn annotates Norton's dramatic retelling of a late-night two-man reconnaissance of enemy lines, in which a sudden encounter with an American sentry resulted in the latter's death. In a pair of footnotes totalling about a thousand words and containing extensive quotes from contemporary sources, Benn reveals Norton as the shooter. He traces the circulation of the story and Norton's reputation south of the border in the days and months that followed (which culminated more than a year later in his being dubbed "MIDNIGHT MURDERER!" in the Baltimore-based but nationally read Niles' Weekly Register). In the note Benn also discusses published descriptions of Norton in relation to the colonialist discourse of savagery. In finding a means to serve multiple audiences simultaneously, one imagines that Benn was informed by his experience as chief curator of the city of Toronto's Museums and Heritage Services. The inclusion of more than thirty full-colour illustrations and maps allow the reader to correlate references to places and people with contemporaneous visual sources.

Although he was writing from memory, Norton recorded military movements and actions reliably and in meaningful detail. He also did so with a certain flair. For example, at Lundy's Lane, Norton described what happened when the multinational Indigenous war party he captained, along with militia and regulars, confronted US Brigadier-General Winfield Scott's troops: "The enemy remained firm in the position which he had at first assumed, exposed to a galling fire in front and flank. Dread seemed to forbid his advance and shame to restrain his flight" (249). Norton highlighted the cooperation between British and First Nations fighters, but also the complicated nature of the diplomacy that he undertook to keep First Nations warriors in the field against the Americans. By this time, the Indigenous peoples of the US northeast and Upper Canada could harbour no...