Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry
John Norton (1770–1831?) was one of the most important Iroquois leaders in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the author of a thousand-page manuscript on First Nations history, a journey he made to the Cherokee country, and his adventures in the War of 1812. However, that text an...
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2012
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00141801-1536885 https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-pdf/59/2/261/255231/EH592_03Benn_Fpp.pdf |
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crdukeunivpr:10.1215/00141801-1536885 2024-06-02T08:06:41+00:00 Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry Benn, Carl 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00141801-1536885 https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-pdf/59/2/261/255231/EH592_03Benn_Fpp.pdf en eng Duke University Press Ethnohistory volume 59, issue 2, page 261-291 ISSN 0014-1801 1527-5477 journal-article 2012 crdukeunivpr https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-1536885 2024-05-07T13:16:23Z John Norton (1770–1831?) was one of the most important Iroquois leaders in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the author of a thousand-page manuscript on First Nations history, a journey he made to the Cherokee country, and his adventures in the War of 1812. However, that text and his other writings have received comparatively little attention from scholars despite the rich opportunities these documents hold for exploring the indigenous world of his day. Much of the neglect stems from a reluctance to accept him as a “real” native person because he was born in Scotland and was an adopted Mohawk and because people have doubted his claim that his father was a Cherokee. This article clarifies Norton's claim to a Cherokee connection and concludes that the evidence overwhelmingly supports the probability that his father was a Cherokee; thus it invites scholars to look at Norton's work anew in their quest to understand the First Nations world of the latter 1700s and early 1800s. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Duke University Press Ethnohistory 59 2 261 291 |
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John Norton (1770–1831?) was one of the most important Iroquois leaders in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the author of a thousand-page manuscript on First Nations history, a journey he made to the Cherokee country, and his adventures in the War of 1812. However, that text and his other writings have received comparatively little attention from scholars despite the rich opportunities these documents hold for exploring the indigenous world of his day. Much of the neglect stems from a reluctance to accept him as a “real” native person because he was born in Scotland and was an adopted Mohawk and because people have doubted his claim that his father was a Cherokee. This article clarifies Norton's claim to a Cherokee connection and concludes that the evidence overwhelmingly supports the probability that his father was a Cherokee; thus it invites scholars to look at Norton's work anew in their quest to understand the First Nations world of the latter 1700s and early 1800s. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Benn, Carl |
spellingShingle |
Benn, Carl Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry |
author_facet |
Benn, Carl |
author_sort |
Benn, Carl |
title |
Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry |
title_short |
Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry |
title_full |
Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry |
title_fullStr |
Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Missed Opportunities and the Problem of Mohawk Chief John Norton's Cherokee Ancestry |
title_sort |
missed opportunities and the problem of mohawk chief john norton's cherokee ancestry |
publisher |
Duke University Press |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00141801-1536885 https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-pdf/59/2/261/255231/EH592_03Benn_Fpp.pdf |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Ethnohistory volume 59, issue 2, page 261-291 ISSN 0014-1801 1527-5477 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-1536885 |
container_title |
Ethnohistory |
container_volume |
59 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
261 |
op_container_end_page |
291 |
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1800751641299779584 |