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.

The junior John Norton joined the British Army, serving in Ireland before being assigned to Lower Canada after the American Revolutionary War.

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.

[4] 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.

[6] Norton supported Brant's efforts to make the new settlements at Grand River yield more revenues for the Iroquois, especially his plan to lease land to settlers in order to develop it in a mutually beneficial way.

By 1796 Brant felt he had to compete with the reserves established at Buffalo Creek in New York for the Seneca and Tyendinaga for Mohawk at the Bay of Quinte in order to attract more Iroquois peoples to settle at Great River.

"[B]y stereotyping Indians as naive primitives, colonial officials frustrated native attempts to exploit the commercial potential of their land.

"[7] He opposed the idea of having whites lease from the Mohawk and used William Claus, deputy superintendent of the Six Nations at Grand River, to carry out his policy.

The bottom panel of the window is inscribed with Norton's preface to his translation: "Let us strictly adhere to what the Lord has transmitted to us in the Holy Scriptures, that thereby the unbelievers may know that love we bear the commandments of God."

(from a bookmark produced by the Canadian Bible Society) Between 1809 and 1810 Norton had a lengthy trip to the American Southeast, where he traveled through the still extensive Cherokee territory, in part to try to find his father's people.

This journal was edited by Carl F. Klinck and James J. Talman, and republished in 1970 as part of the General Series of the Champlain Society.

Claus courted the Mohawk and other local tribes to gain their alliance in a period of growing tensions with the United States after 1807.

When the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States began, Norton was quick to join British General Isaac Brock at Detroit, despite the official neutrality of the Canadian Six Nations.

Their timely arrival at Queenston Heights, under the leadership of Major Norton, John Brant (Joseph's son), and Lieutenant Kerr of the Indian Department, was crucial to British victory.

The following year (1813), Norton and his warriors covered the British retreat to Burlington Heights (present-day Hamilton, Ontario) after the Americans took Fort George.

[10] Following Queenston Heights, Norton continued to lead larger bands of Iroquois warriors into several of the war's most significant battles.

He described their settlements and culture at the start of their final golden age before the Trail of Tears in the late 1830s and forced removal west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory.

He notes that Norton's formative years were spent in Scotland, with a Scots mother and a Cherokee father who was raised from childhood with the English.