He advocated for their self-government in the Grand River region of Ontario and worked to record and preserve traditions of the people.
In 1885 he arranged a manuscript version of the Great Law of Peace, which has been analyzed since, particularly for its faithfulness to the original.
Newhouse was born on 27 January 1842 to an Onondaga mother and Mohawk father on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario, Canada.
[2] Newhouse followed the Longhouse Religion as an adult and managed a farm near the Grand River that his father had owned.
In the two decades that followed, Newhouse was involved in disputes over land along the Grand River, known as the Haldimand Tract.