Seth Newhouse (Dayodekane; 27 January 184211 June 1921) was a leader of the

Iroquois confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

. 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.

Early life

Newhouse was born on 27 January 1842 to an

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

mother and

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

father on the

Six Nations of the Grand River Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River, french: Réserve des Six Nations, see, Ye:i’ Níónöëdzage:h) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of w ...

reserve in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. He was educated at the

Mohawk Institute Residential School The Mohawk Institute Residential School was a Canadian Indian residential school in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The school operated from 1831 to June 27, 1970. Enrollment at the school ranged from 90 to 200 students per year. History Operated by ...

and learned to speak English, Onondaga, and Mohawk. Newhouse grew up as a member of the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

Career

Newhouse followed the

Longhouse Religion The Longhouse Religion is the popular name of the religious movement also known as The Code of Handsome Lake or Gaihwi:io (''Good Message''), founded in 1799 by the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake (Sganyodaiyoˀ). This movement combines and reinterpr ...

as an adult and managed a farm near the Grand River that his father had owned. By the 1870s he had become a prominent member of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

confederacy and was a member of the tribe's council in 1875 and 1883-1883. Newhouse primarily focused on learning and preserving the traditional knowledge of the Iroquois. In the mid-1870s he was involved in petitioning

David Laird David Laird, (March 12, 1833 – January 12, 1914) was a Canadian politician. He was born in New Glasgow, Prince Edward Island, into a Presbyterian family noted for its civic activism. His father Alexander had been a long time Reformer and L ...

for the confederacy to be recognized as a legal entity. In the two decades that followed, Newhouse was involved in disputes over land along the Grand River, known as the

Haldimand Tract The ''Haldimand Proclamation'' was a decree that granted land to the Mohawk (or Kanien'kehà:ka) (Mohawk nation) who had served on the British side during the American Revolution. The decree was issued by the Governor of the Province of Quebec, ...

. He also participated in the Six Nations Union Association in the early 1880s, and continued to advocate that the Six Nations should be allowed to govern themselves, being involved with numerous petitions, though he was not a chief of the people after 1884. 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. Despite Newhouse's efforts, it was never formally endorsed by the Grand River Council. Some information preserved by Newhouse and others was published in 1916 in the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. ...

Bulletin. He died on 11 June 1921.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newhouse, Seth 1842 births 1921 deaths Iroquois people