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Aaron Brock, aka "Chief Red Bird" Tsalagi' Ugvwiyuhi Totsu'hwa (abt. 1721- ca 1811)

Page Updated 2 Aug 2007

 

 

 Red Bird River, S.E. Kentucky, named for Chief Red Bird. The boundary between Clay and Leslie Cos. follows in part the Red Bird River.

Turkey track is the traditional symbol for the Bird clan (Ani-Tsisqua). Turkey is also the symbol of the trickster.
The rock exhibits symbols for all Cherokee clans. Photos courtesy of Tim Brock, May 2005

AARON BROCK (Sr.), is said to've been born 8 Dec 1721 in VA, though no source for the date can be found ~ the same birthday as his son JESSE BROCK (b. 8 Dec 1751, Cumberland Co., VA), so perhaps someone confused their birthdays. AARON died probably 1811 in Clay Co., KY.

Nearly 200 years of oral tradition indicates Aaron Brock the English name of Cherokee treaty-signer Chief Red Bird (Cherokee name Tsalagi' Ugvwiyuhi Totsu'hwa) for whom the Red Bird River was named. Circumstantial evidence indicates but cannot prove he was the son of Chief Great Eagle and Woman Ani-Wadi. Dr. Kenneth B. Tankersley was shown the burial place of Aaron Brock - Chief Red Bird as a boy by his great-grandmother Elizabeth Saylor Tankersley, who was shown by her grandmother Elizabeth Brock Saylor, the granddaughter of Jesse Brock's son James C., as a place to be cared for by their family, which has looked after his grave since the murder.

Aaron Brock's name as father of Jesse Brock and his sister Mahala Susanna Brock Callahan was mentioned in only one old printed family history (Strong Family, by Mrs. J. C. Hurst, Lexington, KY, 1958).

No evidence is cited for the name of his father to have been Reuben Brock ("British soldier b. 1680"), as found in a few genealogy databases on the Internet, nor that such a Reuben existed in that time period.

The mystery of where this Reuben theory came: Apparently it was a theory only of a researcher, then repeated as fact by others.

The Swiss/Germans Rudolph and John Michael Brack/Brock in Augusta Co., VA, had two grandsons named Reuben who served in the Revolution. It is likely one of them was mistaken for a candidate for the father of Aaron Brock, though they were born 150 years too late. See EARLIEST BROCKS IN VA.

Virginia colonists from England received land patents of 50 acres per man, plus 50 acres for persons they transported to Virginia. Bond servants received 50 acres when their 2-7 years of servitude were complete. All patents were preserved and are at the Library Virginia in Richmond, and none exists for Reuben Brock. Abstracts were published by Nell M. Nugent in several volumes, Cavaliers & Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents, beginning with Vol. I, 1623-1666, Richmond, VA, 1963. Patent images are available on-line on the LVA website.

All able-bodied males were required to serve militia duty. All extant county militia lists were published by Lloyd D. Bockstruck, Virginia's Colonial Soldiers, Baltimore, MD, 1988.

Aaron's son Jesse Brock was said in testimony by his grandson Elijah (son of Amon) to be "about 3/4 Indian." This suggests that Jesse was the grand- or great-grand-, or gr-great-grandson (?) of a European immigrant. A Brock DNA Project to determine the Y-chromosome of Aaron Brock is awaiting more test results, but so far three Brock direct-male-line descendants of JesseBrocks's sons Amon, James, and Jesse, Jr., are haplogroup J-12f2.1+, of Mediterranean-Middle East- Ashkenazi Jewish (Jews who went to Northern Europe, primarily to England).

Dr. Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA wrote about our Brock family's DNA in June 2007, "I have looked into a Jewish database that we have and this line IS found as a 12/12 match with 10 people in the database of Jews…One from Turkey (likely Spanish origins) one from Iran, and many from the Island of Majorca from a group of people who where forced to convert to Christianity called the Cheuta’s. I do not believe that these Brocks are descended from a Native American male, rather from a Jewish colonizer of Spanish descent."

Another man tested whose DNA was tested descends from a George Brock who lived in the same area as Jesse, had land dealings with him, and is believed by descendants to be Jesse's son, shows haplogroup R1B, the most common European admixture, and no similarity to the other two. There is little chance they had a common ancestor.

He and some other Brocks tested with DNA Prints, rather than Y-chromosome testing, all show a percentage of Native American.

There is no telling how far back the Jewish (or Melungeon) ancestor lived; it could have been hundreds or even thousands of years. Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman, in her book MELUNGEON: THE LAST LOST TRIBE IN AMERICA (2005), wrote, "Not all Jews are Melungeon, but all Melungeons are Jews," and cites numerous landings in the Carolinas and Florida during the 1500s by Spanish and Portuguese Jewish sailors and settlers seeking a new home as refugees from the Inquisition which began in Spain 1492, the year Columbus discovered America. As other English colonists arrived, the earlier Jewish settlers sought isolation in Appalachia.

 One European who married a Cherokee was Christian Gottlieb Priber, who immigrated abt 1735 from Zittau, Germany, went quickly to live with the Cherokee which he saw as an idyllic lifestyle. Leaving a wife and children in Germany who he meant to send for, he instead married a daughter of the great Cherokee Chief Moytoy at Tellico (now in SC). Her name is unknown, but their daughter Creat Priber married Chief Doublehead, who may've been Aaron Brock/Red Bird's brother, in the area now Stearns, KY. According to the interview of Felix Begley by Mrs. Annie Walker Burns, Christian Gottlieb Priber and his Moytoy wife had four daughters, names of the other three are not known. It was fairly common in that time and place for siblings to marry siblings.

 

 Erected in Clay Co. in 1966 by Kentucky Dept. of Highways, No. 908, text at Kentucky Historical Society, http://members.tripod.com/~Sue_1/redbird.html

 NOTE by Dr. Kenneth B. Tankersley: The prose about Red Bird was on the original State Marker. It was placed in front of Red Bird's cave, destroyed by SR 66, just south of Spurlock and north of Jack's Creek, in Clay County, and directly across the Red Bird River from his burial site. I have a photo taken the day it was dedicated by the governor. My cousin, Jess Wilson, the Clay County historian, filled in until he arrived. The marker has since been stolen and moved to another county. This site is still on the National Register of Historic Places.

Chief Red Bird - Was a legendary Cherokee Indian for whom this fork of the Kentucky River is named. He and another Indian, Jack, whose name was given the creek to the south, were friendly with early settlers and permitted them to hunt in the area. Allegedly they were killed in battle protecting their furs, and the bodies thrown into the river here. The ledges bear markings attributed to Red Bird."
1966, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky Department of Highways #908.

 

 

 Previous location of Red Bird Rock, the homeplace of Chief Red Bird. The rock broke from this location on 7 Dec 1994 and was taken to Mancester, KY, city park. The rock use to be at ground level until the land was excavated to bring the road through. Photo by Tim Brock.

 Current location of Red Bird Rock in Manchester (seat of Clay Co., KY), city park, and Tim Brock. In addition to the carvings left by Chief Red Bird are several religious markings attributed to early priest from the Red Bird Mission who found the rock and added his own markings in several ancient languages he knew.

Site of Red Bird's murder, directly across the road from Red Bird Rock. Photo by Tim Brock

Dr. John J. Dickey Diary, Fleming County, Ky. Recorded in the 1870's and beyond. Reprinted in Kentucky Explorer, Volume 11, No March, 1997, p. 107. By permission. Clay County.

RED BIRD ~ The Indian chief for whom Red Bird Creek in Clay County was named was probably a Cherokee from Tennessee or North Carolina. Like others of his race, he was a great hunter and allured by the game in this remote region he finally took up his residence on the creek that bears his name at the mouth of Jack's Creek in this county. He came to his death by the avarice of the "pale face." There lived with him a crippled Indian named Willie. This man dressed the skins which Red Bird brought to their wigwam and looked after the culinary department of their house. Some hunters from North Carolina, greedy and unscrupulous, came to the wigwam and murdered Willie. They then secreted themselves and awaited the return of the brave chief who had long before buried his tomahawk and for years had been living in peace with the white man, and as he approached his crude castle the bullet of an assassin laid him in the dust. They threw his body into a hole of water nearby which is still called "Willie's Hole," and from which John Gilbert and others took him and buried him. One tradition is that he was sitting on the bank of a creek fishing when he was shot and that he fell into the creek.

NOTE: It was Jake, not Jack, according to Jake's descendant.

Native people in the past traveled and made seasonal moves. Robert Benge, for example, ranged in war and peace from Canada to Florida. By the time of Red Bird, people lived in cabins, rode horses, and drove wagons. Sequoyah moved back and forth from Georgia to Kentucky, from Washington to Arkansas.

Cherokee people who served in the Revolution, as well as African Americans who served, were permitted to be land owners and were encouraged by the newly formed government to acculturate into American society as civilized people.

Gist, father of Sequoyah, led an entire militia of Cherokee during the Revolution. He was brought up for treason and tried by Washington, who found him not guilty and thanked him for rallying the Cherokee for the American cause.

Aaron Brock migrated to Red Bird, Harlan Co., KY, when his son Jesse was granted land for his Revolutionary service. It is said that at first Aaron and his wife lived in a sycamore tree near what is now Red Bird, Kentucky, which is named for him. Sycamore trees were sacred to the Cherokee. It is where the Creator gave the Cherokee people fire. The stump of that sycamore tree is almost within eye sight of Ken Tankersley's family's home at Cranks, Harlan Co., Kentucky. Jesse Brock was the first settler at Wallins Creek in what was then Knox Co. and is now Harlan.

Aaron Brock, Chief Red Bird, was a friend of Dillon Asher, who maintained a tollgate on the border of Cherokee Treaty land, near present-day Pineville. Pineville was on the Cherokee Boundary Line by the Treaties of 1785, 1792, and 1798. Asher fought in favor of the Cherokee against Evan Shelby, brother of Isaac Shelby, first governor of Kentucky and a commissioner to relinquish Cherokee land claims along the Cumberland River. Red Bird warned Asher that Evan Shelby was going to have him killed, and he fled to present-day Harlan County, and named the new settlement after his Cherokee friend, Red Bird. Dillon Asher's nephew Dillon Asher II (1797-1858, son of John Asher) married Henrietta Bolling, a Powhatan descendant of Pocohantas and John Rolfe.

 About 1798 Chief Red Bird made a personal treaty with Dillon Asher (1777-1844), who kept the first tollgate on the Cumberland Pass, at Pineville, KY. Historical marker designating Asher's cabin was missing and has been replaced:

   

A historical marker reads, "LOG CABIN PRE-1800. On these grounds of the Red Bird River Community Hospital of the Evangelical United Brethren Church Center is log cabin built before 1800. Erected by Dillon Asher. Born 1774, died 1844. Buried near log house. Asher was keeper of first tollgate in Kentucky near Pineville. Established by legislature, 1795; fees paid for improvements on Wilderness Road."

Aaron "Chief Red Bird" 's daughter Mahala Brock who md. Edward Callahan had two daughters marry Cornetts ~ Zelphia to Roger Cornett b. 1786, and Charlotte Callahan to Robert Cornett b. 1780, son of Nathaniel Cornett. There were numerous other Brock-Cornett-Bolling marriages but I haven't linked them all back to an original ancestor.

Yahoo Falls, Cleary Co., KY, where Cherokee men, women, and children were massacred in 1810 while Red Bird was helping escort them to safety at the Red Bird mission.

HISTORY

EARLIEST BROCKS IN VA

 Following pages used by permission of Kenneth B. Tankersley, Ph.D., anthropologist, Natural History Unit, BBC, Northern Kentucky University, is a research associate of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Executive Board Member, Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission; and Executive Board Member, Kentucky Center for Native American Art and Culture:

CHIEF RED BIRD ~ Excerpt from his book-in-progress, Kentucky Cherokee: People of the Cave

 Yahoo Falls by Kenneth B. Tankersley

 Kentucky's Native Past, by Kenneth B. Tankersley

 Kinship Notes, by Kenneth B. Tankersley

NOTES: Kentucky Treaties, by Kenneth B. Tankersley

 Cherokee Syllabary, by Dr. Tankersley

More about Aaron Brock, Chief Red Bird

 

 

 

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