Chief Red Bird

Chief Red Bird, aka Aaron Brock aka Cutsawah Brock Cherokee aka Aaron "Chief Red Bird" "Cutsawah" Brock (1721-1820) was friendly with early settlers and permitted them to hunt in the area. His Indian name was pronounced: "Tsalagi Ugvwiyuhi Totsu'hwa". He was the Cherokee treaty signer. His year of death is in dispute.
Chief Red Bird of other tribes
Do not confuse this Chief Red Bird with these:
Red Bird (1788-1828) Winnebago Ho-Chunk war chief win Winnebago War.
Redbird Smith (1850-1918) a Cherokee Nighthawk Keetoowah chief.
Red Bird killed in 1797 in Kentucky by Edward Ned Mitchell and John Livingston. The date and place is well documented. This may be the same Chief Red Bird.
Significant Life Events
In 1810 Chief Red Bird was escorting Cherokee men, women, and children to safety at the Red Bird Mission. At Yahoo Falls (Indian: Ywahoo), Cleary County, Kentucky 200 were massacred. This was the worst massacre of Indians by whites at the time. Some historians say the Massacre at Ywahoo Falls never happened.
He led his tribe of Cherokees first to North Carolina and then to Red Bird Creek, Clay County, Kentucky. The Chickam Uaga Tribe in the area attacked the white settlers. The settlers did not distinguish between the Chickham and the Cherokees; they attacked both.
Murder and aftermath
"The Indian chief for whom Red Bird Creek in Clay County was named was probably a Cherokee from Tennessee or North Carolina. 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."
The bodies were dumped in Willie's hole.
Several historical monuments honor Chief Red Bird.
If he died in 1797, consequences
The only treaty he could have signed was the Treaty of Holston of 1791. He could not have married Rhonda Sizemore in 1800 and had four children with her.
This story is well documented by letters from the Governor of Tennessee to the Cherokee Tribes in 1797:
A conflicting death story in 1979 in Kentucky, Edward Ned Mitchell and William Livingston murdered an Indian named Red Bird and an Indian named Lame Will. This could not be the same Red Bird who signed the treaties.
Red Bird River
Red Bird River near the line of Clay and Bell Counties to Leslie County, Kentucky was named for Chief Red Bird.
Parents and Ancestry
Aaron Brock, Sr. was born Dec. 8, 1721 in Virginia and died in 1811 in Clay County, Kentucky. Some say he was Chief Red Bird.
Some say Chief Red Bird was the son of Chief Great Eagle and Woman Ani-Wadi.
Others say his parents were Reuben Brock (1680-XXXX) Christian Place (1700-1721).
Paternal DNA testing indicates Aaron descendants are in the haplogroup J-1212 (Mediterranean-Middle East-Ashkenazi Jewish who went to Northern Europe and England).
Family and Descendants
In 1748 Chief Red Bird married Susannah Caroline Cherokee Davis (1725-1760, a household member of and Agnes Cornett Shepherd (1753-1833) Their children;
Edward Brock (1743-xxxx);
Aaron Brock, II (1748-xxxx) who married Elizabeth Noe (1750-xxxx) in 1866 in Harlan, KY.
Mahala Susan Brock (1749-1820) who married (1743-1823);
Jessie James Brock (1751-1843) an American Revolutionary soldier who was granted land; Chief Red Bird and Susan moved from South Carolina to Kentucky with him. He was the first settler on Wallins Creek, Kentucky.
George Brock (1752-1839) who married Julia Ann Bruner (xxxx-1828);
Reuben Brock (1754-xxxx) who married Elizabeth Camp (1760-xxxx);
(1757-1855);
James Brock (1760-1831)
In 1800 in Tennessee Aaron married Rhonda Sizemore (1785-xxxx), daughter of and Agnes Cornett Shepherd. Their children:
John Sizemore Brock (1801-1882)
Russell Sizemore Brock (1803-1863)
Wilborn Sizemore Brock (1807-xxxx)
Harmon Sizemore Brock (1812-xxxx)

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu