Meet the Queen of the Yazoo
Legend says she was a dream,
surrounded by feathers.
In reality, she was a Tvshka Ohoyo,
who courageously brought her children
across the Trail of Tears.
Meet the Queen of the Yazoo, a family legend passed down through the generations. But the Queen of the Yazoo was a real woman. She was Elsie Beams Ro(e)buck, one of our great-grandmothers.
Elsie was a wife, mother, business woman. She and her husband Ezekiel Robuck had three children—two sons and a daughter—William, Benjamin and Anna(?). They farmed on Honey Island surrounded by the Yazoo River in the old Choctaw Nation homelands known today as the state of Mississippi. According to family lore, she raised a flock of geese and exported their feathers to England. A Choctaw woman of commerce, and strength, and love.
Later, she crossed the Trail of Tears and became a legend.
It is said that she was known as, Queen of the Yazoo…
This story inspired the beads and design for the jewelry pieces Lynda Kay created in honor of Elsie, a true tvshka ohoyo—warrior woman.
(Map provided by Doug Davis, researcher/historian)
