Brett Nelson in The Greening of West Branch ( N.p.: Brett Nelson, 1981) gives the following account of Margaret Brant's Ancestry:

.Foster Walker, in his "Short Story of the Walker Tribe," traces his maternal ancestors beginning with "Brant, an Indian chief of the Delawares."

On the discovery of North America and the settlement of Jamestown, 1607, by the English, the Delawares occupied the north shore of Chesapeake Bay, Potomac River, both sides of Delaware Bay up through central and east Pennsylvania. One branch durlng the French-Engl ish war drifted through New York among the Six Nations (the Iroquois Confederacy) into Canada. From tradition the inference i s drawn that the Delaware were a hardy race who intermingled socially with their northern neighbors the Six Nations. Brant was a leading chief of the Delawares and always a friend of the whites. Tracing backward we find Brant existed 1670 to 1740. His daughter must have been born near the year 1700. One of her daughters married an Agnew.

Since no record of Chief Brant of the Delawares has been found, the conclusion has often been drawn that the Chief Brant referred to in Foster Walker's account was actually Joseph Brant of the Mohawks. For example, Margaret Brant's great-granddaughter Georgia Agnew Williams, in a letter (1937), refers to her "famous Indian ancestor Joseph Brant" who was "probably the son of the chief of the Iroquois o f N.Y." Given the relationship between the Delawares and the Six Nations during and after the "French-English war," and the fact that they "intermingled socially," the confusion over Margaret Brant's ancestry is understandable. However, while Margaret Brant chronologically could have been the daughter of Joseph Brant (he did have a daughter who was born in 1767, the Mohawk chief 's daughter was named Christine. There is no connection between Margaret Brant and Joseph Brant.

However, according to evidence uncovered in the Draper Manuscript Collection, Foster Walker's account of Margaret Brant's ancestry is essentially correct. There was in fact a Delaware family named Brant living in New York among the Iroquois Confederacy in the period immediately after the "French-English war" (1756-1763). The family consisted of two brothers, Peter Brant and Brant Brant, each with a large family. According to historian Lyman C. Draper, "the Brant name was originally but a single name -- Brant; and other names were prefixed to it." This was probably to distinguish them from the members of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant’s family.

In an interview 1878 with a Mrs. Ann Pin, "born in 1800 -- daughter of Peter Brant a Delaware," Draper offers further evidence of the existence of the Delaware Brants:

Peter Brent died about 1815, about 60 years of age. He had 8 children -- Mrs. Pin the youngest. Brent Brant was older than Peter Brent -- only these two brothers; their parents and others of the family had died before the war Revolution. Brent Brant died about 1804 -- left a family all of whom are dead. Don’t know the names, nor origins, of the parents of Brent Brant. Mrs. Pin thinks there was no relationship between them and Capt. Joseph Brent.

Based on the information presented in this interview, one might properly conclude that Margaret Brant was the daughter of the older of the two brothers, Brant Brant. The time, place, tribe, name, and chronology are consistent with family records and seem to corroborate most of Foster Walker’s account his oft-times faulty chronology notwithstanding. It is likely that Brant Brant was the direct link between Margaret Brant and "Brant an Indian chief of the Delawares."

A story from the American Revolution provides perhaps the only other information available on the Brants of the Delaware tribe . According to the Draper Manuscript Collection: "

Peter Brant was wounded twice in the same fight -- the first time he fell , and his brother Brant Brant, carried him away, and was wounded again while -being carried, both times in the same leg so that he had a stiff knee ever after . This was early in the war -- perhaps on a scout -- he was taken to Fort Niagara and remained in the hospital a good while. Captain John (a Mohawk) was wounded at the same time -- this was in the retreat from the Mohawk Valley to Canada.

Margaret Brant’s Delaware ancestry contributed some decidedly Indian traits to the Walker-Agnew gene pool. Foster Walker spoke of these traits "crop out" in the family even four generations later; cousins of whom "he never saw but two that had curly hair," and those two with hair "cole black quite curly." Brant Agnew’s Indian blood was evident in his dark complexion, straight black hair, hawk-like visage, and some of the sentiments expressed in his collection of poetry. One especially touching verse written the 1830’s, when his own Delaware Indians were among those being deported of the Mississippi, expressed his own heartfelt sorrow:

O let me go to my fair forest home
And never again will I wish to roam
And there let my Body in ashes lie low
To that scene in the forest: White man let me go.