Documenting the Past: The Paper Trail That Named Ella and Charles Depoe's Mother (Part 5)

(This is Part 5 of the series. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 to catch up on the full background of Ella Selsic and the Depoe family lineage.)

Series: Untangling the Threads: The Search for Ella Selsic and the Depoe Family

Every family historian knows the magic of the accidental discovery—the moment an elusive document surfaces not because you were actively hunting for it, but because the archives decided to reveal a secret just when you least expected it. While deep in the records tracing the lineage of Ella Selsic, I had already managed to find the name of Ella and Charles Depoe's father. But the surprises didn't stop there.

While searching for other records, I unexpectedly stumbled upon the name of their aunt, Mary Charley (who had married John Charley). When I went back into the archives to pull up that specific record on Mary's estate, a completely different document was pulled up instead. Looking it over, I messaged Hiine Depoe with the info right away: I think I just found the mother's name.

"His response came back instantly: "That is amazing!! That's my 4x great grandmas name!!! Holay!!!"

The unexpected archival find that finally broke the brick wall and named Charles and Ella Depoe’s mother.

To A Siletz , Oregon , Reaumber 19 , 1903 . Mr. Jno . J. McKoin , May , 1904 . Superintendent and S. A. A. N Sir : in the Charles Roy , the hall of Mary Charley , deceased , who Charley , known , the in the month of July A.D. 1894 , age or of 80.32 acres and 88.45 acres , respect ly , for its were issued by the United States Government of July 26 , A D. 1894 , Nos . 74 , 78 , respective last being in the County of Lincoln , state of Oregon , in township south of the base line in range west of the Willamette are as follows : Range Acres No. 74 . 34 - 11 the F Lot S. S. 50 , 32 herein petition that since with the regulations of the office for one of inherited Indian lands , dated October 2nd , 1902 . I do herein further state and represent that the said Mary Charley died intestate , leaving no lineal descendants , no husband , Father , sister or brother or mother ; that I , Charles Depoe am the other and nearest of kin of the said Mary Charley, deceased and entitled to the whole of her estate according to the laws of the State of Oregon ( Bellinger & Cotton 's Annotated Codes & Statutes of the State of Oregon , vol . 2 , p. 1773 , Sec . 5577 , sub - div . 5 ) That the said John Charley , deceased , died intestate , leaving no lineal descendants , and no children , but Mary Charley his wife who thus became vested with his estates ; that the said Mary Charley died intestate leaving no lineal descendants , no husband , no father mother, sister or brother or sister ; that I , Charles Depoe , am the son of Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa , the deceased sister of Mary Charley deceased ; that I am nephew and hearest of kin to the said Mary Charley , deceased and entitled to the whole of her estate according to the laws above cited ; that neither the said Mary Charley nor the said John Charley, deceased, resided upon the lands herein petitioned to be sold as a homestead or cultivated the same  immediately preceding her or his death. Charles Depoe mark Witnesses : George Wilbur his 104. 

(Note on the records: This is the estate file for Mary Charley, which ultimately named our Euchre Matriarch, Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa, and also gave us the name of her sister/our Aunt Mary Charley—not to be confused with the other individual of the same name from the well-known historical Tolowa photograph).

Charles Depoe (Photo: Lincoln County Historical Society)

"that I, Charles Depoe, am the son of Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa, the deceased sister of Mary Charley deceased."

Decoding the Name of Charles Depoe’s Mother: Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa

Now that the records have brought her name to light, we are met with a fascinating historical puzzle.  Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa, the mother of Ella Depoe-Selsic, and Charles Depoe. She was a Euchre Creek woman of the Tututni people, and her name carries deep roots—even if history didn't leave us an exact English translation.

 This isolated, beautiful stretch of shoreline sits directly where Euchre Creek empties into the Pacific Ocean (Ophir). 

If you are trying to understand what her name means, here is a look at what we do know, and why it is a bit of a historical puzzle.

The Sound and Structure of the Language

While we don't have a modern dictionary definition for her exact name, we can look at the building blocks of the Oregon Athabaskan (Nuu-wee-ya) language to see how it was put together:

The "Na" Sounds: Notice how the name starts and ends with a variation of "Na" (Nähl-ye and na-aa)? In Tututni and related dialects, prefixes and suffixes like na- or naa- are incredibly common. They usually point to ideas of family connections, belonging to a specific place, or "the people."

The "Ta" Sound: In Rogue River dialects, ta often pops up when talking about water, rivers, or being "amongst" something. Given that her people were the Euchre Creek (a coastal and river-dwelling band), this fits beautifully.

The Umlaut (ä): The ä in Nähl is a big clue. The government clerk who typed up the document was using standard English letters to try and spell a sound that doesn't exist in English—likely a soft, nasalized sound or a quick catch in the throat (a glottal stop) that is native to Euchre Creek speech.

The Challenge of the "Clerk's Ear"

The biggest hurdle in translating names like Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa is that 19th-century government agents spelled everything entirely by ear. They didn't speak the language, they didn't have phonetic training, and they often mashed an entire descriptive sentence into one long, misspelled word. Because of this, her name might not just be a simple noun like "Flower" or "River."

It is much more likely a phrase that described who she was, where her family came from along Euchre Creek, or her specific lineage.

Honoring the Living Language

Because Tututni is a deeply precious, awakening language, the truest answers don't live in old textbook glossaries—they live with the people keeping the language alive today.

To picture where her people lived, it helps to know a little bit about the Euchre Creek band of the Tututni.  

Euchre: pronounced YOO-ker—a local name that echoes its long history along the Oregon coast.

Known traditionally as the Yukichetunne—which translates roughly to

"people of the Euchre Creek mouth"

—they traditionally made their homes along the rugged Oregon coast and winding waterways where the creek meets the ocean. That phonetic variation of the name also appears in old records as "Eu-qua-chees," capturing the way 19th-century scribes and enumerators tried to spell out the indigenous band name by ear. They lived a rich, place-based life rooted in fishing, gathering, and managing the coastal landscape, making the rivers and valleys their permanent home long before government agents ever drew lines on a map.

Ada Jim (Euchre Ada-Jim-Payne-Collins, wife of Peter Collins, circa 1920)

Long before the archival paper trail finally uncovered the name of our Euchre Creek ancestors, the clues were already whispering to us from the past. I had previously shared this historic photo of Ada Jim—Euchre Ada-Jim-Payne-Collins, wife of Peter Collins, circa 1920 (whose father, Euchre "Euchie" James Jim, was born around 1835 and lived until 1931)—to our family Facebook page, wondering how our branch might connect.

When the DNA matches later pointed straight to Ada Jim, it felt like the archives and our own family's genetic map were finally shaking hands. Seeing her face here isn't just looking at a piece of Siletz history anymore; it's looking right at family.

Imagine that—bridging generations in a single handshake across time! With Euchre "Euchie" James Jim living right up until 1931, his life overlapped with an era that makes that connection entirely possible. He could have personally known our ancestral grandmother, Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa, turning cold dates in an archive into a living, breathing thread of family history.

76 I , Jacob Cook , 88 years old , being first duly sworn , depose and say that I am an Indian of the Tututni Tribe of Indians ;

That I knew the mother of Charles Depos ; That I also knew her sister , Mary Charley ; That I know that they had the same father and the same mother

; that there are no children of Mary Charley living at present ; that there are no descendants of any children of Mary Charley ; That Charles Depot is a nephew of Mary Charley , that he has but one sister and no brothers by the same mother ; that this sister is Ella Selsic ; that I believe that Charles  Depot is the legal heir of Mary Charley , and should receive the patent for this land ; That I have heard the affidavit of Charles Depoe read and know that the statements contained therein are true and correct ; That I remember these things well for I am an old man and know these people well ; that I am not in any way interested in this matter ; and further deponents says not . Witnesses to mark May Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of April , 1902 . --- 

--- I , John Morris , being first duly sworn , depose and say that the foregoing affidavits of Charles Depoe and Jacob Cook have been read and explained to me ; that I know them to be true and correct ; that I knew Mary Charley very well and she claimed to be the aunt of Charley Depoe ; that I believe him to be the legal heir of Mary Charley ; That I am not in any way interested in this matter ; and further deponents says not . witnesses to mark Exors Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of April , 1902 - tice S

1900 Siletz Census

When you read the 1902 testimony of elder Jacob Cook—born around 1819 in his ancestral homeland of —you realize he wasn't just filling out government paperwork.

He was a living library for our family

Because he knew our Euchre Matriarch and her sister Mary Charley firsthand, his affidavit bridges the gap between historical abstraction and real people who walked the land along Euchre Creek, turning cold archives into an enduring testament of family history.

Right alongside him in the record, witness John (Siletz) Morris—who was the third husband of Lavina Wilson, Sixes Mary's daughter—added his formal sworn statement. Just like Jacob Cook, they were both a living library for our family, proving that in tightly knit communities like Siletz, family by marriage stepping up to vouch for these lineages shows just how closely connected everyone truly was.

1900 Siletz Census

Looking closely at the 1900 Census enumeration adds another concrete layer to these interconnected community networks. Even after the disruption of their ancestral  home life, the community structures held fast—grouping families by their traditional band roots. On the same pages where elders and relatives are recorded, we find Morris Siletz listed with his father's tribe as Euchre and his mother's band noted as Mussel Creek (recorded phonetically as 'Muscle Creek'). When paired with our shared DNA matches who descend from Julia Skelley (and also  trace back through the Ada Depoe lineage)—listed on line 30 of that same census page as Euchre and Sixes—the documentary and genetic evidence converge.

Whether flowing through both family lines or rooted deeply in the Ada Depoe connections, These records confirm just how tightly woven these families remained, mapping out the enduring kinship ties that echo down into our modern DNA results.

Mussel Creek sits right along that same rugged southern Oregon coastline just north of Euchre Creek. When you look at how close those waterways and settlements were, it completely explains why these families weren't just distant tribal members—they were actual neighbors sharing the same coast, fishing grounds, and daily lives.

Being neighbors in the old homelands meant those bonds were already forged long before anyone ever set foot on the reservation. When they were eventually uprooted and brought to Siletz, those historic neighbor and band ties are precisely why they naturally stayed clustered together, preserving a living continuity of their ancestral world on the census rolls.

The Search for Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa: Reclaiming a Pre-Removal Euchre Creek Matriarch

While our family waits for official word from the federal archives, we are documenting our journey to uncover the identity, history, and linguistic meaning behind one of our most profound ancestral grandmothers: Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa.

Here is a summary of who she was, why her name is a historical puzzle, and how we are actively tracking her down.

1. Who Was Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa?

Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa was a Yukichetunne (Euchre Creek) matriarch from the southern Oregon coast. Her people lived at the mouth of Euchre Creek (just north of Gold Beach) before the Rogue River Indian Wars.

• The Lineage: She is the biological mother of two deeply influential Siletz history makers: Charles Depoe (the legendary Siletz leader, spiritual judge, and namesake of Depoe Bay, Oregon) and Ella Depoe-Selsic (wife of Mikonotunne Chief En-sal-sun). Her children were born in the pre-removal era, around 1837.
• The Timeline: Tragically, Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa passed away in her traditional southern homelands before the devastating 1856 forced removal (the "Siletz Death March"). Because she died a free woman in her homeland, she never lived on a reservation.

2. The Legal Paper Trail (Why She Isn't Online)

Because she passed away prior to 1856, Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa was never given a Westernized name, assigned a reservation land allotment, or counted on a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) census. This is why a Google search for her name yields zero results.

However, her name survived because of her children. Between 1887 and 1920, Charles Depoe and Ella Depoe-Selsic had to legally defend their reservation land rights. To prove their lineage and blood quantum, they signed sworn legal Heirship and Relationship Affidavits before the Siletz Agency superintendent. In those handwritten depositions, they explicitly swore under oath to the traditional name of their mother: "She who walks dressed in coastal wealth (dentalium shells or trade beads) by the water."

3. Decoding the Meaning of Her Name

Because she was a Euchre Creek woman, her name belongs to the Lower Rogue River Athabaskan (Tututni) language family. These languages are polysynthetic—meaning a name isn't just a word; it is an entire sentence built from stacked prefixes describing an action or a lifelong trait.

By filtering her name through coastal matriarchal customs (where women's names historically centered on material wealth or traditional industries like weaving), linguists look at two major translation theories:

• Theory A (The Adorned Wealth Meaning):
• Phonetics: Naał- (wealth/currency) + -yee- (inside/amongst) + -taa-ł- (water/action) + -naa-aa (continuous action).
• Translation: "She who walks dressed in coastal wealth (dentalium shells or trade beads) by the water."

Computer Generated Image

• Theory B (The Traditional Industry Meaning):
• Phonetics: Focused on the meticulous matriarchal art of basketry.
• Translation: "She who prepares/soaks basketry materials in the creek." (A direct reference to gathering and soaking hazel sticks or spruce roots in Euchre Creek to keep them pliable for weaving).

Computer Generated Image

Seeing these computer-generated images come to life is truly amazing—they make you wonder what Ella's Indian name would have been if she also provided testimony in the papers we don't have yet from Seattle!

4. Current Status: Waiting on the National Archives

We have officially initiated a formal investigation with the National Archives at Seattle (NARA), targeting the unindexed Bureau of Indian Affairs files (Record Group 75).

Because her records are nested inside her children's estates, we have requested a manual, physical search of the Land Allotment and Probate Files for Charles Depoe (Allotment #22) and Ella Selsic. We are waiting for the archivists to pull these physical boxes from the stacks to find the original, handwritten affidavits that hold her name.

Stay tuned—we will post an update as soon as the Seattle archivists reply!

Ultimately, finding her name isn't just about filling in a blank on a family tree—it is about honoring a matriarch who walked the Oregon coast as a free woman, and ensuring that her name, her band, and her legacy are never forgotten again.

Feedback & Corrections: I strive to ensure the historical information shared here is as accurate as possible. If you spot an error, have additional documentation, or would like to share related family history, please let me know. I welcome any corrections or insights that help deepen our understanding of this shared past.

My Blog:  http://www.makingitthrough4110.com/

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A Note on the Family Story

This project began with a desire to uncover the voices and stories of my ancestors. My grandmother instilled in me the importance of being our family's history keeper, teaching me that our stories deserve to be remembered. As I digitize records, work on our family tree, and piece together the branches of our history, my goal is to honor the people who came before us—the ones whose resilience and stories have shaped who we are today.

My Ancestral Lineage: This history is rooted in the deep, enduring ties of our people:

• Tututni & Kwatami (Siletz): Mikonotunne (Mackanontin), Chemetunne (Joshua), Yukichetunne (Euchre), and Sik-ses-tenne (Sixes).

• Grand Ronde: Umpqua, Shasta, Klickitat, and Lower Chinook.

(Note: In untangling these records, it's worth keeping in mind that this Mary Charley is distinct from the other individual of the same name—associated with the well-known historical Tolowa photograph—ensuring our specific Siletz and Euchre Creek family lines remain clear and accurately separated.)

Visualizing the Past: The computer-generated images included in this post are artistic visualizations created to help bring our ancestors' daily life and coastal environment to life. They illustrate traditional practices—such as gathering materials along Euchre Creek or wearing traditional coastal wealth—offering a window into what life might have looked like for Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa and her community.

Sources:

• Siletz Allotment & Estate Files: U.S. General Land Office records and individual Indian allotment files for Mary Charley (featuring testimonies from Charles Depoe, Jacob Cook, and John Morris, April 30, 1902).

• Family History Research & DNA Analysis: Community collaboration, family oral history, and DNA matching data linking descendants to Ada Jim (Euchre Ada-Jim-Payne-Collins) and the Euchre Creek band of the Tututni people.

• Historical Reference & Documentation: Google Books Historical Reference

• Ophir Shoreline Photo: Posted by Mette I.