Part II: What does En-sal-sun mean?
Part II: What does En-sal-sun mean?
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| computer generated image depicting his name meaning. |
What does Chief En-sal-sun's name mean?
According to linguistic documentation of the coastal Athabaskan languages, the name En-sal-sun (sometimes recorded as En-pals-er) roughly translates to "The One Who Steps Across" or "He Steps Across."
This is an action-oriented name often given to individuals who were agile, skillful at navigating the rapid rivers and rugged mountain divides, or who historically crossed boundaries—which fits his eventual role perfectly as a diplomat and treaty signer who walked between two very different worlds
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| Computer generated depicting the meanings of his name. |
How do we know what his name means?
To verify the translation of an indigenous name from a language that is no longer widely spoken, researchers and descendants rely on specific linguistic field notes and archival collections.
For the Tututni (and specifically the Mikonotunne dialect), names were recorded phonetically by European agents, but the exact breakdowns of what those names meant were captured during interviews with tribal elders on the reservation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Where is En-pals-er been seen in connection to Ensalsun?
The spelling "En-pals-er" is an alternate phonetic transcription found in early federal records and reservation census rolls from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Because the Mikonotunne language was purely oral, government agents, census takers, and military officials at the Siletz Agency wrote down indigenous names entirely by ear. This resulted in a single person's name being spelled several different ways across different documents.
While "En-sal-sun" is how his name was neatly transcribed on the
Where do we find the specific linguistic data?
1. The J.P. Harrington Papers (Smithsonian Institution)
John Peabody Harrington was a famous ethnologist who traveled to the Siletz Reservation and spent months interviewing Tututni and Chasta Costa elders. He meticulously documented tribal geography, family lineages, and name meanings.
The Record: His original handwritten field notes and audio recordings from the 1930s and 1940s are preserved in the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian. They are the primary source for translating specific compound verbs in Lower Rogue River Athabaskan (such as action words like stepping, crossing, or walking).
2. Edward Sapir’s Chasta Costa Notes (1914)
Linguist Edward Sapir published foundational work on the grammar of the rivers' dialects. Because Athabaskan names are heavily verb-based (meaning names usually describe an action a person does rather than an object), Sapir’s breakdown of prefixes and suffixes allows linguists to decipher names like En-sal-sun by isolating the root verb for "stepping" or "striding" (-al-) and the directional prefixes.
3. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians Cultural Department
Because Chief En-sal-sun’s people were relocated to Siletz, the tribal government maintains the most active, comprehensive database of language restoration and family genealogy. Their cultural preservationists work directly with the Smithsonian's microfilm records to map out the exact meanings of ancestral names on the 1855 treaty.
Why the alternate spelling?
"En-pals-er" exists as an alternate phonetic spelling in early reservation records, reflecting how English-speaking agents struggled to capture the unique sounds of the Mikonotunne language.
Government census takers and reservation agents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries frequently misheard, modernized, or lazily substituted traditional or unfamiliar names with common English equivalents.
How would he have received his name?
In Tututni culture, and among many Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, names were deeply meaningful, often reflecting a person’s role, character, or life journey rather than being static labels assigned at birth
How Names Were Typically Received:
A Life-Long Journey: In many traditions, individuals might receive multiple names throughout their lives. A childhood name was often given shortly after birth, but as a person grew, earned status, or achieved significant milestones, they would receive new names to reflect those changes.
Earning Status: For a leader like a chief (or wăng-ĕ), a name often served as a marker of the responsibilities they carried. A name like "He steps across" (often associated with diplomacy, traversing boundaries, or bridge-building) would likely have been bestowed or adopted as the individual assumed the role of a leader, arbitrator, or diplomat for the Mikonotunne band.
Significance of "Stepping Across": Given that his name relates to his role as a diplomat—someone who navigated the complex political landscape between his own people, other tribal bands, and the growing pressure from colonial forces—it is highly probable that he received or fully embodied this name during his adulthood, particularly as he stepped into a position of authority where his ability to mediate and "cross boundaries" became essential to his people's survival.
Name on Treaty:
"This phonetically captured name is exactly how he marked his signature on the 1855 treaty, representing his people as they were transitioned to the Siletz Reservation."
What Can Be Learned About the Treaty?
The Scope of the Treaty: The document was negotiated by Joel Palmer, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Oregon. It was an agreement with the "confederated Tribes and Bands of Indians residing along the coast west of the summit of the Coast Range of mountains.
The Massive Territory Involved: The treaty lines encompassed the entire central and southern Oregon coast—stretching from the Columbia River in the north all the way down to the California border in the south.
The Unratified Status: Right at the top, the document is noted as (Unratified). This is a critical piece of historical context for your blog: though the tribal leaders signed it in good faith and surrendered their ancestral lands, the U.S. Senate never formally ratified it, leading to decades of skipped promises and legal battles over reservation boundaries.
The Scope of the Treaty: The document was negotiated by Joel Palmer, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Oregon. It was an agreement with the "confederated Tribes and Bands of Indians residing along the coast west of the summit of the Coast Range of mountains.
The Massive Territory Involved: The treaty lines encompassed the entire central and southern Oregon coast—stretching from the Columbia River in the north all the way down to the California border in the south.
The Unratified Status: Right at the top, the document is noted as (Unratified). This is a critical piece of historical context for your blog: though the tribal leaders signed it in good faith and surrendered their ancestral lands, the U.S. Senate never formally ratified it, leading to decades of skipped promises and legal battles over reservation boundaries.
How was he Chosen as a Signer?
Leadership of the Mikonotunne: En-sal-sun did not just speak for himself; he signed as a recognized headman and diplomat for his specific band. If you look closely at the text block listing the bands, it specifically names the "bands of the Too-too-to-neys" (Tututni). The Mikonotunne (or Macanootney) were a prominent Athabaskan-speaking band within this umbrella group along the Rogue River.
A Walk Between Worlds: His selection comes back down to the literal meaning of his name—"The One Who Steps Across." Because of his agility, diplomacy, and stature among the Rogue River peoples, he was chosen by his community as a leader capable of crossing cultural boundaries to negotiate with colonial authorities during a time of immense crisis (the Rogue River Wars).
The unratified 1855 Oregon Coast Treaty is an extraordinary document because it contains the names of over a hundred different chiefs and headmen representing bands stretching along the entire central and southern Oregon coast.
Since you are focusing on the Mack-a-no-tin (Mikonotunne) band where Chief En-sal-sun signed, he shared his exact section of the treaty with four other primary headmen from his immediate group.
Who were the other Mikonotunne Signers?
Right alongside En-sal-sun, the other leaders representing the Mack-a-no-tin band were:
Tut-lel-ol-tus
Squo-che-nol-ta
Shet-nul-lus
Noch-nos-see-yah
The Impact of the 1850s: By the time Joel Palmer negotiated the 1855 Coast Treaty, the indigenous populations along the Rogue River and Oregon Coast had been severely impacted by introduced diseases and the intense violence of the Rogue River Wars. Many neighboring bands had been reduced to fewer than 20 to 50 survivors.
A Significant Leadership Role: At 129 members, the Mikonotunne were actually one of the larger, more cohesive Athabaskan-speaking bands remaining along that section of the coast. For comparison, the neighboring Joshua band was recorded at 179 people, while the Shasta Costa band had 110.
The fact that the 1855 Oregon Coast Treaty went unratified by the U.S. Senate is one of the most significant injustices in Pacific Northwest history. It wasn’t rejected because of its terms or boundaries; rather, it was essentially a casualty of bureaucratic mess, poor timing, and a loophole that the government used to its advantage.
Why was the treaty not ratified?
Here is exactly why it fell through the cracks:
1. The D.C. "Shuffle" and Lost Mail
In the mid-1850s, sending documents from the Oregon Territory to Washington, D.C. required a grueling, months-long journey by ship around the southern tip of South America. Between 1853 and 1856, the federal government was overwhelmed, negotiating over 50 different Indian treaties across the country.
2. The Executive Order Loophole
Months before Joel Palmer actually traveled the coast to get Chief En-sal-sun and other leaders to sign the treaty, he had preemptively written to the President asking to lock down the 1.1 million-acre Siletz/Coast Reservation area so white settlers couldn’t claim it.
Because of the slow mail, President Franklin Pierce signed an Executive Order creating the reservation on November 9, 1855—just five days before the physical treaty signed by the coast tribes actually arrived in Washington.
Once the reservation technically existed via Executive Order, the U.S. Senate felt no urgency to ratify the actual treaty. They realized they had already successfully forced the tribes onto the land without legally binding the government to the financial payouts, fishing rights, annuity goods, and schools promised in the treaty text.
3. Outbreak of the Rogue River Wars
As the treaty was traveling east, full-scale warfare erupted along the Rogue River.
Following the conclusion of the Rogue River Wars in the spring of 1856, the entire Mack-a-no-tin (Mikonotunne) band—including Chief En-sal-sun and the other four signers—were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands along the lower Rogue River.
On March 16, 1856, the destruction of the village at Tal-dash-dvn by fire marked the final, devastating end to life on the river. In the immediate aftermath and throughout the spring of 1856, the entire Mack-a-no-tin (Mikonotunne) band—including Chief En-sal-sun and the other four signers—were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands along the lower Rogue River.
The U.S. military rounded up the surviving coastal bands and marched them north, mostly as prisoners of war, directly to the newly established Coast Indian Reservation (which later became the
What was life like on the Reservation?
Once they arrived at the Siletz Agency in 1856 and 1857, the remaining 129 members of the Mikonotunne band were forced to confederate with over 27 other displaced tribes and bands.
Because their 1855 Coast Treaty went unratified, the four other signers—Tut-lel-ol-tus, Squo-che-nol-ta, Shet-nul-lus, and Noch-nos-see-yah—faced an incredibly harsh reality at Siletz. Unlike the interior valley tribes whose ratified treaties guaranteed them dedicated funding for food, blankets, and medicine, the coastal signers had to survive purely on the meager general operating funds of the local BIA agent.
They, along with their families, built the early infrastructure of the reservation on Government Hill, cleared fields for farming, and their lineages became foundational branches of what is today the
How did all the bands and different bands coexist together?
1. Distinct Cultural and Linguistic Groups
The bands forced onto the Siletz Reservation were not a monolith. They represented a vast geographic range and several distinct language families:
Athabaskan speakers: This included groups from the Southern Oregon coast and the Rogue River interior, such as the Mikonotunne (En-sal-sun's band), Tututni, and Chetco.
Takelma and Shastan speakers: Groups from the Rogue Valley interior who had been heavily involved in the Rogue River Wars.
Salishan and other groups: Tribes from the northern and central Oregon coast.
Historically, while some of these groups traded and intermarried, others had been traditional rivals. Forcing groups that had previously occupied different territories or had different social structures to share limited resources under the intense pressure of a military-run reservation often exacerbated old tensions.
2. The Trauma of the "Rogue River Wars"
The most significant "enmity" on the reservation wasn't necessarily between the tribes themselves, but rather the result of the war that preceded their arrival. By 1856, many of these groups had been fighting each other and U.S. forces in shifting alliances.
Some groups had been labeled "hostiles" by the U.S. military for their resistance, while others were considered "friendly" or had attempted to remain neutral.
When they were all placed together in one area, these labels—assigned by the U.S. government—created internal friction. The agents often favored certain groups over others, or forced different bands to live in close quarters, which created resentment.
3. Competition for Scarce Resources
The primary source of conflict on the early Siletz Reservation was the federal government’s failure to provide promised food and supplies. Because the treaties (like the 1855 Coast Treaty) were never ratified, the government did not provide the annuities, schools, or goods they had promised.
With 27+ groups competing for the same limited hunting grounds, fishing spots, and agency rations, internal strife was inevitable.
This created a survival-of-the-fittest environment where bands were sometimes pitted against each other for basic necessities.
4. Forced Confederation
It is important to remember that the "Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians" as we know them today is a modern political entity. In 1856, these groups did not see themselves as one people. The "Confederation" was an external invention of the U.S. government. Over time, through decades of shared hardship, intermarriage, and collective organizing against federal policies, those diverse bands forged the unified identity that exists today.
In short, while they didn't necessarily have a pre-existing "war" with every other group, they were a collection of strangers with different cultures and histories, forced together into an impoverished, high-stress environment by an entity (the U.S. government) that cared little for their traditional social order.
Where did they sign the treaty?
The Oregon Coast Tribes Treaty of 1855 is unique because it was not signed at a single location. Because the region covered such a vast territory—stretching from the Columbia River down to the California border—Superintendent Joel Palmer traveled along the coast, meeting with different bands at various points to secure their agreements
Why wasn't it at one "Treaty Ground"?
Multiple Locations: The document itself indicates that it was "made and concluded at the places and dates hereinafter named."
Rather than bringing all the coastal leaders to one central hub, Palmer visited different tribal groups in their home territories along the coast to negotiate the terms. A "Confederated" Process: Because the treaty intended to group dozens of distinct, smaller bands (like the Mikonotunne, Coquille, Tututni, and others) into a single reservation system, Palmer had to conduct these negotiations band-by-band or group-by-group along the coast.
This mobile method of treaty-making is part of why the process was so complex and why the resulting "confederation" was so difficult to manage once the tribes were eventually forced onto the Siletz Reservation.
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| Confluence of the Rogue and Illinois Rivers |
Series Navigation:
Part I:
Who is En-sal-sun Selsic? Part II:
The World of En-sal-sun Selsic Part III:
En-sal-sun's Timeline
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A Note on the Family Story
My name is Amber Wegmuller, and 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.
Our 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.
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