Unlocking Our Upper Lineages: How Chief Whiskers Led to Ada Collins and Ensalsun's Kwatami-Sixes Lineage

The Oregon Historical Quarterly article documenting Ada Collins' oral history and her memories of Tyee Whiskers

Assembling the Puzzle Researching our coastal ancestors often feels like finding scattered pieces of a massive, shared map. While working on a comprehensive bio for Sixes River headman Chief Old Wiskers Newton (Tyee Whiskers), I set out simply looking for deeper archival documentation of his life.

Archives and research brought two major breakthroughs for our upper lineage connections:

• The Kwatami Connection:  An 1880 newspaper article about Chief Ensalsun's daughter, Nellie Selsic, brought this connection to light—revealing Ensalsun's Kwatami lineage through his mother as a cousin to Chief Wiskers. 

• The Ada Collins Connection: "The Oregon Historical Quarterly article... recorded Chief Whiskers as the 'grand-uncle' of Ada Collins. However, our primary working hypothesis—supported by genetic triangulation and family tree modeling—suggests a direct uncle relationship through her father, Euchre Jim (placing Chief Whiskers and Euchre Jim as full or half-brothers)."

From DNA Matches to Family Oral History

Ada’s name immediately jumped off the page. A couple of years ago, I posted her photo in our Tom Family Facebook group and asked if anyone knew how we could possibly be related. I had traced a DNA match directly up to her through her son, Maxwell Collins, but back then, we didn't have the full picture.

Ada  Jim Collins (1869–1959), niece of Chief Whiskers

Connecting the Lineage: Overlapping Coastal Pathways

Since Ada Collins was the niece of Chief Whiskers, tracing our DNA match through Ada’s son, Maxwell Collins, highlights how our shared ancestry comes together:

• Documented Euchre Creek Heritage: We have a direct, documented Euchre Creek lineage in our family tree through Ella Depoe-Selsic. Additionally, ongoing research into Ella’s mother, Nähl-ye-ta-ry-na-aa, suggests we may have a second ancestral connection through her branch as well.

• The Chief Ensalsun Pathway: Learning that Chief Ensalsun’s mother was a cousin to Chief Whiskers reveals another close Kwatami connection right in our direct line.

Because coastal families were so closely interconnected, these overlapping ancestral pathways help explain why our shared cM with Ada Collins' descendants is so strong in our DNA results today.

Upper coastal lineages connecting Chief Old Whiskers Newton and Chief Ensalsun. Shared DNA matches across Euchre Jim’s daughters (Ada Collins and Mary Ellen Jim) confirm our segment flows through his paternal line.

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Lineage Breakdown & Shared Ancestry

Paternal & Maternal Roots

• Our Direct Lineage: Our family’s direct heritage flows through Chief Ensalsun and his wife, Ella Depoe-Selsic, down to their son, Antone Selsic.

• The Sixes River (Kwatami) Branch: Chief Ensalsun’s mother was a cousin to Chief Old Whiskers Newton (Hos-ule-da, Sixes River Headman). Shared ancestral parents passed this Kwatami heritage directly to their sons, Chief Old Whiskers Newton and Euchre "James" Jim (1835–1931).

• Generational Chain & Genetic Proof

  • Working Hypothesis (Brothers Lineage): While published records list Chief Whiskers as a grand-uncle, our working genealogical model places Chief Old Whiskers Newton (b. ~1828) and Euchre "James" Jim (b. ~1835) side-by-side as full/half-brothers. Their 7-year age gap in census records strongly supports a sibling structure sharing the same Kwatami parent line, rather than an uncle-nephew gap.

  • DNA Triangulation: Shared genetic matches across Euchre Jim’s daughters (Ada Collins and Mary Ellen Jim) support this closer generational structure, giving us a testable model as research continues.

Inter-Family Connections

• My Direct Ancestral Line: Ensalsuns's Maternal Kwatami Mother→ Chief Ensalsun → Antone Selsic →  (Direct Descendants)

• Chief Ensalsun to Ada Collins: 1st Cousins 1x Removed (via Ensalsun's mother and Chief Whiskers)

• Antone Selsic to Ada Collins: 2nd Cousins

• Our DNA Matches: Descendants of Ada Collins and Mary Ellen Jim share DNA with us as extended collateral cousins through these combined Euchre Creek and Sixes River ties.

Branch Guide: Ben / Mary Ellen "Ella" Ben Lineage

If your tree or DNA matches trace through Mary Ellen "Ella" Ben (Jim) or another child of Ben, this section maps how your line links back to the Kwatami-Sixes ancestral core.

Mary Ellen Jim (Ella Ben)

Connecting Our 5 DNA Matches

If you are receiving this article as one of our 5 specific DNA matches descending through Margaret Ben and her husband Joshley Brown, this historical research directly grounds our shared family tree.

While our family has long established how we connect to other Ben relatives through the Butler line (via Abbie Wilson and Sixes Mary), this particular cluster specifically tracks our shared branch through Mary Ellen Jim’s daughter, Margaret.

• The Direct Lineage: Mary Ellen Jim (Ella Ben) → Margaret Ben (m. Joshley Brown).

Margaret "Ella" Ben married Joshley Brown. Their union represents the key ancestral branch for these 5 specific DNA matches, connecting back through Mary Ellen Jim to our shared Kwatami lineage.

• The Shared Anchor: Mary Ellen Jim (half-sister to Ada Collins) forms the core genetic bridge for these 5 matches.

• The Common Ancestry: Through this line, our ancestors trace back to a shared Kwatami grandparent line—the same ancestral generation that connects us to Chief Old Whiskers Newton’s collateral branch along the southern Oregon coast.

• Why This Paper Trail Matters: Because off-reservation families along the Sixes River were enumerated under changing phonetic names across agency records, connecting our genetic clusters directly to documented figures like Chief Whiskers helps confirm our ancestors' persistent presence in their traditional homeland at Cape Blanco (Gwvn-Yuu-Gwvt).

Gull Rock & The Otter House 

In the 1940s, Ada Collins shared a vivid memory of an offshore rock slightly north of Cape Blanco that belonged to her uncle, Tyee Whiskers (recorded as grand-uncle in OHQ):

• The Name: She identified the site as manθœ, meaning "house-rock."

• The Landscape: Ada described the rock as having a hollow center "like a tub" where sea otters swam inside—a geographic footprint matching modern Gull Rock, located between the mouth of the Sixes River and Cape Blanco.

• The Stewardship: She recalled that Chief Whiskers strictly guarded this private marine ground, paddling out nearly every day in his canoe to protect the rich otter population and seabird rookery from intruders.

Gull Rock, located between the mouth of the Sixes River and Cape Blanco—historically known as manθœ or "house-rock

Why It Matters

Uncovering Ada’s story doesn't just expand Chief Whiskers’ biography—it honors the living memory of our grandmothers and headmen who knew every reef, rock, and hunting ground along the coast.

More than that, bringing these connections to light opens up answers for many families within the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians who previously didn't know they were related. For my own research, it solves a complex web of distant DNA matches that I first began sorting and tracing back in 2021, proving that our ancestral heritage remains vibrant and deeply interconnected across generations.

Researcher’s Note on Ancestral Placeholders, Kinship & Genetic Verification

*Tracing 19th-century coastal lineages often means navigating gaps where precolonial records do not exist or where individual names were left unrecorded in early census rolls. In these instances, establishing a placeholder defined by band affiliation (such as Sixes River/Kwatami or Euchre Creek) and documented exogamous intermarriage patterns allows us to map out the foundational structure of our upper family tree.

Using ancestral placeholders bridges historical context with modern research: oral history provides the initial blueprint, while DNA matches supply the physical evidence. When regional oral histories and genetic triangulation align to confirm the exact same coastal line, it offers the ultimate validation of our shared ancestry.*

Looking toward Gull Rock where the Sixes River meets the Pacific Ocean near Cape Blanco—the heart of Chief Old Whiskers Newton's and our ancestral Kwatami territory.

Sources & References

Archival & Published Periodicals

• Oregon Historical Quarterly 124(3) (Fall 2023): Deur, Douglas, Peter Hatch, and Hannah Wellman. "The House Full of Otters: Recalling Human–Sea Otter Relationships on an Indigenous Oregon Coast." Used for Ada Collins' oral history, her recollections of Tyee Whiskers, and the identification of manθœ (Gull Rock).

• 1880 Newspaper Record: Article detailing Chief Ensalsun’s daughter, Nellie Selsic, documenting Ensalsun’s mother and her Kwatami kinship with Chief Whiskers.

Tribal, Genetic Data & Historical Photographs

• Ancestry.com Historical Photo Collections & Family Trees: Family photograph archives of Ada N. Jim Collins, Mary Ellen "Ella" Jim, and Margaret "Ella" Ben (m. Joshley Brown).

• AncestryDNA / Genetic Triangulation Data: DNA segment matching across descendants of Ada N. Jim Collins (via Maxwell Collins) and Mary Ellen "Ella" Jim (via Margaret Ben and Joshley Brown), used to verify the paternal Euchre Jim line.

• Historical Census & Tribal Reservation Rolls: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians ancestral records cross-referenced with family oral histories.

Family Oral Histories & Traditional Ecological Knowledge

• Oral History Recordings & Recollections: 1940s oral history accounts from Ada Collins (née Ada N. Jim).

• Traditional Knowledge & Kinship Frameworks: Regional exogamous intermarriage patterns and band affiliations across the Sixes River (Kwatami) and Euchre Creek (Yukichetunne) coastal bands.