Uncovering Charlotte Riggs: Solomon Riggs’ Aunt, Sold as a Slave (Part One)

1913 FamilySearch Probate Letter & Heirship Affidavit (Grand Ronde Agency)

Transcription of the Slave Testimony in the 1913 Letter

"Frank Quenel (died June 8, 1913) said that Charlotte Riggs went clear to Clatsop when she was sold as a slave. This seemed to make clear to William Simmons, interpreter for Nancy Newby, the meaning of her then misunderstood answers or attempts to answer the question: 'Where did they take Charlotte' when she was sold. She had answered (motioning) 'Umatilla or somewhere--no not there but along the water (river)' and then articulated something like 'Uappose'. Nancy is extremely old. She persisted in her above mentioned answer, apparently knowing what she wanted to say, but not being able to make any of the interpreters understand."

If you do family history long enough, every once in a while you hit a document that stops you dead in your tracks—a total goldmine. While digging through FamilySearch recently, a 1913 estate letter popped up involving our family line that opened a major chapter of our history. The document revealed a striking detail: an elderly aunt in our family, Charlotte Riggs, had been sold as a slave in her youth and taken clear to the Clatsop people along the Columbia River.

Her story brings up heavy, important questions—how an enslaved Umpqua woman survived decades of displacement, how she made her way to Grand Ronde to reconnect with Solomon, and how she came to bear the Riggs family name. Grand Ronde was not her original homeland, but it became her refuge alongside her fellow Umpqua relations who survived forced removal.

In this post, we’re going to unpack who Charlotte Riggs really was, trace the timeline of her life, and explore the cultural context behind why she was sold and how she ultimately made her way home to her family.

SW Oregon History Index of Native American Indian Residents of Southwest Oregon 1826-1856.

Connecting the Dots in the Tree

Ancestry tree view showing Solomon Riggs' paternal family line and the generational connections surrounding Charlotte "Lelivess" Riggs.

Years ago, an initial record first tipped me off that Solomon had an aunt named Charlotte. I added her to our Ancestry tree back then, noting her Umpqua lineage on Solomon’s paternal line, but her full story remained a mystery. Seeing this new FamilySearch letter alongside her census record and land allotment brings everything full circle—confirming her identity, her connection to our family, and the incredible journey she took before coming home to Grand Ronde.

Estimated Historical Timeline: Charlotte "Lelivess" Riggs

• 1817 (Birth & Early Life — Lelivess): Born into the Umpqua nation with her traditional name Lelivess (recorded as Charlotte Riggs in later agency records). Her placement in the Index of Native American Indian Residents of Southwest Oregon (1826–1856) confirms her early Umpqua lineage and identifies her as the aunt of Solomon Riggs. As a young woman, she is taken/sold north along the river trade network to the Clatsop people before eventually being brought to Grand Ronde.

Early Oregonian Index

• 1856–1860 (Initial Grand Ronde Removal & 1860 Census — Ages 39–43): Following the forced removal to Grand Ronde, Charlotte is enumerated on the 1860 Grand Ronde Census living with Dick Hall (Umpqua).

Umpqua camp at Grand Ronde.

• c. 1860s–1880s (Extended Return to Coastal/Clatsop Region— Ages 43–72): Following her initial time at Grand Ronde, Charlotte spends extended years back in her native coastal and lower river territory among the Clatsop people before making her way back to her Umpqua family.

SW Oregon HistoryIndex of Native American Indian Residents of Southwest Oregon, 1826-1856

• 1871: Solomon and Jennie marry at Grand Ronde, building their life together and raising their family through the 1870s and 1880s.

• c. 1889–1890 (Permanent Return to Family): Charlotte returns permanently to Grand Ronde to live on Solomon Riggs’ allotment. Testimony in the 1913 record notes she lived on his allotment for roughly 22 to 23 years.

• c. late 1880s–1899 (Living with Mrs. Sulkey / Mercelene Riggs): Testimony in the 1913 record notes that Charlotte stayed with Mrs. Sulkey (Mercelene Riggs) for 13 to 15 years during her time at Grand Ronde. Following Mercelene’s passing in 1899, Charlotte remained in the home as Lawney Tom raised young Abraham and Emma, keeping Charlotte as a constant elder figure in the household until her passing in 1913.

Decoding the 1910 Census: Widow Status & the "Riggs" Name

1910 Census Record highlighting Charlotte Riggs language as Umpqua and listed as a Widow.

On the 1910 Federal Census, Charlotte is listed as a widow under the surname Riggs. Looking closely at the heirship affidavits and period records, there are two simple ways this came to be:

• Extended Family Naming (The Depoe Model): Surnames were frequently assigned to entire extended family groups on Western Oregon reservations—much like how Charles Depoe's ("Depot Charlie") surname was shared across his family at Siletz. Since Solomon had already taken the Riggs surname from an employer, agency officials naturally registered Charlotte under her family's established household name when she reconnected with them at Grand Ronde.

• Marital Status vs. Bureaucratic Label: Her status as a "widow" either points to an early marriage to a paternal relative of Solomon's before arriving at Grand Ronde, or it simply reflects how census agents routinely recorded elderly Native women living without a husband. Notably, the 1910 Census records that Charlotte had zero children born to her—meaning she had no direct descendants or heirs of her own, making her return to Solomon's family network at Grand Ronde all the more vital.

Either way, being recorded as Charlotte Riggs legally bound her to Solomon’s Umpqua line—guaranteeing her land allotment and estate were handled directly alongside her kin.

Charlotte Riggs Land Allotment

• June 8, 1913: Charlotte passes away at an advanced age, leading to the estate and heirship hearings between Solomon Riggs and agent representatives.

1. How Was She Taken? (Raids, Trade, & Debt)

In coastal and Columbia River cultures, a family did not simply put a daughter up for sale. Captivity occurred through specific channels:

• Intertribal Raids: Most captives were taken by force during raiding parties carried out by coastal or northern tribes (such as the Clatsop or Chinook) against southern groups like the Umpqua.

• The River Trade Network: Once captured, individuals were traded north along river highways like the Columbia—directly matching Charlotte’s memory in the 1913 record of being taken "along the water/river."

• Hardship or Debt: In rare instances of extreme famine or unpaid debt, a family might yield a relative to a wealthier clan to settle conflict or ensure group survival.

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2. Marriage vs. Slavery: Why Wasn't She Married Off?

In Pacific Northwest Indigenous society, high-status marriage and captivity were complete opposites:

• High-Status Marriage: Required a formal exchange of wealth (bride-price) to unite two noble families as equals, preserving the woman's rank and protection.

• Captivity: Stripped a person of their kinship network. Without family to defend her, a captive was brought into a household for labor, trade prestige, and economic output—processing salmon, gathering roots, and paddling canoes.

3. The Physical Marker: Head Flattening

Social class was visibly marked on the body. Lower Columbia nobility practiced cradleboard head-flattening for free-born infants. Captives were strictly forbidden from undergoing this process. Living among the Clatsop with a naturally rounded head meant Charlotte carried a visible, lifelong marker of her outsider status until she returned to her Umpqua kin at Grand Ronde.

Chinookan mother with an infant in a cradleboard showing head flattening. Among Lower Columbia tribes like the Clatsop, this practice was reserved strictly for free-born nobility, while enslaved individuals were forbidden from undergoing it.

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4. What Was Indigenous Captivity?

Unlike Southern chattel slavery, Pacific Northwest captivity was not based on race—it was based on trade power, war, and class:

• Economic Drive: Controlling trade at the mouth of the Columbia River required significant labor to process fish and furs for regional markets.

• Fluidity & Reunion: Captivity wasn't always a permanent lifetime sentence. Relatives could redeem captives, or individuals could eventually find a path home—allowing Charlotte to ultimately rejoin Solomon and her Umpqua family at Grand Ronde.

How Did She Reconnect with Her Kin?

In Pacific Northwest Indigenous cultures, captivity wasn't always a permanent, lifelong sentence the way Euro-American chattel slavery was. There were a few clear paths that allowed Charlotte to regain her freedom and ultimately find her family again:

1. Forced Removal as a Turning Point During the military roundups and forced removals of 1855–1856, federal agents gathered Native people across western Oregon to relocate them to reservations. Even though Charlotte was living among coastal tribes at the time, these roundups completely disrupted traditional trade and captivity systems. When intake officials logged her identity, Charlotte named her true lineage: Umpqua. Because Grand Ronde was designated as the primary reservation for the Umpqua people, federal authorities placed her there alongside her surviving relatives—leading directly to her early appearance on the 1860 Grand Ronde Census.

2. Word of Mouth and River Networks Even after tribes were established on reservations, Native families maintained strong informal communication channels. News traveled constantly along rivers, coastal trading paths, and seasonal hop-picking fields about who had survived and where families were living at Grand Ronde and Siletz.

3. Seeking Out Her Umpqua Roots When Charlotte was able to travel independently later in life, coming to Grand Ronde wasn't a random choice. She knew her roots were Umpqua, and Grand Ronde was where her people—including her brother's family—had built their lives after removal.

4. Solomon Taking Her In When Charlotte permanently returned to Grand Ronde around 1889 or 1890, Solomon recognized her as his paternal aunt. As head of his allotment, Solomon honored the deep cultural obligation of taking in an elder relative who had survived decades of displacement—giving her a home for her final 22-plus years surrounded by her true family.

What makes this even more fascinating is how these Columbia River connections kept reappearing in Solomon’s life. Years after taking in Charlotte—who spent her youth displaced among the Clatsop along the river—Solomon married Jennie, whose own deep lineage reached directly back to the Chinook, Clatsop, and Quinault peoples of the Columbia River corridor in her paternal lineage. The very river trade routes and tribal lands that shaped Charlotte’s early hardship were the ancestral roots of the family Solomon built at Grand Ronde.

The Public Record: Her Allotment Sale

The story of Charlotte’s land doesn't end with her passing. Two period newspaper notices record the public sale of her Grand Ronde allotment during the probate process, including an official listing in the Lincoln County Leader (Fri, Aug 11, 1911, Page 4).

Under the federal allotment system (the Dawes Act era), when an allottee died, the land was frequently advertised and sold through local newspapers to settle the estate among surviving heirs. These published notices, combined with the 1913 heirship testimony, confirm the exact timeline of her land distribution and show how her legacy was formally recorded in local Oregon public records.

Note: Although Charlotte’s land was located at Grand Ronde, the official legal notices were published under the Siletz Indian Agency, which oversaw regional probate land sales for Western Oregon reservations. Looking closely at the notice, Charlotte's parcel is listed specifically under the "Grand Ronde Reservation" sub-heading

A Personal Discovery: Living in Mercelene’s Household

One detail in the 1913 testimony stands out above almost everything else: the record notes that Charlotte stayed with Mrs. Sulkey (Selkyah) for 13 to 15 years of her time at Grand Ronde.

This is a profound moment for our family history. "Mrs. Sulkey" was Mercelene (Marcelina) Riggs—daughter of Solomon and Jennie, namesake of my grandmother Mercelene Tom, and wife of her first husband, Joe Sulkey (before her second marriage to Lawney Tom).

Realizing that Charlotte spent over a decade living directly in Mercelene’s home means my direct ancestors shared their everyday lives with her. When Mercelene passed away in 1899, Lawney Tom kept the household together, raising their young children—including my great-grandfather Abraham Tom (who was just 8 years old when his mother died) and his sister Emma Tom (then 5 years old)— alongside Charlotte.

From the time Abraham was 8 years old until he was a young man of 22 when she passed in 1913, Charlotte was a constant, guiding presence in his home. The oral histories, memories, and incredible resilience she carried weren't distant stories to him—they were part of the daily life that raised him, connecting my grandmother Mercelene Tom’s father directly to Charlotte’s journey of survival.

This explains why Charlotte’s story ends the way it does: after spending her younger years displaced along the river with the Clatsop, she eventually made her way back to her Umpqua family line at Grand Ronde, rejoining Solomon Riggs on his allotment and living out her final decades surrounded by her people.