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