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Calgary Herald

5 things to know about the Coast Salish Woolly Dog

Article content Long gone from existence, the Coast Salish Woolly Dog is brought back to life in the pages of a new book: The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog. Article content Rich with stories from Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lō, Suquamish, Cowichan, Katzie, Snuneymuxw, and Skokomish cultures, the book highlights the story of the animal whose coat was used by Indigenous weavers to craft blankets and other woven items. Article content Article content Co-authored by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa with weavers, knowledge keepers and elders, the book comes out May 25. Hammond-Kaarremaa, along with a number of Coast Salish contributors to the tome, will be doing readings at the VPL Central Branch on June 4 at 7 p.m. and the Museum of Anthropology on June 5 at 7 p.m. Article content Article content Article content The Coast Salish Woolly Dog, or sqʷəmey̓ in the Hul'q'umi'num (a traditional Coast Salish language), was a small-to-medium-sized dog that was bred for its woolly fibres, which Indigenous weavers wove into traditional blankets, robes and regalia. The dogs lived throughout B.C. but mostly on Vancouver Island and the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Article content Word in the scientific world is the dogs were developed as a breed before European contact in this part of the world. The oldest remains of the Coast Salish Woolly Dog were found in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, and date from 4,000 years ago. Article content Article content In 2000, the pelt of a dog was discovered in a drawer at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The pelt, it turns out, was from a Coast Salish Woolly Dog named Mutton and it had been donated to the institution in 1859 by ethnographer George Gibbs who worked on the Northwest Boundary Survey expedition (1857-61) that mapped the land between B.C. and the U.S. Article content The Coast Salish Woolly Dog would have most resembled the modern-day Spitz breed. The two share a small-to-medium build, with thick ivory-white hair, pointed ears and a curly tail. Article content Article content What happened to the breed? Colonization happened and the dog population declined in the 19th century, and then pretty much disappeared by the early 1900s. A simplified answer to the decline was that during colonization sheep wool blankets were introduced and basically put the woolly dogs out of work. But scholars also say contributing to their extinction was the welfare of the caretakers of the dogs as things like disease, cultural disruption and displacement wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities. Article content Article content