Recommended listening: Salish Songs
Story
Throughout history, many different materials have been used to make textiles. From sheep's wool to plant fibers, innovative weavers have come up with all sorts of ways to make clothing. But in the Pacific Northwest, women weavers pioneered the cultivation of a unique material. When the coveted wool of the mountain goat was too hard to acquire, they used the wool of an entirely different animal - the dog. Coast Salish weavers are the only people in history to have bred dogs specifically to use their fur in making textiles. On islands around the Salish Sea, they kept herds of little white dogs. In order to ensure the quality of their wool, they were kept apart from hunting dogs, village dogs and wolves. Once or twice a year, they sheared them carefully with a knife. The rest of the time, women would row out to the islands and feed their dogs the finest salmon and marine mammal meat in order to keep them healthy and happy.
For it was the women who had the closest relationships with these dogs. After all, they were the weavers in Coast Salish cultures. Dog wool was used in many different types of textile work, but most spectacular of all were the blankets. Beautifully made blankets were a status symbol in ancestral Salishan society (and often are today). A form of portable wealth, they showed off the creativity of the weaver as well as their access to expensive materials. The most sacred of blankets used the wool of the mountain goat, shed all over the Rockies at certain times of year. But for the people who lived on the islands off the coast, access to this wool was expensive, and so goat wool was often supplemented with dog wool. The oldest surviving textiles from this region include ones made of dog wool, and domesticated dogs are represented in the archaeology going back thousands of years. In fact, dogs are the only animals in the Pacific Northwest who were buried with humans. Dogs were given names, normally only given to humans, and there are many tales in the rich storytelling traditions of this region that feature dogs and humans interacting as equals.
Society in the Pacific Northwest was highly stratified. In fact, about a thousand years ago, archaeological evidence suggests that social divisions were becoming even stronger. Previously, large carved labrets, or lip jewellery, were the main symbol of status. By the year 1000, however, cranial modification had become the new fashion. In a practice that was common across much of the Americas, mothers wrapped their babies' heads to their cradleboards in a way that gradually stretched out their skulls. Unlike labrets, which could be acquired later in life, cranial modification was a sign that your status came from your high birth. Aristocratic men and women both showed off their high station with flattened and elongated heads, a much more permanent sign of wealth than jewellery.
Wool dogs, too, were a symbol of wealth. It's said that a woman's wealth could be measured in how many wool dogs she owned. The more dogs she had, the more marvellous blankets she could weave. These blankets might be worn by her own family, or distributed as gifts at potlatches in the winter. Breeders paid careful attention to the quality of the dog's fur, from length to colour. Wool dogs probably did not constitute a uniform breed in the modern sense of the word, since factors like the dog's shape and temperament were not very important. However, it's thought that wool dogs were generally spitz type dogs, closely resembling long-haired Shiba Inu or the Cloud Spitz. They were usually white but could occasionally come in other colours. Village dogs and hunting dogs were similar in build, but the breeding populations were kept separate to protect the wool dogs' special characteristics. Only wool dogs were allowed into the house, where they enjoyed pride of place as lap dogs.
Early European accounts of the region record their surprise at seeing herds of dogs following Native people along the beaches, their hair shorn like sheep. At first, they hadn't realised what animals the Coast Salish could possibly be using to produce wool, but eventually they realised it was the dogs. One European observer wrote that on a warm day in September, he saw 160 canoes full of Cowichan people coming back from a salmon harvest. Each canoe included about six dogs shorn like lambs. That amounts to nearly a thousand wool dogs, giving us a glimpse at how widespread these dogs once were in the region. Sadly, the wool dog went extinct as a breed in the 19th century. The introduction of sheep and machine-made textiles made the demand for dog wool blankets plummet, and the ravages of genocidal policies like residential schools made it much more difficult for the traditional techniques to be passed down. A few stray wool dogs survived into the 20th century, but eventually they had interbred so much with village dogs and European dogs that they faded away. Today, though, there is a vibrant revitalization of Salishan weaving, and the memory of the wool dogs is kept alive.
In this illustration, a woman visits her island of wool dogs for their daily feeding. Having fed them meals fit for an aristocratic human, she is now indulging in some much-needed cuddles. Although they were bred for a utilitarian purpose, ethnographic evidence tells us that wool dogs were beloved by the women who kept them. This woman will be carefully combing the hair of her herd, perhaps singing to them as she does. This picture is set near Grace Harbour, known in the Tla'amin language as q'a qɛy q'ay or K'ák'ik'i, which means "camp overnight". In pre-colonial times, the village site was shared by the closely related Tla'amin, Tlo'hos, and Xwe'malhkwu peoples. And archaeology shows us that a thousand years ago, there were domesticated dogs living there too. No doubt some of these were wool dogs, following their owners around for salmon treats in return for providing their beautiful white wool. Desolation Sound, the water around Grace Harbour, is dotted with little islands which could have easily provided a secluded place for the wool dogs to live. When their women came to feed them and comb their hair, no doubt they were just as excited as dogs are to see their beloved humans today.
For it was the women who had the closest relationships with these dogs. After all, they were the weavers in Coast Salish cultures. Dog wool was used in many different types of textile work, but most spectacular of all were the blankets. Beautifully made blankets were a status symbol in ancestral Salishan society (and often are today). A form of portable wealth, they showed off the creativity of the weaver as well as their access to expensive materials. The most sacred of blankets used the wool of the mountain goat, shed all over the Rockies at certain times of year. But for the people who lived on the islands off the coast, access to this wool was expensive, and so goat wool was often supplemented with dog wool. The oldest surviving textiles from this region include ones made of dog wool, and domesticated dogs are represented in the archaeology going back thousands of years. In fact, dogs are the only animals in the Pacific Northwest who were buried with humans. Dogs were given names, normally only given to humans, and there are many tales in the rich storytelling traditions of this region that feature dogs and humans interacting as equals.
Society in the Pacific Northwest was highly stratified. In fact, about a thousand years ago, archaeological evidence suggests that social divisions were becoming even stronger. Previously, large carved labrets, or lip jewellery, were the main symbol of status. By the year 1000, however, cranial modification had become the new fashion. In a practice that was common across much of the Americas, mothers wrapped their babies' heads to their cradleboards in a way that gradually stretched out their skulls. Unlike labrets, which could be acquired later in life, cranial modification was a sign that your status came from your high birth. Aristocratic men and women both showed off their high station with flattened and elongated heads, a much more permanent sign of wealth than jewellery.
Wool dogs, too, were a symbol of wealth. It's said that a woman's wealth could be measured in how many wool dogs she owned. The more dogs she had, the more marvellous blankets she could weave. These blankets might be worn by her own family, or distributed as gifts at potlatches in the winter. Breeders paid careful attention to the quality of the dog's fur, from length to colour. Wool dogs probably did not constitute a uniform breed in the modern sense of the word, since factors like the dog's shape and temperament were not very important. However, it's thought that wool dogs were generally spitz type dogs, closely resembling long-haired Shiba Inu or the Cloud Spitz. They were usually white but could occasionally come in other colours. Village dogs and hunting dogs were similar in build, but the breeding populations were kept separate to protect the wool dogs' special characteristics. Only wool dogs were allowed into the house, where they enjoyed pride of place as lap dogs.
Early European accounts of the region record their surprise at seeing herds of dogs following Native people along the beaches, their hair shorn like sheep. At first, they hadn't realised what animals the Coast Salish could possibly be using to produce wool, but eventually they realised it was the dogs. One European observer wrote that on a warm day in September, he saw 160 canoes full of Cowichan people coming back from a salmon harvest. Each canoe included about six dogs shorn like lambs. That amounts to nearly a thousand wool dogs, giving us a glimpse at how widespread these dogs once were in the region. Sadly, the wool dog went extinct as a breed in the 19th century. The introduction of sheep and machine-made textiles made the demand for dog wool blankets plummet, and the ravages of genocidal policies like residential schools made it much more difficult for the traditional techniques to be passed down. A few stray wool dogs survived into the 20th century, but eventually they had interbred so much with village dogs and European dogs that they faded away. Today, though, there is a vibrant revitalization of Salishan weaving, and the memory of the wool dogs is kept alive.
In this illustration, a woman visits her island of wool dogs for their daily feeding. Having fed them meals fit for an aristocratic human, she is now indulging in some much-needed cuddles. Although they were bred for a utilitarian purpose, ethnographic evidence tells us that wool dogs were beloved by the women who kept them. This woman will be carefully combing the hair of her herd, perhaps singing to them as she does. This picture is set near Grace Harbour, known in the Tla'amin language as q'a qɛy q'ay or K'ák'ik'i, which means "camp overnight". In pre-colonial times, the village site was shared by the closely related Tla'amin, Tlo'hos, and Xwe'malhkwu peoples. And archaeology shows us that a thousand years ago, there were domesticated dogs living there too. No doubt some of these were wool dogs, following their owners around for salmon treats in return for providing their beautiful white wool. Desolation Sound, the water around Grace Harbour, is dotted with little islands which could have easily provided a secluded place for the wool dogs to live. When their women came to feed them and comb their hair, no doubt they were just as excited as dogs are to see their beloved humans today.
Artist's Comments
This is the 50th entry in my Women of 1000 series! It's dedicated to Hazel, our new dog. She's smaller than a wool dog, but just as adorable! I can't believe I've reached my 50th illustration in this series. Who would have known when I read the Pillow Book nearly four years ago that it would lead to this?
I'm really glad that I was able to set this illustration in the Pacific Northwest, somewhere I've wanted to draw for a long time and where I also hope to visit one day. And after the various cats who have cropped up throughout the series, it is good to get some more canine representation! ~ November 20, 2021
I'm really glad that I was able to set this illustration in the Pacific Northwest, somewhere I've wanted to draw for a long time and where I also hope to visit one day. And after the various cats who have cropped up throughout the series, it is good to get some more canine representation! ~ November 20, 2021
Resources
Want to learn more about historical Coast Salish women and their dogs? Here are some recommended resources.
""A Part of the People": Human-Dog Relationships Among the Northern Coast Salish of SW British Columbia" by Kasia Anza-Burgess, Dana Lepofsky, and Dongya Yang
I set my illustration in Grace Harbor because this article points out that the remains of a domesticated dog where found there which date to between AD 1000 and 1160. The article focuses on the role of dogs in ancestral Tla'amin culture and society. Although the writers suggest that hunting dogs were more important than wool dogs to the Tla'amin, due to their better access to the mountain goats of the interior than their neighbours on Vancouver Island, they were still part of life there. They just weren't bred as strictly as other Coast Salish woolly dogs - any dog with hair suitable for wool had their fur harvested through combing.
"History, Ethnography, and Archaeology of the Coast Salish Woolly-Dog" by Russell L. Barsh, Joan Megan Jones, and Wayne Suttles
This is the main scholarly overview of Coast Salish woolly dogs. The authors talk about the role that dog wool played in creating prestige items like blankets. They also explore the impact of machine-made blankets and sheep on the wool dogs, which led to their eventual extinction as a breed. The article includes some quotes from early Europeans who observed Coast Salish people interacting with their specially bred wool dogs. You can read more of those primary source descriptions compiled in this article from 1918 - beware that the author's editorializing is racist at times.
"The Dogs that Grew Wool and the People Who Love Them" by Virginia Morell
This article weaves together a very vibrant picture of what life was like for women with their Salish woolly dogs. There's also a beautiful illustration of a woman and a wool dog by by Jeffrey Veregge at the top of it. The piece provides an accessible overview of the ethnographic and scientific evidence for woolly dogs. It's also available in audio format for anyone who needs or prefers that type of delivery. Another article you can read for free online about Salish wool dogs is "A Woolly Tale: Salish Weavers Once Raised a Now-Extinct Dog for Its Hair" by Patricia Jollie, a Bitterroot Salish museum technician at the National Museum of the American Indian. Her article goes into some detail about the modern Salish weaving revival too.
"A Curious Clay: The Use of a Powdered White Substance in Coast Salish Spinning and Woven Blankets" by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa
If you'd like to learn more about the mechanics of how dog wool blankets were made, this article investigates references to a mysterious powdered white substance that early ethnographic accounts mention. The paper also includes a map of the estimated original range of the wool dog. Hammond-Kaarremaa includes a quote I really like about how wool dogs were a measure of a woman's wealth.
"Proteomics and Coast Salish blankets: a tale of shaggy dogs?" by Caroline Solazzo, Susan Heald, Mary W. Ballard, David A. Ashford, Paula T. DePriest, Robert J. Koestler, and Matthew J. Collins
This scientific paper discusses the results of using protein mass spectrometry to identify the species of animal whose wool was used in the construction of different Coast Salish historical items. I based the blanket the woman in my picture wears on one of the blankets confirmed to include dog wool here. Another scientific treatment of dog wool blankets at the microscopic level can be found in the article "Coast Salish weaving: Hair of the dog and cedar bark" by Harry A. Alden. This article also has a great photo in it of Mary Adams and her dog Jumbo, one of the last wool dogs, taken in 1912. Although other photographs circulate on the Internet and in academic articles of Coast Salish women with white dogs, Jumbo's physiology is much closer to what the archaeological and ethnographic record tell us wool dogs typically looked like.
"q'a qɛy q'ay - Grace Harbor" by Tla'amin Nation on YouTube
In this video you can hear different Tla'amin elders share their memories of Grace Harbor. The audio is in both the Tla'amin language and English, with English subtitles. It's a very peaceful video and an important oral history record.
"From Labrets to Cranial Modification: Credibility Enhancing Displays and the Changing Expression of Coast Salish Resource Commitments" by Adam N. Rorabaugh
I'm not really sold on the evolutionary psychology framework that Rorabaugh uses to frame his discussion of archaeology in this article. However, it provides an interesting analysis of the shifting fashions in ancestral Coast Salish cultures, documenting the shift from labrets to cranial modification as ways of showing status. By AD 1000, labrets had mostly disappeared from the material record, and cranial modification was all the rage for displaying your hereditary status, a change which Rorabaugh suggests might have represented more permanent social stratification taking form. You can see an example of a Koskimo woman with cranial modification here.
Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity by Lars Krutak
The chapter on the Pacific Northwest in this book is mostly focused on tattoo traditions of the Haida and Tlingit. There were no references to the Tla'amin, Tlo'hos or Xwe'malhkwu people's practices of tattooing specifically. Instead, I had to base the tattoos of the woman in my illustration on the few examples of women's tattoos attributed to other Salishan groups. As such, it's more of an approximation of how a woman from 1000 years ago in this region may have tattooed herself. Her hand tattoo is based on a Lekwungen (Songhee) example, and her face tattoo is from a 'Nlaka'pamux (Thompson River Salish) example. There is a figurine which dates to between AD 200 and 1200, the Sucia Figure, which shows either bracelets or tattoos on a woman's wrists and ankles. You can also see how her ears are pierced and how she wears a cedar bark skirt, which is what the woman in my picture is wearing.
"Extinct Woolly Dog Analyzed in Collaborative Study with Coast Salish Co-authors" by American Museum of Natural History
This article came out after I completed this illustration, but I'm adding it here because it features really exciting new research into woolly dogs. The original article in Science has over thirty co-authors! They did genetic analysis on the only known specimen of wool dog in a museum and found that its lineage diverged from other pre-Columbian dogs about 5,000 years ago. There is a really nice illustration of a wool dog compared to other spitz dogs in both articles.
""A Part of the People": Human-Dog Relationships Among the Northern Coast Salish of SW British Columbia" by Kasia Anza-Burgess, Dana Lepofsky, and Dongya Yang
I set my illustration in Grace Harbor because this article points out that the remains of a domesticated dog where found there which date to between AD 1000 and 1160. The article focuses on the role of dogs in ancestral Tla'amin culture and society. Although the writers suggest that hunting dogs were more important than wool dogs to the Tla'amin, due to their better access to the mountain goats of the interior than their neighbours on Vancouver Island, they were still part of life there. They just weren't bred as strictly as other Coast Salish woolly dogs - any dog with hair suitable for wool had their fur harvested through combing.
"History, Ethnography, and Archaeology of the Coast Salish Woolly-Dog" by Russell L. Barsh, Joan Megan Jones, and Wayne Suttles
This is the main scholarly overview of Coast Salish woolly dogs. The authors talk about the role that dog wool played in creating prestige items like blankets. They also explore the impact of machine-made blankets and sheep on the wool dogs, which led to their eventual extinction as a breed. The article includes some quotes from early Europeans who observed Coast Salish people interacting with their specially bred wool dogs. You can read more of those primary source descriptions compiled in this article from 1918 - beware that the author's editorializing is racist at times.
"The Dogs that Grew Wool and the People Who Love Them" by Virginia Morell
This article weaves together a very vibrant picture of what life was like for women with their Salish woolly dogs. There's also a beautiful illustration of a woman and a wool dog by by Jeffrey Veregge at the top of it. The piece provides an accessible overview of the ethnographic and scientific evidence for woolly dogs. It's also available in audio format for anyone who needs or prefers that type of delivery. Another article you can read for free online about Salish wool dogs is "A Woolly Tale: Salish Weavers Once Raised a Now-Extinct Dog for Its Hair" by Patricia Jollie, a Bitterroot Salish museum technician at the National Museum of the American Indian. Her article goes into some detail about the modern Salish weaving revival too.
"A Curious Clay: The Use of a Powdered White Substance in Coast Salish Spinning and Woven Blankets" by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa
If you'd like to learn more about the mechanics of how dog wool blankets were made, this article investigates references to a mysterious powdered white substance that early ethnographic accounts mention. The paper also includes a map of the estimated original range of the wool dog. Hammond-Kaarremaa includes a quote I really like about how wool dogs were a measure of a woman's wealth.
"Proteomics and Coast Salish blankets: a tale of shaggy dogs?" by Caroline Solazzo, Susan Heald, Mary W. Ballard, David A. Ashford, Paula T. DePriest, Robert J. Koestler, and Matthew J. Collins
This scientific paper discusses the results of using protein mass spectrometry to identify the species of animal whose wool was used in the construction of different Coast Salish historical items. I based the blanket the woman in my picture wears on one of the blankets confirmed to include dog wool here. Another scientific treatment of dog wool blankets at the microscopic level can be found in the article "Coast Salish weaving: Hair of the dog and cedar bark" by Harry A. Alden. This article also has a great photo in it of Mary Adams and her dog Jumbo, one of the last wool dogs, taken in 1912. Although other photographs circulate on the Internet and in academic articles of Coast Salish women with white dogs, Jumbo's physiology is much closer to what the archaeological and ethnographic record tell us wool dogs typically looked like.
"q'a qɛy q'ay - Grace Harbor" by Tla'amin Nation on YouTube
In this video you can hear different Tla'amin elders share their memories of Grace Harbor. The audio is in both the Tla'amin language and English, with English subtitles. It's a very peaceful video and an important oral history record.
"From Labrets to Cranial Modification: Credibility Enhancing Displays and the Changing Expression of Coast Salish Resource Commitments" by Adam N. Rorabaugh
I'm not really sold on the evolutionary psychology framework that Rorabaugh uses to frame his discussion of archaeology in this article. However, it provides an interesting analysis of the shifting fashions in ancestral Coast Salish cultures, documenting the shift from labrets to cranial modification as ways of showing status. By AD 1000, labrets had mostly disappeared from the material record, and cranial modification was all the rage for displaying your hereditary status, a change which Rorabaugh suggests might have represented more permanent social stratification taking form. You can see an example of a Koskimo woman with cranial modification here.
Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity by Lars Krutak
The chapter on the Pacific Northwest in this book is mostly focused on tattoo traditions of the Haida and Tlingit. There were no references to the Tla'amin, Tlo'hos or Xwe'malhkwu people's practices of tattooing specifically. Instead, I had to base the tattoos of the woman in my illustration on the few examples of women's tattoos attributed to other Salishan groups. As such, it's more of an approximation of how a woman from 1000 years ago in this region may have tattooed herself. Her hand tattoo is based on a Lekwungen (Songhee) example, and her face tattoo is from a 'Nlaka'pamux (Thompson River Salish) example. There is a figurine which dates to between AD 200 and 1200, the Sucia Figure, which shows either bracelets or tattoos on a woman's wrists and ankles. You can also see how her ears are pierced and how she wears a cedar bark skirt, which is what the woman in my picture is wearing.
"Extinct Woolly Dog Analyzed in Collaborative Study with Coast Salish Co-authors" by American Museum of Natural History
This article came out after I completed this illustration, but I'm adding it here because it features really exciting new research into woolly dogs. The original article in Science has over thirty co-authors! They did genetic analysis on the only known specimen of wool dog in a museum and found that its lineage diverged from other pre-Columbian dogs about 5,000 years ago. There is a really nice illustration of a wool dog compared to other spitz dogs in both articles.