Twas the foto of Salish Natives, particularly she of the direct & bemused gaze, holding a treasured white dog & reclining in a splendor of confidence unusual for the times, that completely transfixed me! The story of the now- extinct Salish Woolly/Wooly Dog & the very much alive Coastal Salish peoples is one which reiterates the ancient genetic movement of a Spitz-type of dog & therefore an extensive global maritime culture...it is a story which has been told & cited many times...so I shant make an attempt. I will merely pass along the fotos. Click here for a great article detailing the dogs/culture/natives & a foto of the pelt of "Mutton", a mid-19th century Woolly Dog & pet of the esteemed ethnographer George Gibbs (1815-1873)...(see below for more on Gibbs). ![]() "Among their characteristic manufactures are blankets or robes made of dogs' hair. They have a kind of cur with soft and long white hair, which they shear and mix with a little wool or the ravellings of old blankets. This is twisted by rolling on the knees into a cord or coarse yarn, and is then woven on a frame."-George Gibbs-Mar. 4, 1854; See his journal at the Beinecke All of my scheduled posts came out in a time-travel format...oh well(since Weebly sold to Square, nothing works properly in the site builder anymore). Pretty soon, real-time Anatolian puppy posts will be happening!
In the meantime, we have fantastic eggs available to local gourmands...$7.00 per dozen! All proceeds go to our hens & their black soldier fly larvae addiction. A study of Americans & Americana...Steinbeck began a hello & a goodbye on this sojourn he embarked upon with his Standard Poodle ("Charley"). Certainly one of my faves..."Travels with Charley" is magnificent, homey, doggish, masculine & soft all while being meticulously observant & insightful. Steinbeck gets the reader comfortable with the ride & then he just levels ya. Yes...he makes me want to tune up the camper, pack up my dawg & a bottle of whiskey & hit the road for adventures unknown. Whiskey, the only known Turnspit specimen on earth...is quite an attention-getter. Though we are aware of dogs as having been intentionally bred & thus, modified, for centuries. The portrayal of the long-of-body, broad-of-muscle variety is intriguing. For me, the merle-factor is described...which brings it to the long-bodied merles we see today...those of Dachschunds & Corgis. Are the Turnspits foundational? Cousins? Where is the DNA? Moderate of size...& therefore, easy for the average "cook" to collect & place upon the wheel...we are shown a rather sad form of indenture. Which brings me back to "Whiskey"....I'm not quite certain that Whiskey was a Turnspit. I don't want any angry Welsh coming my way...(though, I'm quite Welsh)...with Whiskey, we see a fragile, dome-skulled, soft-muscled, plume-tailed lap-variety, a ladies companion. What say YOU? Scenthounds have been a stewarded genepool in many forms from the 6th century (& likely earlier...), we can agree that a racial type of hound populated the great French stag & boar hunts in earliest time & that they continued this appearance for centuries. For the sake of simplicity...I'm making an enormous generalisation here. I'll be focused on the Saint Hubert's Hound/Bloodhound. The Sagax Sanguinarius hounds with their pendulous ears & profuse folds were naturally revered for their scenting/trailing skills. The Latin alone conveys a great deal..."Sagax" ('of quick perception') "Sanguinarius" ('of blood'). Please note the circa 1563 Gesner/Caius manuscript/illustration in my slide-show below: the identification of the illustration is the breed's most important accounting in terms of etymology & it's presence in Britain. The documented appearance of these majestic beasts occurs frequently in ancient manuscripts, art & literature & is thus, exceedingly helpful in creating actualism & dispelling with myth & lore associated with vehement fanciers who want their beloved breed to have it's just dessert. The simple reason for all of the ancient "media" affiliated with Scenthounds is that the nobility & their pomp, circumstance, pursuits & pleasures were illustrated. The peasantry, not really. I shall merely reiterate my points. 1) The Scenthounds originated in France where they were intentionally stewarded for thousands of years. 2) Naturally, they ventured at the heels of their keepers (& as noble gifts) to Britain, where they were appreciated for their exceptional merits & where their type morphed as per the needs & desires of their human stewards. The important phenotypic accounting in Conrad Gesner's monumental 16th century work "Historiae Animalium" is a sort of benchmark in establishing a root type...from which multitudes of hound "breeds" evolved. See my link (tap the hound's nose) to the manuscript at the Library of Congress below. The illustrations of John Caius & the writings of Gesner are compelling & exceedingly valuable to armchair doggists such as I. Both men were elite scholars who melded rather brilliantly...& though there certainly are some fanciful illustrations. They nailed the Bloodhound-type. The Saint Hubert's Hound/Bloodhound (called "Chien de Saint-Hubert" in Europe) is a noble breed of grand antiquity & thus stands amidst the race as a candidate for foundational influence. It is Saint Hubert (656-May 30,727) himself (son of the Duke of Aquitaine) who is given credit at having established a kennel of these dogs (or something like these dogs) as he was an extreme fancier of The Hunt. With the sensitive & elegant countenance of the Saint Hubert's Hound, it is not difficult to believe that this breed owns a beginning in the hands of the royal family-Aquitaine. In fact, braces & packs of them were frequently given as gifts to the royalty -a tradition which endured for hundreds of years & was appreciated or not, according to personal preference of the recipient, fads & trends. Bred by the monks at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert from 1000AD on-wards, I shall stop right here...as it is a vivid argument which ensues as to whether the Saint-Hubert Hound died out completely & was replaced hundreds of years ago by the Anglo Bloodhound; whether Saint Hubert/Bloodhounds are a hodge-podge of Scenthounds; or whether the advent of Fox Hunting decimated the heavy, ponderous Scenthounds completely & that the beast we adore today is merely a re-creation a'la Mary Shelley. Anytime a domestic animal breeding pool is manipulated, it inherently becomes a cultural fermentation of the region & peoples which partook of the breeding. One thing we shant argue is the etymology of the name "Bloodhound". We know the dog achieved his name due to his ability to effectively track a blood trail. Thus, a Bloodhound! One can count on the scholarship of John Caius (a wordist in his own right) & the Latin. As for the nomenclature....lets look closely at the beast, under the hood so to speak. With the billowing folds of skin & long, pendulous ears, what can we make of this dog's suitability for her task? She is the perfect model. The drapery along her face is ideal for enfolding the scent, while her ears keep the scent trail framed & active. Then, there is "the shawl"...almost like a velvet plow, the ruffled skin of the muzzle & throat keep the scent netted...framing it from fern fronds & abstractions into a direct olfactory trajectory. If one closely observes the Saint Hubert's Hound on the trail of anything...one can't help but note the following: the first assessment of the scent article (or trail)( no matter how cold); & then the revelation-that moment when the dog makes an overture, seemingly to the earth itself. Then with absolute aplomb she's off! Slow & steady wins the day. Perhaps this is why we have a race of dog known for finding the trail of wounded stags & errant men alike. For nothing escapes the methodical & meticulous approach of the noble Saint Hubert's Hound. Dr. Karen Greig completed an extensive DNA study of these fabulously interesting (& extinct) NZ dogs. All were closely related. I'm quoting from her article herein: "Two dogs tested from the Cook Islands showed more genetic diversity between them than did all 35 dogs from New Zealand. Two-thirds of the New Zealand dogs shared exactly the same haplotype (a set of markers usually inherited as a group from a parent), while most of the others differed by only one or two mutations. Additionally, the study found that there was no geographic patterning to the New Zealand dogs; dogs from two different sites were as likely to be related as two dogs from the same site. This discovery means that early New Zealand dogs were all descendants of a small group of very similar dogs, which were equally and quickly distributed around the whole country." Excerpted from a 6/22/2018 Otago Daily Times article (of which the author is not noted) "One of the strategies people used was to take their domesticated plants and animals on voyages with them, to assist with establishing their communities on new islands.
While it was known dogs were part of these migrations - archaeological evidence suggests dogs were introduced to Australasia and the Pacific via maritime Southeast Asia around 3500 years ago - that evidence had been patchy in places, and the origins and dispersal routes for dogs still weren't clear. The new study, led by the University of Otago's Dr Karen Greig, aimed to investigate how dogs ultimately fitted into the picture of human settlement - and how their genetic traces linked up with current human migration models. They drew on molecular genetic analysis of DNA extracted from dog bones and teeth that had been excavated from archaeological sites across Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. The team specifically targeted the mitochondrial genome, because its high copy number in each cell meant there was a better chance of it surviving in archaeological samples. They also sequenced the mitogenomes of dingoes from Wellington Zoo. "Dingoes are descended from dogs introduced to Australia several thousand years ago, and are currently one of the earliest known dog introductions to the region," Dr Greig said. "We used next-generation sequencing technology to generate the ancient and modern genetic sequences, and this technology enabled us to obtain far more data for each archaeological dog specimen than had been possible previously." That meant they could pick out particular similarities and differences between the genetic lineages of the archaeological samples, the dingoes and also some mitogenomes from modern village dogs published from a previous study. The data revealed there were at least three different dog introductions into the Pacific region - and in addition to the dingo introduction, each had a different time-frame and dispersal pattern. "This suggests perhaps that people faced some challenges moving, establishing and sustaining viable dog populations on newly colonised islands." They also found some evidence for dogs being associated with the Lapita peoples, who were the first groups to colonise islands beyond the Solomon Islands. "But we also found evidence for a later and much more successful introduction, with dogs sharing the same genetic lineage being found in archaeological sites across the Pacific, including New Zealand," Dr Greig said. " noticed that I've been reincarnating old posts from 2019 & 2020? Good! Also, I've attached Ekim's testing...he too is a double dilute...(& DM-Clear!)... With his saturnine eyes & turn of lip, I can easily imagine the dynamic & sensual Baron George Haas II- a bon vivant...living it up in the early 20th century. He is said to have loved well & have been well-loved...with loads of mistresses, friends & the rare ability to mingle elegantly with the lower classes. This garnered him that which is rarely achieved- respect. He had it in spades from the townspeople, his tenants, staff & peers, he had it from his pets. This says a great deal about the man! It is said he could be found at the village pub, beer in-hand, perhaps discussing his beloved dogs, his lioness, politics, art, farming & nearly anything else of merit. For me, he looks the part of Vronsky...Tolstoy's male counter-part to Anna Karenina's febrile & of-the-planet lust for earthly pleasures & the tangible. Whatever the case, he could not bear to never gaze upon his pets again after their departures...& thusly had them taxidermied. They remain in the castle to this day, where visitors abound! Where does the beautiful Baron Haas roam? A hunting trail? His rooms? A hallowed ground? Tis Halloween. Perhaps he will visit my dreams. ![]() Excerpted from an article of Jan Velinger's construction, titled "Bitov Castle & It's Last Eccentric Owner Baron Haas""Georg Haas was an eccentric a baron as they come. But, for all his quirks, he did put the castle to good use. He designed a magnificent zoo, unique for its time, with terrariums, bird cages, and various paddocks that he filled with exotic creatures from around the world, some of which, yes, were later stuffed. But, the creature that held the greatest place in his heart - alive - was a lioness. Amazingly, the baron had her shipped to Bohemia, and that's not all: the story goes that he and the big cat lunched together everyday. The lioness, who believe it or not was named Mietzi-Mausi, liked to chew on visitors' shoes. In a way, what could have been appropriate than a Czech lion - a symbol of Czech statehood - but, under such conditions what could also be more bizarre? Still, despite his weirdness Baron Haas was well-liked in the region: the locals with whom he mingled, if not the nobility. He often picked up the tab at the local pubs. He was in every sense of the word, a bon vivant: he had a huge love of life and records in the region show, a very healthy sexual appetite. Many village girls fell under his seductive eye. But, ultimately Haas suffered a tragic fate: an antifascist during the Second World War, he was nevertheless an ethnic German: he was given 24 hours by Czech partisans to leave everything behind. By this time, aged 68, he was forced to depart on foot across the Austrian border. He was later found dead: he had shot himself." It is the cultural development of canine races that compel me to continue my tenure as an armchair caninologist. My podium, adorned with degrees from a Crackerjack box sits as a fixed & teeny monument to this singular pursuit. This then, is the micro-study of human French Shepherds or "Tchangues" ("big legs") & fleetingly, their dogs. The startling & surreal antique fotos from SW France are enough to grab anyone's attention! Ethnically attired people on stilts in the flat-lands, surrounded by sheep (it's fodder for an album cover). But the marshy landscape of SW France required a "lifted" approach for the shepherd. How else to surveil & supervise one's flock? Therefore, the shepherd had his pair of stilts & an elongated shepherd's staff & voila-a tripod. The rest is his-story. Did I mention that they often knitted while astride? Or that knitting was strictly a past-time for male society? Oh, the dogs themselves...I almost forgot! The how's & why's of the dog's uses, colours, coats & temperaments in society is intrinsically connected to their roles in our lives today. This is why I am here & what moved me to obtain my dogtorate. Scroll down, please... Some believe that the above dogs are of Dutch &/or Belgian origin. Whatever the case & as is usual...once a culture modifies & moulds a type of animal for a distinct purpose, the animal becomes specialised, remodeled & therefore, intentionally bred. This is a fixed cultural state-a living preservation. Everything came from somewhere. Right? So, I am calling the 3 dogs above: "French Herding Dogs"...yes...I can see the relationship between the Dutch & Belgian influence...(see below). Can you? Teit foto 1915; In Teit's (pronounced "Tate") own words, the below foto is of a "Thorough Bred Bear Dog"...Oh, to see the whole of the dog at left in foto (alas...we have only an ear & a mane...)... Teit Foto 1915 ; Mary Jackson & Charley Quash Fox-faced, short eared...& look at that tail! "Nanaook Edzerza Marten Trapping Party" 1926; Photo: BC Archives; in the right hand corner of the foto, an enigmatic (& now extinct) Tahltan Bear Dog rounds the corner! I spend quite a lot of time as an armchair caninologist, day-after-day hunting through archives, manuscripts, libraries...you name it... for rare images of even rarer dogs. The above are indisputably Tahltan Bear Dogs, the fotos of which you may never have seen before. Extinct now & enigmatic a century ago! As regards the Teit fotos, I'd been searching specifically for the original fotos/negatives...& I found em! I knew, after reading his comments regarding there being "not more than 2 or 3" in 1919...with a likelihood that they'd be "extinct by the 1930s", there had to be more than 1 original foto of these dogs-as Teit not only lived with the Tahltans...he married into the people themselves, thereby having a unique access & commitment to the gorgeous culture of the Natives of Northern British Columbia. Certainly, while Teit documented his adopted people in fotografs, in the very least the dogs might appear not only as direct subject-matter but in the background/s as well, and they do! Who was James Teit (he spelled his surname "Tait" until 1884 & converted it to the Nordic spelling "Teit" thereafter)? Freckled & robins-egg-blue-eyed...sensitive, liberal, passionate & energetic, he was the Canadian ethnomusicologist of the 20th century (in terms of preservation of indigenous song of coastal people). His grand efforts live on in the wax-cylinders which preserve North Coastal Indigenous music & songs. (I have included an audio sample of his efforts at the bottom of this armchair study) & in the materials he collected, his output was nothing short of massive. Teit's fate unfurled in 1883, when his rather wealthy, entrepreneurial, maternal uncle, John Murray -who lived in Spence's Bridge, British Columbia (see fotos) , made an inquiry to Teit's parents- at home in the Shetland Islands-it was an inquiry of fortuitous scope! Would one of their children be interested in assuming responsibility for Murray's general store? 19 year-old James Teit was all-in, arriving in March-1884 at Spence's Bridge. It did not take long for Teit to steep himself in the culture & on September 1, 1892, Teit was married to Susannah Lucy Antko (a member of the Spence's Bridge Band, a division of the Nlaka 'pamux) (see foto). Unfortunately, Lucy died of pneumonia in 1899. Yet, Teit remained in Spence's Bridge, marrying Leonie Josephine Morens (of a local French pioneer family) in 1904, he was 40, she was 23. They had 6 children (5 of whom survived): Erik 1905; Inga 1907; Magnus 1909; Rolf 1912; Sigurd 1915; & Thorald 1919. Fluent in 3 indigenous languages Nlaka’pamux, Secwepemc and Okanagan (Syilx), Teit often facilitated delegations on behalf of native peoples, explaining convoluted western legalese to them while beating the ever-dead-horse cause of equal rights for all. His ethnografic work for & in conjunction with Franz Boas is vast & voluminous...as if he were driven by a gripping force...one beyond his inclination towards socialism & free-thinking equality...perhaps it was rather that he saw a great & grand people diminishing before his very eyes & he was in a race, if not to arrest the vanishing, to preserve the ancient traditions. The Teit family lived in Spence's Bridge until moving to Merritt, British Columbia in 1919. The Morens/Teit family burial ground remains in Spence's Bridge to this day, with at least 3 of the Teit children resting there. The historic Morens home/orchard (which operated most recently as "Hilltop Farms") burnt to the ground in 2018. Now that we know some of the familial details of the Teit family...lets proceed to this sensitive Norwegian's description of the Tahltan Bear Dogs: He first describes them in 1919 at Telegraph Creek, BC (160 miles upriver from Wrangell) (of Dwarf Woolly Mammoth 3500 years-ago fame). Not until James Teit's research at Telegraph Creek were Tahltan Bear Dogs recognized as a distinct, culturally important breed. He refers to the dog in the foto at the top of this post as "Thorough Bred"...was which the common vernacular for indicating purebred status at the time. That he went out of his way to fotograf the dogs in fotos 1 & 2 above...& refer to 1 as "Thorough Bred" indicates that while there may have been countless small, hairy Bear Dog types around...this one was distinctly a purebred. This reference was important to Teit, who was witnessing pending (& accelerated) extinctions of all-sorts. In roughly 1939, the efforts of British Columbia Provincial Police Commissioner T.W.S. Parsons (see fotos of he & one of his dogs) and Constable J.B. Gray (who were both posted at Telegraph Creek) compelled CKC's 1941 recognition of the breed, and several years later, the American Kennel Club added them to their list as well. J.B. Gray acquired roughly 10 Tahltan Bear Dogs during his tenure at Telegraph Creek between 1936-1940 & later, one Harriet Morgan of Windsor, Ontario attempted to steward the breed along...yet, by 1975, only 6 purebred Tahltans remained...& in 1979 the Canadian Kennel Club rescinded breed registration of the Tahltan Bear Dog....& in the same year, the last known, purebred Tahltan Bear Dog died. Just. Like. That. One can almost hear it. I hunt for fotos, engravings, art, etc.. because our emotional structure is strangely & more honestly bound to dogs than it is to our fellow human beings. This distilled droplet of truth reveals the intrinsic necessity of dogs in our lives...past, present & future. Their roles may change, but their rule shall never. When we commence to take living beings out of their rightful tenure in an extremely specific environment (& use in that environ)...we change things detrimentally. Forever. The Tahltan, by foto, presents in classic "Bering-Strait-crosser-Spitzy" phenotpye: erect ears, often Irish-marked & purported to be operatically "yippy". They were known (& valued) for identifying their quarry with yaps, yodels, chortles & the like...what sets them apart are their short (ish) tails...often described as resembling a shaving brush. The most famous Tahltan is the subject of a book written by none other than John Muir...titled "Stickeen"...from the location & peoples of which he came, Muir describes him as follows: "Nobody could hope to unravel the lines of his ancestry. In all the wonderfully mixed and varied dog-tribe I never saw any creature very much like him, though in some of his sly, soft, gliding motions and gestures he brought the fox to mind. He was short-legged and bunch-bodied, and his hair, though smooth, was long and silky and slightly waved, so that when the wind was at his back it ruffled, making him look shaggy. At first sight his only noticeable feature was his fine tail, which was about as airy and shady as a squirrel's , and was carried curling forward almost to his nose. On closer inspection you might notice his thin sensitive ears, and sharp eyes with cunning tan-spots above them. Mr. Young told me that when the little fellow was a pup about the size of a woodrat he was presented to his wife by an Irish prospector at Sitka, and that on his arrival at Fort Wrangell he was adopted with enthusiasm by the Stickeen Indians as a sort of new good-luck totem, was named "Stickeen" for the tribe, and became a universal favorite; petted, protected, and admired wherever he went, and regarded as a mysterious fountain of wisdom. On our trip he soon proved himself a queer character--odd, concealed, independent, keeping invincibly quiet, and doing many little puzzling things that piqued my curiosity. As we sailed week after week through the long intricate channels and inlets among the innumerable islands and mountains of the coast, he spent most of the dull days in sluggish ease, motionless, and apparently as unobserving as if in deep sleep. But I discovered that somehow he always knew what was going on. When the Indians were about to shoot at ducks or seals, or when anything along the shore was exciting our attention, he would rest his chin on the edge of the canoe and calmly look out like a dreamy-eyed tourist. And when he heard us talking about making a landing, he immediately roused himself to see what sort of a place we were coming to, and made ready to jump overboard and swim ashore as soon as the canoe neared the bench. Then, with a vigorous shake to get rid of the brine in his hair, he ran into the woods to hunt small game. But though always the first out of the canoe, he was always the last to get into it. When we were ready to start he could never be found, and refused to come to our call. We soon found out, however, that though we could not see him at such times, he saw us, and from the cover of the briers and huckleberry bushes in the fringe of the woods was watching the canoe with wary eye. For as soon as we were fairly off he came trotting down the beach, plunged into the surf, and swam after us, knowing well that we would cease rowing and take him in. When the contrary little vagabond came alongside, he was lifted by the neck, held at arm's length a moment to drip, and dropped aboard. We tried to cure him of this trick by compelling him to swim a long way, as if we had a mind to abandon him; but this did no good; the longer the swim the better he seemed to like it." Stickeen is described as having tan markings above the eye & was therefore a black & tan. Unfortunately, he was later stolen by a tourist...& we hear no more of the intrepid dog. (Sources;Banks 1970:43; Wickwire 1988:185; Canadian Museum of History); Dr. Wickwire's book on Teit "At the Bridge", can be purchased on Amazon...
I'm so happy with our new source...it is local & FANTASTIC!!!!! Thank you to Mountain View Cane Corso /Dan LeGrand for supplying our beasts!
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AuthorHowl-O! I'm Julia Jensen- devoted student of dogs & religious sampler of cheesecake, wheat beer, huehuetenango coffee & almost any chocolate out there. I indulge these fancies & more, in the remote silence of the pacific NW. *PLEASE NOTE* The videos selected for bloghism could be construed as "disturbing" to those of certain bents, sensitivities, natures, mind-sets, etc.. I have a distinct interest in relaying footage of dogs doing what they have been doing for centuries....& in some cases, I also include dog show footage just as a matter of interest. If you do not like my selections, by all means, do not view them. Archives
June 2024
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