Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow. The Coastal Salish Wooly Dog.

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).

Fondle the blanket to travel right to the Smithsonian...there, you'll see the DNA references & citations.

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"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

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