The Salish wooly dog was traditionally sheared as soon as a year for its thick fur
For countless years, the Salish woolly dog lived on B.C.’s southwest coast, offering their owners with friendship — and hair.
Now, blankets woven from the fur of this extinct dog are on display screen at the Museum of North Vancouver up until early July.
The woolly dogs belonged of Coast Salish culture that was eliminated throughout colonization, says the museum’s Indigenous cultural developer Senaqwila Wyss.
“It’s time to share their story now, as it’s been quite silenced for so long,” said Wyss, who is from the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) First Nation.
The dogs — which go back countless years — were little- to medium-sized with white fur of a woolly texture, rather looking like the modern-day breed of the Spitz, according to Wyss.
The dogs, understood for their calm personality, resided in longhouses or other kinds of homes with their owners and typically had their own beds.
“They were truly our friend, buddy. They would be the only animals entering our houses.”
According to a 2020 study, their diet plan consisted almost completely of seafood fed to them by their owners.
The woolly dog population diminished when colonizers made contact and presented more affordable sheep’s wool from the Hudson’s Bay Company.
By 1900, they had actually essentially vanished, with a couple of unusual sightings on reserves approximately 1940.
“It was through colonization that we were required, instead of truly deciding to alter our way of life,” said Wyss.
Friendship and wealth
Just as much as these dogs supplied friendship, they played a crucial function in the regional culture and economy.
Once a year in the spring, the dogs were sheared. Their fur was then cleaned up and utilized to make unusual and cherished ritualistic bathrobes, typically blended with other products like mountain goat wool, plumes, and plant fibers, according to the museum’s website.
“This was among the types of our wealth, our weaving,” said Wyss.
“As Salish individuals, we had a truly strong connection to the woolly dogs.”
The museum will show 2 of these blankets along with other woolly dog art work by Salish artists, consisting of Chase Gray, Sarah Jim, and Eliot White-Hill.
Wyss started dealing with this exhibition about 2 years earlier when she found the museum had a woolly dog hair blanket in its archives that had not been shown openly in over a years.
The 2nd bathrobe on display screen is on loan to the museum by fabric collector Terrence Loychuk. Wyss said Loychuk was looking into woolly dog hair and discovered the blanket in a thrift store in Langley.
With files from On The Coast and Bridgette Watson
