The only surviving woolly dog pelt tells a story of vibrant cultural values
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His name was Mutton. Although he died in 1859 at the tender age of 18 months, Mutton is a survivor who has returned to his ancestral territory to be studied, and welcomed with respect by Coast Salish artisans and community members.
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Mutton, a woolly dog, whose hair was used in Salish and Makah weaving, was the companion of naturalist and ethnographer George Gibbs, who worked on the Northwest Boundary Survey in the 19th century.
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Mutton’s pelt, the only surviving pelt of the woolly dog, is on loan to the Museum of Anthropology at the University of B.C. from the Smithsonian Institution until August 2027.
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In his field notes, Gibbs recorded that Mutton grew ill and died around 1859. Those notes, and the pelt, along with other wildlife specimens, were sent to the Smithsonian at the end of the expedition Gibbs was part of. The pelt was carefully preserved, but lay forgotten in a drawer until it was rediscovered around the year 2000.
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Jordan Wilson, curator of Pacific Northwest and Contemporary Indigenous Art at the Museum of Anthropology, unveiled the pelt on Tuesday, after local Indigenous community members had time to visit and spend time with their returning canine ancestor.
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The woolly dog, which has a fox-like face and a brown button nose, appears in rare historical photographs, in sketches by artist Paul Kane, and on woven Skokomish/Twana baskets. But the breed itself vanished some time around the late 1800s.
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Stories of a fluffy, white dog whose soft fur was sheared and collected like wool to be used in traditional weaving, have been passed down through oral traditions by Coast Salish community members for over 100 years since its disappearance.
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“This is the only existing pelt of a now-extinct breed of dog that was once selectively bred here in the Coast Salish region and the neighbouring territories of the Interior Salish and the Makah people. Our ancestors bred these dogs for their fur to be used in weavings, robes and other textiles,” said Wilson.
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“Early historical accounts from Capt. George Vancouver and Simon Fraser make reference to Indigenous peoples travelling in canoes with woolly dogs, so we have a sense that the dogs travelled with our ancestors as they moved throughout their respective territories,” said Wilson.
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The pooches were kept separate from other village dogs so their beautiful pelts would not be compromised by cross-breeding to preserve the integrity of their fleece. “There was a very selective breeding process that ensured the quality of the fur,” said Wilson.
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According to a study published in the research journal Science in 2023 after Mutton’s genome was sequenced, the dogs had a distinctive curly undercoat. They were pampered, regarded as “people,” “relatives” and members of the family, loved and cared for, combed, and fed a special diet of salmon.
