A Washington Post story (gift link) tells of a type of dog bred by Pacific Northwest Indigenous people and kept intact as a breed until the mid-19th century.
The woolly dogs were fluffy and white, and their fur could be shaved periodically to use in weaving warm blankets and robes. Women of the coastal tribes kept them separate from other dogs to maintain their particular useful trait.
A particular dog, named Mutton, was adopted by a U.S. naturalist, and when Mutton died in 1859, his pelt found its way to the Smithsonian, where it was rediscovered early this millennium by a researcher interested in dog genetics.
Before research on the pelt began, Smithsonian officials contacted Coast Salish tribes to see if they would be interested in research on the woolly dog and its pelt. The answer was yes. Michael Pavel, a Skokomish-Twana tribal elder, is one of the authors of the study.
Analysis of Mutton's DNA shows that he was 84% precolonial dog, with most of his genes dating from 1,900 to 4,800 years ago.
The people of the Stó:lō Nation, where Smithsonian records say Mutton came from, have oral histories describing how the woolly dogs were raised, kept separate on islands or in pens, and used to create wool blankets.
Smithsonian researchers, the Post story says, "hope to return Mutton to the Coast Salish region, where the people are now reclaiming many of those traditions."
It's a story that gives a glimpse of a bad time in our country's history, but it's also an interesting science story, and one of how Indigenous people have kept their history alive until it is proven true in scientific terms.
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