Fido fleece. A painting from the 1840s or '50s shows a Salish woolly dog. news.sciencemag.org

A recent article in the journal Antiquity, reported online in Past Horizons, adventures in archaeology, recounts the results of scientific studies at the University of York in England on the historic textiles of the Coast Salish First Nations. The protein composition of 25 samples of yarn was examined to determine their animal source. Samples were taken from eleven textiles in Smithsonian Museums’ collections. The results mostly confirm the Coast Salish oral tradition about the use in weaving of the hair of the wool dog. The textiles examined showed that wool dog hair mixed with goat wool was used in everyday textiles, with goat hair alone used in ceremonial textiles. None of the examined blankets was made solely of dog hair.

Research head Dr. Caroline Solazzo stated that the Salish peoples’ practice of “raising dogs for fibre production was a unique cultural adaptation.” For centuries the white wool dog was bred and raised separately from the short-haired working dogs. With closer European contact from the mid-nineteenth century, the wool breed was lost to interbreeding by 1940.

Contemporary and historical Salish weaving can be viewed at Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology, and other museums. Don’t forget to look in the storage drawers at MOA, under the Salish displays. For more information and references, see http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/11/native-american-blankets-made-wi.html