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From: Steady Eddie
Date: 4/1/2002
Time: 9:03:48 AM
Remote Name: 206.163.13.31
I've done a bunch of reseach on this topic-- :-)
It seems that the Indians of the Great Northwest (including the Chinook) raised dogs for their "wool", just like we raise sheep for their wool today.
What exactly were these dogs? And how did they keep the strain "pure" over centuries?
I found a statement on the 'Net that said that the last known (to the white man) "wool dog" died in 1940. It was owned either by a Snohomish or Skykomish (sp) man, and I have literally been tearing up the 'Net looking for a photo of the dog to verify this.
The dogs were, pure white. They carried a recessive gene in their DNA that allowed their inner insulating hair layer to outgrow their outer fur. They are reported to have looked just like a cottonball with 4 legs. Up North, the Makah Indian Tribe kept them isolated upon Ozette Island, and cross-bred them for more wool. (Do a Search on Ozette Island, it's off the coast). Surely, should one poke around on Ozette Island, you could find a skeleton of one of the wool dogs to figure out their size. In the Columbia River, they were kept in caves, kept in holes in the ground, and on islands in the River. With today's science, with DNA gene research, pehaps some mad scientist could reproduce the woolly dogs of old.
What kind of dog do we see today that may closely match the wool dog? I looked around and came up with a very old (4000 yr. old) breed of white dog , that lived in the Northern latitudes, called a "Spitz". It is pure white, and rather small. It has insulating hair (wool). Your imagination doesn't have to wander vey far to imagine one looking like a four-legged cottonball.
So, now we know that these wool dogs were kept isolated from other dogs to keep the strain pure. We know from The Journals of Lewis and Clark that the typical "Village Dog" of the Chinook was much like todays Beagle, with splotches of black, brown and white short hair, and a long, "paint brush" tail. These dogs the Chinook had by the thousands. They used them for hunting Elk, where the dogs "herded" the Elk into a box canyon or a man-made chute with a dead end where the Elk were killed for their hides and meat. Because of their shear numbers, I think that if one combed the animal shelters of the Lower Columbia, you may still find one of the Chinook village dogs, ar find a "cur" dog that closely matches one.
There exists a black and white photo of a Nez Pierce Indian woman and her son in the Indian Photo Archives at the University of Washington. In the photo, taken around 1900, her son holds one of the village dogs. You can clearly see how much the dog looks like a Beagle. And the Beagle is a proven hunter.
Steady Eddie