Woolly Dog
This photograph depicts two young Indigenous girls, probably sisters, with a Salish woolly dog. In their closeness, the relationships, responsibilities, and cultural teachings woven into everyday Coast Salish life are quietly revealed.
In the gentle care shown toward the woolly dog can be seen teachings carried through generations — that responsibility, survival, and cultural knowledge were inseparable. From a young age, children learned their place within the life of the community: to protect, to nurture, and to carry forward the relationships that sustained not only daily life, but culture itself.
The unique woolly dogs were carefully raised for their soft white wool-like fibre, which was used in the weaving of highly valued Salish wool blankets. Long before contact, these blankets held deep cultural, practical, and economic importance. They were prized items within the potlatch system of trade, gift-giving, and relationship building.
To preserve their white coats, the dogs were often kept separate from other breeds. Their wool could easily be dyed using plants, roots, and minerals gathered from the land. They were intentionally fed diets of fresh and dried salmon, elk tallow, and liver to help maintain the quality and texture of their wool. Each June, when the wool was at its thickest, the dogs were carefully shorn to provide material for skilled weavers whose work carried both beauty and cultural meaning.
Following contact and the devastating loss of Indigenous lives, lands, and traditional ways of living, the woolly dog gradually disappeared as well. The last known woolly dog, owned by a Skokomish man, died in 1940.
Today, photographs such as this offer a rare glimpse into a once deeply interconnected world — one where people, animals, artistry, survival, and cultural identity were woven closely together.