The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog

Join Liz Hammond Kaarremmaa and Leslie Helitsaliga Eastwood (Samish) for a conversation about Coast Salish Weaving and Hammond Kaarremmaa's latest book, The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog.

Until now, there has been very little written about the enigmatic Coast Salish Woolly Dog, orsqwmey’ in the Hul’q’umi’num language. According to Indigenous Oral Histories of the Pacific Northwest, this small dog was bred for thousands of years for its woolly fibers, which
were woven into traditional blankets, robes, and regalia. Although the dogs were carefully protected by Coast Salish peoples, by the 1900s, the Woolly Dog had become so rare it is now considered extinct.

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