Doggone Blanket

Canadian artist and pioneer Paul Kane observed in 1847 that the Salish and Chinook people of Washington’s Puget Sound raised dogs for their wool. The tribespeople nurtured a “peculiar breed of small dogs with long hair,” Kane wrote. “The hair is cut off with a knife and mixed with goosedown and a little white earth.” The long, fine and compact fleece was used mostly for the making of blankets.