Raising Dogs for Wool

Canadian artist and pioneer Paul Kane (pictured) 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.