DNA analysis of a 19th-century dog, paired with traditional knowledge acquired through interviews, have together provided new insights into the decline of Coast Salish “woolly dogs” – an extinct Indigenous dog once bred for its unique woolly coat. Dogs were introduced to the Americas at least 15,000 years ago and have been ubiquitous in Indigenous societies across the continents for thousands of years. Coast Salish peoples – a group of Indigenous societies that lived in the Salish Sea region of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) – kept several different types of dogs, including a special lineage of “woolly dogs” which had a thick woolen undercoat that was shorn for weaving blankets and textiles. However, due to increasing settler colonialism, the Coast Salish dog-wool weaving tradition declined throughout the 19th century; the Indigenous population of woolly dogs was lost. As a result, very little is known about these dogs, including their ancestry, the genetic underpinnings of their woolliness, and the factors that led to their ultimate disappearance. To address these questions, Audrey Lin and colleagues performed genomic and isotopic analyses on the only known pelt of an extinct Coast Salish dog, which belonged to a dog named Mutton that died in 1859. By comparing the genome sequence with other pre-Columbian and modern dog breeds, Lin et al. found that Mutton’s mitochondrial DNA was most similar to other pre-European contact lineages. According to the findings, Mutton’s genome showed limited introgression from European colonial dogs and, in general, lacked much genetic diversity, making Mutton the only known example of an Indigenous North American dog with dominant precolonial ancestry postdating the onset of European settlement in the area. Given the ubiquity of European ancestry present in many dog breeds at the time, the findings suggest that the Coast Salish peoples carefully and successfully maintained the genetic integrity of the woolly dog’s genetic lineage for a substantial period after first contact with colonizers. Moreover, the authors identified several candidate genetic variants linked to the dog’s distinctive woolly hair.
Working closely with Coast Salish Indigenous groups and incorporating these findings with traditional knowledge and historical records, Lin et al. were able to illustrate the cultural importance of the woolly dog and the drivers underlying their decline and extinction. Drivers included depopulation and forced migration of Indigenous peoples as well as colonial policies designed to disenfranchise and criminalize Coast Salish knowledge and cultural practices, including woolly dog husbandry. “The study from Lin et al. is exemplary for its engagement with local Indigenous communities,” writes Ludovic Orlando in a related Perspective. “Traditional Knowledge keepers were not just consulted for legal approval – a common concern for many studies – but their insights were recorded throughout the process as research material and directly embedded in the main text of the article.”
JOURNAL
Science
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