Reposted by Peggy J
Andrew Ambers & Charlotte Weston examine the Cowichan & Wolastoqey decisions, challenge the Crown for their failure to address private property & Aboriginal title, & explore approaches to land and property rooted in Indigenous legal orders.
Art by Rande Cook
yellowheadinstitute.org/2026/all-roa...
![Fig. 1. Domestic dogs in the culture and society of Indigenous Coast Salish peoples.
(A) Coast Salish ancestral lands include the inner coastal waterways of the Salish Sea in southwest British Columbia and Washington State. Archaeological woolly dog data are from (2). Distribution of the Coast Salish languages in the 19th century are as indicated by colored areas. [The map is modified from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coast_Salish_language_map.svg and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.] (B) Woven Skokomish/Twana basket with woolly dog iconography, depicted with upturned tails. Woolly dog puppies are inside pens represented by diamond shapes (10) [courtesy of Burke Museum, catalog no. 1-507]. (C) Forensic reconstruction of a woolly dog based on Mutton’s pelt measurements and archaeological remains (9). Sketches of Arctic and spitz dog breeds are shown for scale and comparison of appearance and do not imply a genetic relationship.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lfgbxkojtpvx5mrlwfajfd2h/bafkreidllt33nkotrjhm4ds26utymbajnidqh6cyypcimt7jne4v2mdpbi)
![The influence of people on the woolly dog genome
Woolly dogs were treated as beloved extended family members. According to Debra qwasen Sparrow, a Musqueam Master Weaver, her grandfather [Ed Sparrow (1898–1998)] told her that “every village had [woolly dogs], that they were like gold because they were mixed with the mountain goat and then rove and spun” (9). Dogs also comprised a form of wealth and status for Coast Salish women, who carefully managed the dogs to maintain their woolly coats, isolating them on islands or in pens to strictly manage their breeding (9, 17, 23). Island names often reflect their connection with dogs, such as “sqwiqwmi’” (“Little Dog”) village on Cameron Island in Nanaimo, Snuneymuxw territory, BC. The prevention of interbreeding wool dogs with hunting or village dogs was critical for maintaining their distinct hair characteristics: soft guard hairs with an unusually long, crimpy undercoat (fig. S2), which was highly spinnable and could be made into warm blanket yarn. These management practices likely contributed to Mutton’s PCD ancestry long after the onset of settler colonialism.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lfgbxkojtpvx5mrlwfajfd2h/bafkreign6z5ta4jholahhv5y6zo7n36vwxwvyliyvq2b5xyjc46iufwlxi)
![Through these compounding waves of colonialism, the transmission of important knowledge relating to woolly dog husbandry and hair processing, spinning, and weaving was interrupted. Stó꞉lō Elder Rena Point Bolton, 95 years old in 2022, recalls how Th’etsimiya, her great-grandmother, had kept woolly dogs, but was forced to give them up: “They were told they couldn’t do their cultural things. There was the police, the Indian Agent and the priests. The dogs were not allowed. She had to get rid of the dogs” (9). The dogs represented high status and traditional practices that threatened British and later Canadian dominion and as such were removed through policies of assimilation (40–42). The weaving traditions were not completely lost, because many cultural teachings and types of expertise were carried on in secret. Bolton said: “Our people were not allowed to spin on shxwqáqelets [traditional spindle whorls]. They could spin on a European one but not on the shxwqáqelets. They couldn’t use their looms, and they would take them out and burn them or they would give them to museums or collectors … The generation that was there when the Europeans came and colonized us, that’s where it ended, and there [were] just a few people who went underground. And my grandmother and my mother were two of them” (9).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lfgbxkojtpvx5mrlwfajfd2h/bafkreiefeekvfs774bnrai6hyrdufzszptk4kytag2sipvtcq74xzbwo2u)