Only known woolly dog pelt returns to B.C. after more than 160 years

Atheana Picha, a member of the Kwantlen First Nation who is a weaver, views the pelt of a distinct breed of woolly dog that was once raised by Coast and Interior Salish peoples, while posing for a photograph at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER — The only known pelt of an extinct woolly dog, a species raised for its thick coat by Coast Salish and Makah peoples, has returned to British Columbia for the first time.

The pelt that belonged to Mutton, a canine companion of American naturalist George Gibbs, had been in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., since Mutton died in 1859.

It’s now on display at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver until next summer.

Well-known for their white, cloud-like coats, woolly dogs were bred by Coast Salish peoples for thousands of years and shorn like sheep for ceremonial blankets and textiles.

Debra Sparrow, a Musqueam weaver and artist, says in a statement that her grandfather told her every village used to have them, and they were valued like gold because of their hair, which was spun after being mixed with mountain goat wool.

Jordan Wilson, curator of Pacific Northwest and contemporary Indigenous art at the museum, says the pelt speaks to a species’ extinction, one of many profound impacts of settler colonialism.

“But it also speaks to the lives of our ancestors, their relationship with the more-than-human world, and their teachings and knowledge that continue to be passed forward,” Wilson says.

Gibbs participated in the four-year-long northwest boundary survey expedition in the late 1850s to map out the international land boundary between British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

It’s unclear how Gibbs obtained Mutton.

The University of British Columbia says in a statement that interest in woolly dogs is booming with a resurgence in Salish weaving, prompting researchers to study the textiles to understand the role the dogs played in Salish and Makah weaving traditions.

This report by Nono Shen, The Canadian Press, was first published Sept. 8, 2026.