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Program ‘increases the sense of belonging for students of Indigenous ancestry’

A little-known dog lineage with fur so thick it was spun into blankets was selectively bred for millennia by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest until its rapid demise following European colonization, a study in Science showed Thursday.

​ The dogs occupied a previously underappreciated high-status in Indigenous societies, which revered the animals as members of the family and adorned their most treasured items with their emblem.

This groundbreaking discovery suggests that Coast Salish communities preserved the distinct genetic traits of woolly dogs until shortly before their extinction.

<p>Researchers from the <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/">Smithsonian&rsquo;s National Museum of Natural History</a> led a new analysis that sheds light on the ancestry and genetics of woolly dogs, a now extinct breed of dog that was a fixture of Indigenous Coast Salish communities in the Pacific Northwest for millennia. Anthropologist <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/staff/logan-kistler">Logan Kistler</a> and evolutionary molecular biologist Audrey Lin analyzed genetic clues preserved in the pelt of &ldquo;Mutton,&rdqu...