Pre-Colombian Canines: America’s First Dogs...
BY DAN SAYERS continued
Hauling seals in winter was one of the duties of the Inuit dogs in the Arctic North.
The dogs of the Assiniboin people pursued wounded Bison on the open prairie.
work of hauling supplies was the joint responsibility of both women and dogs. “They had no horses, and all their pos- sessions were loaded on dog travois and on the backs of women,” recorded de Bourgmont. Together, this labor force moved provisions over great distances in the harshest of climates and made life possible above the Arctic Circle. SOUTHERN MIGRATION “In about A.D. 800, a group of Ast- hapaskan speakers migrated from the western subarctic to the Southern Plains,” notes Schwartz of the peoples who brought backpacking dogs with them on their journey south. As stated by the author, the archaeological record indicates that only small dogs were present in the Southwest prior to this time period. According to Schwartz, “This evidence confirms that the north- erners brought their working dogs with them.” The immigrants also brought along their cultural and linguistic tra- ditions that helped to develop new nations such as the Navaho and the Apache. “In 1599 a Spaniard named Zaldivar witnessed the nomads, prob- ably Apache, with medium-sized shaggy dogs,” writes Schwartz of the 17th cen- tury chronicler. “They drive great trains of them,” the European recorded of the native peoples’ penchant for using dogs to carry supplies. “Each, girt ‘round its breast and haunches, carrying a load of flour at least one hundred pounds, travels as fast as his master.” Schwartz suggests that in all likelihood, this kind of weight was typically dragged by the dogs rather than carried. Such heavy loads would have required dogs bigger and stronger than those found in cen- tral North America. “Early travelers on the Great Plains frequently remarked on the resemblance between native
possessing “straight wide faces, heavy, but not short legs and ears that stood erect like those of a coyote… and their tails curved upward somewhat at the end, not like a coyote’s which lies straight.” By the time this particular account was written, dogs imported from Europe had further hybridized the local dogs and wolf-dog hybrids. This interbreeding of Old and New World canines provided new uses for the domesticated dogs of North America. DIVERSITY IN CALIFORNIA “At the time of contact, California was inhabited by people of diverse cul- tural and linguistic origin living side- by-side but maintaining separate ways of life,” Schwartz writes of the distinct cultures of the West Coast’s original human inhabitants. Perhaps not sur- prisingly, the role of the dog varied considerably among local communities. “Apparently, dogs were rare or absent in the area around San Francisco Bay,” the author notes. “Where present, dogs often received special treatment, being buried ‘like persons,’ given dog houses, and allowed to reside with owners.” Many of the dogs discovered in Cali- fornia were described by one Yurok source as “collie-sized, spotted black and white, with erect ears and no bark.” As noted by Schwartz, “They were imported from the North in small num- bers before European settlement.” Small dogs were also common in California. These are recorded as having been use- ful for catching squirrels and tracking rabbits to their burrow. The larger dogs were used to hunt fox. According to the author, not every group of people used dogs for hunting. In fact, a few communities used them as a source of food. “The southern Yokut raised dogs primarily for that purpose, considering
dogs and coyotes and wolves,” notes the author. “It appears that on the Plains, to a much greater degree than else- where, native dogs received frequent influxes of wolf blood—with or with- out the connivance of people.” These hybrid dogs were likely better suited to pursue the herds of elk and bison that were able to withstand the region’s extremely hot summers and threaten- ingly cold winters. INCREASED CROSSBREEDING Among the first Europeans to set foot in the New World, fur trappers and market hunters provided raw material for the domestic and overseas markets. These men worked the waterways of the Great Lakes and their tributaries where they became familiar with the dogs entrusted to the care of local wom- en. In her book, Schwartz shares a story told to ethnographer Gilbert Wilson by a Hidatsa woman. “From her story a pic- ture emerges of a well-trained work ani- mal highly valued by society as a whole and by women in particular,” the author shares. Through the telling of her story, Buffalo-Bird-Woman reveals that it was the job of women to see that their dogs were trained, fed and relieved. As retold in Schwartz’s book, “To produce good working dogs, Hidatsa women would select from a given litter three or four of the largest puppies. The rest would be killed to keep the bitch in good con- dition. Most male dogs were castrated.” The author notes that the women spent roughly four days training a dog to pull a travois by gradually increasing the load. “Four dogs were enough for the work required, and animals too old or too young to work were also kept in the lodge,” she writes. Various 19th- century reports describe these dogs as
42 • S how S ight M agazine , N ovember 2018
Powered by FlippingBook