ArchaeoCafé - Episode 2-25 - Wool dogs: An interview with Dylan Hillis and Denis St. Claire

In this episode I talk with Dylan Hillis and Denis St. Claire about Wool Dogs on the northwest coast of North America, using dog remains to study human diets, and using oral history to study the past.

Episode notes are available on the ArchaeoCafé website.
http://archaeocafe.kvasirpublishing.com/archaeocafe-podcast-ep-225-hillis-st-claire

About Dylan Hillis

Dylan Hillis is a graduate student at the University of Victoria. His previous research looked at dietary variation in ancient domestic dogs on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. At present, he is investigating ocean temperature change over the last several thousand years in the Northeast Pacific using zooarchaeological data. Specifically, he is interested in how ancient fish populations responded to dynamic ocean temperatures in the deep past, how fish populations will likely respond to a warming ocean in the current context of a climate crisis, and importantly, what this means for the food security of coastal communities along the British Columbia coast.

Web:
https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/anthropology/people/graduate-students/profiles/hillisdylan.php
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dylan-Hillis/research
https://independent.academia.edu/DylanHillis
https://www.nsercresnet.ca/dylan-hillis.html

About Denis St. Claire

Denis St. Claire is an ethnohistorian and archaeologist with over 40 years of research experience in Barkley Sound (British Columbia, Canada). He is an adopted member of Tseshaht First Nation (Port Alberni, B.C.). He is also proprietor of Coast Heritage Consulting based in Victoria, B.C.

Web:
https://independent.academia.edu/DenisStClaire
https://canadianarchaeology.com/caa/about/awards/recipients/margaret-and-james-f-pendergast-award/denis-st-claire
https://hashilthsa.com/news/2013-05-27/st-claire-earns-national-honors-work-nuu-chah-nulth

Some useful terminology and links

Wool Dog
A.K.A. Salish Wool Dog or Comox dog. An extinct breed of white, long-haired, Spitz-type dog that was developed and bred by the Coast Salish peoples of what is now Washington state and British Columbia. Their fur was prized for making the famous and rare "Salish" blankets, as the Salish peoples did not have sheep and wild mountain goat wool was difficult to gather.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Wool_Dog

Coast Salish
A group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coast Salish languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Salish

Selected reading

Ancient dog diets on the Pacific northwest coast: zooarchaeological and stable isotope modelling evidence from tseshaht territory and beyond
by Dylan Hillis, Iain McKechnie, Eric Guiry, Denis E. St. Claire, and Chris T. Darimont
Scientific Reports, 2020, vol. 10, article number 15630.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71574-x

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