This is a long post with lots of photos.  So if you are not interested in Indigenous history, fiber arts or paleontology, I would suggest you skip this post.

But first we returned to the farm after our trip.  The cows are enjoying access to the back “forty”.

Unfortunately the coyotes are enjoying it as well.

We having been trying to keep up with The American Revolution.  We have one more episode to go. I think I know how it turns out though.  But there was a portion that discussed George Washington’s insistence that his troops be vaccinated against smallpox.  It is thought that without this we would have lost this war.  But it also got me to thinking about why did the smallpox kill so many of our local people when the vaccination was known in the century prior.  The local Nuwhaha villages were devastated by smallpox in the 1830s.

On Friday I headed south to visit the Burke Museum.  But en route, I stopped to visit my ancestors’ graves.  This time it was purple flowers for decorations.

Currently there is the Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving exhibit at the Burke that I really wanted to see.  At the entrance were these garments.  On the left is Warrior’s Pride, a wool, badger fur and leather garment embellished by natural dyes and glass beads made by subiyay Bruce Miller (Skykomish) and Karen Skyki Reed (Puyallup) from 2002.  On the right is Woven Robe made from hand spun wool by Che top ie Frances James and Tsi’li’xw Bill James (both Lummi) from 2012.

They had examples of Tumplines with I hadn’t known about but are described here.

And here are examples of tumplines.  I think I need to learn how to make them.  They are gorgeous.

Here is a mountain goat wool blanket made by a Snohomish weaver.

But then was the presentation of Woolly Dogs. This was their description.

And this is the pelt of Mutton, the only known preserved Woolly Dog.  I had just finished reading the book The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog and continue to be completely fascinated by these dogs and their history  But to see Mutton in person was an incredible experience.  Of course, I wish I could touch him but seeing him is plenty.

Here is a transcript of an interview about the Woolly Dogs.

 

Here is a basket with depictions of wolves (on the upper edge), adult Woolly Dogs next to the humans, and Woolly dog puppies in their pens shown centrally.

They had a demonstration of the naturally dyes that have been used locally.

This is a Mountain goat wool woven blanket made by Lixwelut Mary Agnes Capiano (Squamish) pre-1939.

This shows the twine weave that was used on traditional blankets.  They also used plain weave and twill (which I am familiar with).  But this technique is new to me so I need to try it.

And they had a traditional style loom.  I had been confused by the original painting of the Indigenous weaving.  So this loom set up really helped me understand it.  The warp is looped around the as a continuous loop.  I love the carved embellishments.

They had spinning tools demonstrated as well.  They had beautifully decorated whorls.

The other fascinating thing is how the fiber was processed.  The dog fur and mountain goat wool was beaten on a mat with beating sticks and fired diatomaceous earth.  These sticks were decorated as well.

Here is a video of it Harriette Johnnie (Squamish) processing fiber in this way from 1928.

And spinning the fiber.  It sounds like they pulled the processed fiber into roving on their thighs and then spun it looping it over the ceiling beams or through a decorative support (shown a few photos down).

 

This is a ceremonial blanket made by a Cowichan weaver pre-1892.

Here are some weaving tools.

Here are spinning tools.

This is a Chiefly Tunic made from mountain goat and sheep’s wool by Willard “Buddy” Joseph (Squamish) in 2025.

This is a loom made by a Cowichan carver pre-1950.

That was the end of this exhibit.  Then there was the paleontology exhibits in the museum.

This is a Sockeye Salmon from 900,000 years ago.

This is a Columbian Mammoth from 11,000-12,000 years ago in Washington State.

This is a Giant Ground Sloth from 12,700 years ago from SeaTac.

This is a Triceratops from 66 million years ago from Montana.

This is a Tyrannosaurus rex skull from 66 million years ago from Montana.

This is a Allosaurus which is a distant relative of birds from 150 million years ago from Utah.

This is a Stegosaurus from 150 million years ago in Utah.

Then there was the indigenous history exhibit.  This is a Cedar bark hat.

This is a Coast Salish hunting canoe from 150-200 years ago from Green River, WA with contemporary Tule mats made by Elizabeth Swanaset KingGeorge (Nooksack) from 2023.

Here are some tools from Washington tribes from a variety of eras.

Here are examples of plants that were useful for local Native communities.  Camas are of particular interest to me because the prairie I live on was once a Camas meadow that was managed and harvested by the Nuwha’ha people.  I have tried to grow it here, but it keeps getting weed whacked by my husband.  But I am now determined to try again.

Here are examples of plants foods that were useful to Native people.

Here are hunting tools used.

Here are native possessions found on the University of Washington campus, Redmond and the Ballard locks.

This is a Cedar bark cape from ~1850.

There were comparisons to other cultures’ tools.  This is a basket made from spruce root, leather and fur made by a Tlingit artist in the Takutat region in the early 1800’s.

This is a newly commissioned piece to replace a stolen house post from the Tlingit people of Cape Fox.

 

Here are Native boxes stored in the museum.

This is a canoe of the Whonnock family from the late 19th century.

This is  loom from Ecuador.

This is a thung chai (basket boat) that the Hmong used to cross the Mekong River as they fled the Vietnam War.

More fiber related exhibits from around the world.

There was a Native language program running and when I looked up the word for Camas came up.  I was thrilled.

Here are the languages.

There were a couple of skeletons at the lower entrance to the museum that were quite impressive.

I did buy a great book from the gift shop.  I have long wanted to learn how to utilize some of the local plants on our property and the area.  This should help me.

They have some local plants outside of the museum including Camas.  Of course there was not much left of it this time of year, but it inspired me to order some bulbs to plant now.

I had a lovely dinner with my mom and stepdad, and then Mom and I headed back to the Burke for a screening of the Threads that Bind — The Story of the Woolly Dog movie.  And here are new heroes to me.  Left to right are Logan Kistler (curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History), Audrey Lin (postdoctoral fellow at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History), Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa (author of The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog) and Kirk French (anthropology professor and director of the CORVA lab, Penn State).  The first two were able to extract the DNA from Mutton and determine it was a precolonial dog with selective breeding of thousands of years.  Liz wrote the amazing book I just finished (and she liked my March of Fibres sweater I wore to prove you can spin dog fur to fly in the face of “experts” who said you couldn’t).  And of course the film’s producer.  It should be out next year and aired on PBS so stay tuned!

In the presentation it was mentioned there was a blanket there made of purely Woolly Dog fiber.

But a woman who apparently worked at the Burke told me that next to it was a cedar cape with what is thought to be Woolly Dog fiber.  That really got me excited.  I sure wish I could touch it.

So that was my trip to the Burke and my exploration of local history but particularly of the fascinating Woolly Dog.

P.S. I recently learned about Coast Salish Wool Weaving courses being offered by The Evergreen State College (my alma mater) and taught on the Tulalip Nation.  The course already began in the spring, but I am hoping they will repeat it and possibly I could participate.