Last Updated on November 27, 2012 by Dennis
Wolf and Dog
In the time before the white settlers came, the Indians did not have the kind of dog they have now. They had Shle-kah, a gray-brown collie-like dog with long hair. No one seems to know where this dog came from. Some say he came from the far north. But a story is told by others.
Wolf and Coyote used to live together; Wolfe was head of the family. When food was scarce Coyote was sent to the Indian camps to pick up bones and scraps, and bring them home for food. This worked well for a while, but Coyote began to cheat. He would eat what he found and stay too long around camps, bringing very little home. Wolfe warned him saying: “You soon will lose your home with us if you cheat.” It did not help. Wolf followed him near to a camp one day and found Coyote roaming lazily around and eating what he found. That night Wolf said to Coyote: “Now I am through with you; hereafter you can stay by the camps and be Indian’s dog.” This may have been the ancestor of Shle-kah, the dog of whose hair the Indians made yarn and twine. Some tribes made blankets with the yarn. It was very desirable to get these dogs mated with the wolf. The resulting squeek-mie (pups) sometimes made fine hunting dogs. Some say that Wolf once used to live on the hill between Skabalko and Bah-quab.