Teit foto 1915; In Teit's (pronounced "Tate") own words, the below foto is of a "Thorough Bred Bear Dog"...Oh, to see the whole of the dog at left in foto (alas...we have only an ear & a mane...)... Teit Foto 1915 ; Mary Jackson & Charley Quash Fox-faced, short eared...& look at that tail! "Nanaook Edzerza Marten Trapping Party" 1926; Photo: BC Archives; in the right hand corner of the foto, an enigmatic (& now extinct) Tahltan Bear Dog rounds the corner! I spend quite a lot of time as an armchair caninologist, day-after-day hunting through archives, manuscripts, libraries...you name it... for rare images of even rarer dogs. The above are indisputably Tahltan Bear Dogs, the fotos of which you may never have seen before. Extinct now & enigmatic a century ago! As regards the Teit fotos, I'd been searching specifically for the original fotos/negatives...& I found em! I knew, after reading his comments regarding there being "not more than 2 or 3" in 1919...with a likelihood that they'd be "extinct by the 1930s", there had to be more than 1 original foto of these dogs-as Teit not only lived with the Tahltans...he married into the people themselves, thereby having a unique access & commitment to the gorgeous culture of the Natives of Northern British Columbia. Certainly, while Teit documented his adopted people in fotografs, in the very least the dogs might appear not only as direct subject-matter but in the background/s as well, and they do! Who was James Teit (he spelled his surname "Tait" until 1884 & converted it to the Nordic spelling "Teit" thereafter)? Freckled & robins-egg-blue-eyed...sensitive, liberal, passionate & energetic, he was the Canadian ethnomusicologist of the 20th century (in terms of preservation of indigenous song of coastal people). His grand efforts live on in the wax-cylinders which preserve North Coastal Indigenous music & songs. (I have included an audio sample of his efforts at the bottom of this armchair study) & in the materials he collected, his output was nothing short of massive. Teit's fate unfurled in 1883, when his rather wealthy, entrepreneurial, maternal uncle, John Murray -who lived in Spence's Bridge, British Columbia (see fotos) , made an inquiry to Teit's parents- at home in the Shetland Islands-it was an inquiry of fortuitous scope! Would one of their children be interested in assuming responsibility for Murray's general store? 19 year-old James Teit was all-in, arriving in March-1884 at Spence's Bridge. It did not take long for Teit to steep himself in the culture & on September 1, 1892, Teit was married to Susannah Lucy Antko (a member of the Spence's Bridge Band, a division of the Nlaka 'pamux) (see foto). Unfortunately, Lucy died of pneumonia in 1899. Yet, Teit remained in Spence's Bridge, marrying Leonie Josephine Morens (of a local French pioneer family) in 1904, he was 40, she was 23. They had 6 children (5 of whom survived): Erik 1905; Inga 1907; Magnus 1909; Rolf 1912; Sigurd 1915; & Thorald 1919. Fluent in 3 indigenous languages Nlaka’pamux, Secwepemc and Okanagan (Syilx), Teit often facilitated delegations on behalf of native peoples, explaining convoluted western legalese to them while beating the ever-dead-horse cause of equal rights for all. His ethnografic work for & in conjunction with Franz Boas is vast & voluminous...as if he were driven by a gripping force...one beyond his inclination towards socialism & free-thinking equality...perhaps it was rather that he saw a great & grand people diminishing before his very eyes & he was in a race, if not to arrest the vanishing, to preserve the ancient traditions. The Teit family lived in Spence's Bridge until moving to Merritt, British Columbia in 1919. The Morens/Teit family burial ground remains in Spence's Bridge to this day, with at least 3 of the Teit children resting there. The historic Morens home/orchard (which operated most recently as "Hilltop Farms") burnt to the ground in 2018. Now that we know some of the familial details of the Teit family...lets proceed to this sensitive Norwegian's description of the Tahltan Bear Dogs: He first describes them in 1919 at Telegraph Creek, BC (160 miles upriver from Wrangell) (of Dwarf Woolly Mammoth 3500 years-ago fame). Not until James Teit's research at Telegraph Creek were Tahltan Bear Dogs recognized as a distinct, culturally important breed. He refers to the dog in the foto at the top of this post as "Thorough Bred"...was which the common vernacular for indicating purebred status at the time. That he went out of his way to fotograf the dogs in fotos 1 & 2 above...& refer to 1 as "Thorough Bred" indicates that while there may have been countless small, hairy Bear Dog types around...this one was distinctly a purebred. This reference was important to Teit, who was witnessing pending (& accelerated) extinctions of all-sorts. In roughly 1939, the efforts of British Columbia Provincial Police Commissioner T.W.S. Parsons (see fotos of he & one of his dogs) and Constable J.B. Gray (who were both posted at Telegraph Creek) compelled CKC's 1941 recognition of the breed, and several years later, the American Kennel Club added them to their list as well. J.B. Gray acquired roughly 10 Tahltan Bear Dogs during his tenure at Telegraph Creek between 1936-1940 & later, one Harriet Morgan of Windsor, Ontario attempted to steward the breed along...yet, by 1975, only 6 purebred Tahltans remained...& in 1979 the Canadian Kennel Club rescinded breed registration of the Tahltan Bear Dog....& in the same year, the last known, purebred Tahltan Bear Dog died. Just. Like. That. One can almost hear it. I hunt for fotos, engravings, art, etc.. because our emotional structure is strangely & more honestly bound to dogs than it is to our fellow human beings. This distilled droplet of truth reveals the intrinsic necessity of dogs in our lives...past, present & future. Their roles may change, but their rule shall never. When we commence to take living beings out of their rightful tenure in an extremely specific environment (& use in that environ)...we change things detrimentally. Forever. The Tahltan, by foto, presents in classic "Bering-Strait-crosser-Spitzy" phenotpye: erect ears, often Irish-marked & purported to be operatically "yippy". They were known (& valued) for identifying their quarry with yaps, yodels, chortles & the like...what sets them apart are their short (ish) tails...often described as resembling a shaving brush. The most famous Tahltan is the subject of a book written by none other than John Muir...titled "Stickeen"...from the location & peoples of which he came, Muir describes him as follows: "Nobody could hope to unravel the lines of his ancestry. In all the wonderfully mixed and varied dog-tribe I never saw any creature very much like him, though in some of his sly, soft, gliding motions and gestures he brought the fox to mind. He was short-legged and bunch-bodied, and his hair, though smooth, was long and silky and slightly waved, so that when the wind was at his back it ruffled, making him look shaggy. At first sight his only noticeable feature was his fine tail, which was about as airy and shady as a squirrel's , and was carried curling forward almost to his nose. On closer inspection you might notice his thin sensitive ears, and sharp eyes with cunning tan-spots above them. Mr. Young told me that when the little fellow was a pup about the size of a woodrat he was presented to his wife by an Irish prospector at Sitka, and that on his arrival at Fort Wrangell he was adopted with enthusiasm by the Stickeen Indians as a sort of new good-luck totem, was named "Stickeen" for the tribe, and became a universal favorite; petted, protected, and admired wherever he went, and regarded as a mysterious fountain of wisdom. On our trip he soon proved himself a queer character--odd, concealed, independent, keeping invincibly quiet, and doing many little puzzling things that piqued my curiosity. As we sailed week after week through the long intricate channels and inlets among the innumerable islands and mountains of the coast, he spent most of the dull days in sluggish ease, motionless, and apparently as unobserving as if in deep sleep. But I discovered that somehow he always knew what was going on. When the Indians were about to shoot at ducks or seals, or when anything along the shore was exciting our attention, he would rest his chin on the edge of the canoe and calmly look out like a dreamy-eyed tourist. And when he heard us talking about making a landing, he immediately roused himself to see what sort of a place we were coming to, and made ready to jump overboard and swim ashore as soon as the canoe neared the bench. Then, with a vigorous shake to get rid of the brine in his hair, he ran into the woods to hunt small game. But though always the first out of the canoe, he was always the last to get into it. When we were ready to start he could never be found, and refused to come to our call. We soon found out, however, that though we could not see him at such times, he saw us, and from the cover of the briers and huckleberry bushes in the fringe of the woods was watching the canoe with wary eye. For as soon as we were fairly off he came trotting down the beach, plunged into the surf, and swam after us, knowing well that we would cease rowing and take him in. When the contrary little vagabond came alongside, he was lifted by the neck, held at arm's length a moment to drip, and dropped aboard. We tried to cure him of this trick by compelling him to swim a long way, as if we had a mind to abandon him; but this did no good; the longer the swim the better he seemed to like it." Stickeen is described as having tan markings above the eye & was therefore a black & tan. Unfortunately, he was later stolen by a tourist...& we hear no more of the intrepid dog. (Sources;Banks 1970:43; Wickwire 1988:185; Canadian Museum of History); Dr. Wickwire's book on Teit "At the Bridge", can be purchased on Amazon...
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorHowl-O! I'm Julia Jensen- devoted student of dogs & religious sampler of cheesecake, wheat beer, huehuetenango coffee & almost any chocolate out there. I indulge these fancies & more, in the remote silence of the pacific NW. *PLEASE NOTE* The videos selected for bloghism could be construed as "disturbing" to those of certain bents, sensitivities, natures, mind-sets, etc.. I have a distinct interest in relaying footage of dogs doing what they have been doing for centuries....& in some cases, I also include dog show footage just as a matter of interest. If you do not like my selections, by all means, do not view them. Archives
June 2024
Categories |