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Tahltan (bear) dog

[< Tahltan an Athapascan people of N. W. British Columbia]

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a breed of small dog weighing 15 to 20 pounds and piebald in black and white or brown, found among the Indians of northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Mackenzie country.

See: bear dog

Quotations

1904

[Yukon locale] She [a Tahltan woman] believed she was a hundred and ten years old, yet she lived in her tent with only a Tahltan bear dog for company.

1956

It is natural . . . that a Tahltan dog should retain a strong instinct for hunting.

1963

Richardson’s Hare Indian Dog is undoubtedly of the same breed as those we find in B.C. and the Yukon. Here they are often called Tahltan Bear Dogs, because the Tahltan Indians used them in bear hunting; they even refer to them as “our” dogs.

1965

. . . I saw the Tahl-Tan Bear Dogs. They looked like a cross between a fox and a fox-terrier.