26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 56 
The hairless dogs of Mexico, Peru, and South America, of several 
kinds, existed there when the Spaniards landed, according to various 
accounts.! All Peruvian dogs are said to have been derived from 
the Inca shepherd dog.2 The Eskimo dog was described as early as 
1647, and in various parts of the north polar region, races or tribes have 
developed quite different systems of calls for the direction of their dog 
teams, indicating long use.* The Flatheads,* Menomini,® and many 
other Indians mention dogs in their myths, but unless we know the 
age of the myths, which may have incorporated references to the 
dog after the invasion of the whites, they are of little value im this 
connection. The Pima have a myth giving the origin of the horse,® 
which was surely introduced. However, it is not likely that such a 
myth as the white dog and woman myth’ could be so widespread 
unless very ancient. 
McGee ® says: 
It is significant that the Dakota word for horse (suk-layn’-ka or Suy-ka’-wa-kay) 
is composed of the word for dog (su9’-ka), with an affix indicating greatness, sacredness 
or mystery ...and that several terms for harness and other appurtenances 
correspond with those used for the gear of the dog when used as a draft animal. This 
terminology corroborates the direct evidence that the dog was domesticated by the 
Siouan aborigines long before the advent of the horse. 
Bones of dogs have been reported from the ancient kitchen-middens 
of the Atlantic coast, and bones of other animals apparently bearmg 
the tooth-marks of dogs.° 
The De Soto expedition in 1539-1542, within half a century after 
the landing of Columbus, at an Indian village in the mountains of 
Georgia or South Carolina was ‘‘welcomed in a friendly manner, the 
Indians giving them a little corn and many wild turkeys, together 
with some dogs of a peculiar small species, which were bred for eating 
purposes and did not bark.” '° 
In the reports of the Coronado expedition to the Southwest from 
1540 to 1542, the same period covered by De Soto in the Southeast, 
dogs were reported in abundant use as beasts of burden by the 
Indians of the Staked Plains and elsewhere." 
1 Lockington, W. N., The Riverside Natural History, article on Carnivore. 
2 Brinton, Daniel G., The American Race, p. 212, 1891. 
3 Langkavel, B., Dogs and Savages, Smithsonian Rep. for 1898, p. 659-60, 1899. 
4 Ibid., p. 651. 
5 Hoffman, Walter James, The Menomini Indians, Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt. I, 
pp. 179-194, 1896. 
6 Russell, Frank, The Pima Indians, T'wenty-sitth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 241, 1908. 
7 Dorsey, George A., and Kroeber, Alfred L., Traditions of the Arapaho, Pub. no. 81, Field Columbian 
Museum, V, pp. 207-09, 1903. 
8 McGee, W J, Siouan Indians, Fifteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 174, 1897. 
§ Marquis de Nadaillac, Pre-historic America, pp. 49-50, 535, 1895. 
10 Mooney, James, Myths of the Cherokee, Nineteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt. i, p. 25, 1900 
(quoting Ranjel). 
ll Langkavel, B., op. cit., p. 661. Winship, George Parker, The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542, Four- 
teenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt.1, pp. 401, 405, 504, 507, 527, 570, 578, 1896. 
