No canine Rolfes and Pocahontases

It’s heartening to imagine that when the hounded English ‘Pilgrims’ landed in the New World in the early 17th century from Europe, their faithful Fidos, Rovers or whatever dogs were named back then, were right there beside them, tails wagging.

In fact, the ship Mayflower records that two dogs were also on board though their names, unfortunately, remain unknown. The French Huguenots who preceded the English to the New World definitely brought along their Fifis, Mimis and Leos too.

We know what the expansionist European colonists did to the indigenous human population of the Americas. But according to the largest-ever study of ancient and modern dog DNA in North America and Siberia, the ones who came over from Europe wrought far more havoc: their arrival led to the extinction of the entire native American canine population, who were descendants of Asian breeds.


While many John Rolfes wedded local Pocahontases (nearly 50% of Huguenots too had inter-racial marriages by the 18th century), no DNA overlap between the dogs of the two continents suggests total segregation. What kept those ‘furriners’ away from comely locals when their masters succumbed is moot.

However, as a type of canine cancer cell can be traced back to them, those extinct native dogs certainly appear to have had the last woof.