Rez dog (short for reservation dog) is usually a term for
outdoor, stray, and feral dogs living on
Native reservations in the United States and
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...
s in Canada. The term has taken on many
connotation
A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.
A connotation is frequently described as either positive or ...
s, and has to some extent become an emblem of and metaphor for reservations/reserves, life on them, and indigenous North Americans in general. For example, a "rez dog" may refer to a resident of indigenous lands.
The distinction between a rez dog and dogs in general is often seen as emblematic of the difference between
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology)
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
and
majority culture ways of life. Untended dogs roaming indigenous lands cause problems that the communities must deal with. The dogs are generally thought of as mixed-breed and unsupervised.
In commerce and literature
A clothing company, "Rez Dog Clothing", has adopted the persona of reservation dogs.
The narrator of two chapters of ''
Antelope Woman'', by novelist
Louise Erdrich
Karen Louise Erdrich ( ; born June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dako ...
, is described as being part
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...
reservation dog, part
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
*Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language
Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of ...
dog, and part
coyote
The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
.
See also
*
Carolina Dog
*
Native American dogs
Native American dogs, or Pre-Columbian dogs, were dogs living with people indigenous to the Americas. Arriving about 10,000 years ago alongside Paleo-Indians, today they make up a fraction of dog breeds that range from the Alaskan Malamute to the ...
*
Pariah dog
Pye-dog, Desi Kutta or sometimes pariah dog, is a term used to describe an ownerless, half-wild, free-ranging dog that lives in or close to human settlements throughout Asia. The term is derived from the Sanskrit ''para'', which translates to "o ...
*
Mixed-breed dog
A mongrel, mutt, or mixed-breed dog is a dog that does not belong to one officially recognized Dog breed, breed, including those that result from intentional Dog breeding, breeding. Although the term ''mixed-breed dog'' is sometimes preferred, m ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rez Dog
American Indian reservations
Feral dogs
Native American slang