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Editor-in-Chief: Sue Hamilton
Webmaster: Mark Hamilton
The Fan Hitch,
Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog, is published
four times a year. It is available at no
cost online at: https://thefanhitch.org.
The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.
Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org
This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.
Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org
This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
About The
Fan Hitch
We have been recreational mushers since 1972, first with Alaskan Malamutes and since 1996 only with our first Inuit Dogs. In the early 1980s we began visiting communities across Arctic Canada. All but two of our Inuit Dogs have come directly from the Canadian North either as puppies or adults, most of those as ‘retirees’ from traditional teams.
As a result of our interest in polar regions in general and traditional Inuit Dogs specifically, Sue co-founded the Inuit Sled Dog International in 1997. We then began publishing The Fan Hitch newsletter in July 1998 in both paper (with the March 2012 issue, we retired the nearly fifteen-year run of our subscription print edition) and electronic format. It grew in scope, evolving from a newsletter into the quarterly e-journal. The Journal was retired in March, 2018 and in July 2018 it was replaced by The Fan Hitch PostScript. Remaining in the same format as its predecessor, PostScript is published on a less demanding, irregular schedule.
In December 2012, due to mounting irreconcilable differences in vision and direction, we officially severed all affiliation with the Inuit Sled Dog International. We are now known as “The Fan Hitch, Website and Publications of the Inuit Sled Dog”.
The Fan Hitch moniker’s double entendre represents both the traditional way of hooking up Inuit Dogs to a qamutiq (sledge) as well as a place where people of all interests and backgrounds gather to search for information and share experiences and expertise on a wide variety of topics relating to the Inuit Dog. Several contributed articles have won awards for both prose and poetry, and the publication itself has won the Dog Writers’ Association of America’s “Best Newsletter” on its first (and only) submission.
Access to this website has always been unrestricted and free. No dues are required to “belong”, no passwords necessary to access any web pages, nor are donations solicited. Over the past twenty-plus years thefanhitch.org, considered a passionate grass roots endeavor, has evolved from just a place to read the quarterly publication to a compendium of broadly informational resources not only about the Inuit Dog’s history, present and future but also Inuit culture and tradition, since it is impossible to separate the People from their dogs. A visit to our Subject Index will reveal the breadth and width of material published since 1998, much of which has been unselfishly contributed by folks who have made our website and publications an informative and useful resource for educators, research scientists, medical (veterinary and human) and legal professionals, authors, filmmakers, explorers both past and present, the media, governments and of course Inuit Dog enthusiasts, some of whom do not even own one.
As we consider the authentic working Inuit Dog to be an aboriginal landrace and not a kennel club registered cultured breed, stories about dog show wins or dogs as “pets” have no place here. If you are just discovering the Inuit Dog or are a new visitor to thefanhitch.org you might want to start your exploration of our web pages by first reading “Defining the Inuit Dog” where you will read our frank position in greater detail in the form of a rather broad discussion of this aboriginal landrace dog.
The Fan Hitch website encourages your questions, comments and suggestions. Whatever inquiries we cannot answer can usually be directed to one or more of a wide-ranging roster of personal and professional contacts who have demonstrated an eager and unselfish willingness to assist. Their generous support has been instrumental in making this website become the “fan hitch” that it is!
Article submissions to The Fan Hitch PostScript are welcome for consideration. For first time contributors, a letter of self-introduction should be the first step so that writers can be familiarized with the PostScript’s modest requirements.
Updated:
January 2021
Our contact information:
The Fan Hitch,
Website and Publications
of the Inuit Sled Dog Sue Hamilton, publisher/editor Mark Hamilton, webmaster 55 Town Line Road Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA 860-485-9088 mail@thefanhitch.org |
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