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The Fan Hitch, Journal of
the Inuit Sled Dog, is published four times
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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. |
Media Review.... People of
the Seal, Part 2
an archival documentary film reviewed by Sue Hamilton The history of mushing did not begin with the Alaskan gold rush or during the Serum Run era, as some have described, any more than the history of the wheel began with the horse and buggy. All too often it seems that sled dog "historians" may (or may not) offer paltry lip service to or acknowledgement of Inuit contributions and ingenuity regarding the origin of dog powered transportation on snow. The use of dogs for pulling begins with the creation of the device to which the dogs are attached. According to Ken MacRury's master's thesis, The Inuit Dog: Its Provenance, Environment and History, North American archaeologists found sled parts attributed to the Thule culture (ancestors of today's Inuit) dating back to 800 BP (Before Present: dating scale now used by archaeologists was established 1950 as the origin year for the BP scale. The year 1950 was chosen because it is the year in which calibration curves for radiocarbon dating were established. Wikipedia) And so, long before carbon fiber components and quick-change runners common to today's world of sled dog racing, the ancestors of today's circumpolar Inuit built their qamutiit (sleds) out of animal parts. Fortunately the fabrication of this ingenious design has been recorded for posterity and is available from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The NFB has a massive collection of documentaries about the Netsilik Inuit, also referred to as the "People of the Seal", and there's one in particular (actually it is the second of a two-part series, filmed in 1965) that meticulously recorded the creation of a qamutiq, made entirely of materials harvested from land and sea. The Fan Hitch is enormously grateful to the NFB for granting us permission to publish screen captures from this documentary so readers can see the steps involved in the process.
People of the Seal, Part 2: Eskimo Winter is available in Canada as a DVD for $19.95 CAD plus shipping. For availability in other countries, please call 1-800-267-7710 or 1-514-283-9000 (Montreal, Canada) or write: National Film Board of Canada, Sales and Customer Service, D-10 PO Box 6100, Station Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3H5, Canada. You may email your inquiry by using the form on the NFB's "contact us" page. |