The Fan Hitch   Volume 16, Number 1, December 2013

          Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog                                    
In This Issue....

From the Editor: The Season for Sharing and Giving

Investigation of the pre-Columbian Ancestry of Today's Dogs of the Americas

Raising Eskimo Dog Puppies for Use in a Fan Hitch
 
Stareek and Tsigane

In the News

Baker Lake, Nunavut and the Canadian Animal Assistance Team (CAAT)

The End of the Beginning: The First Five Years of Veterinary Services in Baker Lake, Nunavut

Fan Mail

Book Review: The Meaning of Ice

IMHO: Finding Purpose in Retirement

Navigating This Site

Index of articles by subject

Index of back issues by volume number

Search The Fan Hitch


Articles to download and print

Ordering Ken MacRury's Thesis

Our comprehensive list of resources

Defining the Inuit Dog


Talk to The Fan Hitch

The Fan Hitch home page

Editor's/Publisher's Statement
Editor: 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.
From the Editor....
The Season for Sharing and Giving

This season of holidays holds different meanings for different folks, but there’s no denying that it is also known as one for sharing and giving. Even with December weeks and weeks away, the tempo of life seemed to have picked up a notch or two in anticipation. Yet despite the quickened pace of day-to-day activities contributors to the December issue of The Fan Hitch took the time from their already busy schedules to share their gifts of knowledge, expertise and experiences.

Evolutionary biologist Dr. Peter Savolainen has been most generous in giving us, in layperson’s terms, an explanation of his recently published research that included analyses of Inuit Dog DNA. “Qimmiliriji” (The Dog Man) a.k.a. William (Bill) Carpenter explains his perspective on nomenclature and shares with us how he raised and trained his Eskimo Dog puppies to work in the fan hitch formation. Retired British Antarctic “doggy man” Peter Gibbs keeps the memory of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration alive with a vignette about two hard working huskies. Chris Robinson is the Canadian Animal Assistance Team (CAAT) Executive Director. Sue MacIsaac helped create Baker Lake, Nunavut’s “The Buddy Fund”, a group of dedicated volunteers who supported in so many ways CAAT’s visits there. In their articles they review the evolution of CAAT’s annual wellness clinics to this community, the goals that were set and achieved over the five-year program including how CAAT’s good works has positively impacted on the needs of the community’s residents, dogs (and other animals) and the perceptions of their owners. Chris and Sue have given so much of their time and energies to the people and animals of Baker Lake and now they wish to share the success of the program as a possible model for other northern communities.

And then there is the “ginormous” act of sharing of an immeasurable wealth of knowledge by scores and scores of northerners – a five-year project that was consummated by the creation of the magnificent volume known as The Meaning of Ice! This compendium details the many ways the sea ice has been so intimately connected to the lives of the people who have used it for centuries as their superhighway and life source. The richness of information in The Meaning of Ice is truly a great gift to those of us who desire to more completely understand what it means to live in the North.

I am enormously thankful for these gifts from contributors to the December issue (as I am for all contributors year ‘round) of The Fan Hitch as it begins its sixteenth year!

Wishing you smooth ice and narrow leads,
                Sue
Return to top of page