Defining
the Inuit Dog
Canis familiaris borealis by Sue Hamilton © December 2011, The Fan Hitch, all rights reserved revised: January 2014 I.
Introduction
A.
The
Inuit Dog’s place in the natural world
B. The Inuit Dog is not a wolf! C. Dangerous confusion A. The Name Controversy
B. Defining 'Purity' C. Mistaken Identity: Promoting a breed vs. avoiding extinction D. The Belyaev Experiment E. Summary A. Ancient
history
B. Recent history: The Inuit Dog in service to nations 1. Exploration
2. War 3. Sovereignty C.
Population
decline
A. In the North
B. Below the tree line A.
Inherited
diseases
B. Disease prevention and access to veterinary services A.
Appearance
VII. The Inuit Dog in
Scientific Research, Films andB. Behavior C. Performance D. The big picture in Print VIII. Acknowledgements Appendix 1: Partial list of scientific publications about the Inuit Dog Appendix 2: Selected (alphabetical) list of other resources with a focus on Inuit Dogs Appendix 3: A small sampling of other resources of interest Navigating This Site Index of articles by subject Index of back issues by volume number Search The Fan Hitch Articles to download and print Defining the Inuit Dog Ordering Ken MacRury's Thesis Our comprehensive list of resources About The Fan Hitch Talk to The Fan Hitch The Fan Hitch home page
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III.
History A. Ancient history ![]() Inuit Migration from Alaska across Canada to Greenland The Inuit Dog,
considered to be about 4,000 years-old, dating back
to the paleoinuit culture, originally accompanied
humans across the Bering Strait, eventually
migrating to Greenland. However, it wasn’t until
about 800 BP, in the period of the Thule culture,
that archaeologists identified sled runners and
harness material. Therefore it is believed that in
between these two time periods the Independence I,
Pre-Dorset, Independence II and Dorset cultures used
this primitive aboriginal dog not as a sledge dog
but as a hunting partner and defender from polar
bears1. One must not assume
the Inuit Sled Dog to be only the aboriginal sledge
dog of the circumpolar north based on its name
alone, for it possessed other essential skills as
well. Many characteristics: scent locating seal
breathing holes (aglu) and birthing lairs, tracking
and catching prey wounded by hunters, alerting
hunters and family encampments to the presence of
bears and then keeping these large predators at bay,
carrying belongings on their backs in summer and
hauling a heavily laden qamutiq (sledge) over snow
and ice covered surfaces, along with their legendary
resilience to hardships, have credited the Inuit Dog
as being the principal reason for the survival of
the ancestors of today’s modern Inuit2, including into the
mid-twentieth century, at which time the lives of
these hunters, already affected by the presence of
the outside world, began to dramatically
change.
![]() Looking for seal pups in a birthing lair Photo: Doug E. Wilkinson; N-1979-05 /NWT archives; courtesy of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre 1. Exploration Arctic
explorers
came to the North eager to gain notoriety and
favor by mapping, naming and claiming arctic
territory for their homeland’s sovereigns. They
also sought to find the fabled Northwest
Passage. Others searched for fame as the first
to reach the geographic North Pole.
Missionaries, as well, came to establish their
religious domination by "converting the pagan
aboriginals" to their church’s denominations.
Fur traders, seeking their own version of
fortune for themselves and the companies they
represented established trading posts to
encourage Inuit to bring in as many fox and
other pelts as could be trapped. It was through
these foreigners, who traveled across the
barrens by dog team, that the legendary strength
and endurance of the Inuit Sled Dog was made
known to the outside world.
![]() The Hobbits, a
British Antarctic Survey dog team, sledging on sea ice
Painting by Mike Skidmore When
polar exploration headed south, the Inuit Dog's
reputation made it the choice (although not exclusive to
every expedition or nationality) of Australia, New
Zealand, France and Great Britain who established
Antarctic bases in the early 20th century. Beginning in
the 1940s, the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey
(FIDS), now called the British Antarctic Survey (BAS),
began the golden era of Antarctic exploration and
scientific investigation. Much of the early knowledge
gained, still invaluable to this day, was made possible
thanks to the endurance and stamina of "British
Antarctic Huskies" – Inuit Sled Dogs3.
Due to political maneuvering associated with the Madrid Protocol, all non-indigenous life (except human) was banned from the continent as of April 1994. Save for a very few BAS huskies that were "repatriated" to their homeland in Arctic Quebec (Nunavik), the British government ordered the doggy men, many of whom who owed their lives to the dogs, to shoot these loyal companions. The remorse and bitterness over this act has not lessened over time. Nearly fifty years since some of these "Fids", as they are still nostalgically called, sledged across the continent, they still show fierce loyalty and respect for their dogs.4 The British Antarctic Husky Memorial was created to honor these dogs so that their contributions will never be forgotten. Sadly, the dogs returned to Arctic Quebec died and no animals can be traced back to the BAS dogs, thus losing a valuable and unique genetic population of Inuit Sled Dogs. There is, however, a possibility that frozen semen from one of the dogs returned to Canada is currently in storage5. 2. War The
original establishment of a British presence in Antarctica
was part of the wartime (WWII) effort, Operation Tabarin.
But Inuit Dogs were "recruited" with plans to use them in
Europe as well. In his article, Sled
Dogs in His Majesty's Service: Clark's Eskimo Dogs in
World War II, Charles L. Dean, author of Soldiers and Sled Dogs: A
History of Military Mushing, describes how
in 1942 the British military arranged for the purchase of
Inuit Dogs from Ed Clark of Lincoln, New Hampshire. These
dogs were sent to both Iceland and Scotland, destined to
work in Norway.
3. Sovereignty In
post-war Greenland, with the cold
war heating up, the Danish
government established a secret
military sledge dog patrol, code
name "Operation Resolute". Three
years later the program was
revealed to the public as the now
famous Sirius Patrol. Today, from
their headquarters in Daneborg on
Greenland's east coast, the only military dog sledge
patrol in the world sends
out five teams of two Danish
soldiers and eleven dogs traveling
in the huge expanse of north and
northeast Greenland surveilling
Danish sovereignty, conducting
military exercises and serving as
the civilian police authority.
During a typical year,
collectively the teams may cover
over 11,000
mi (18,000 km).
![]() Sirius Patrol dog man Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen and his team, from 1000 Days with Sirius by P. Mikkelsen, The Steading Workshop In April 2010, a Sirius
Patrol team was invited to participate in OP Nunalivut 10,
a joint operation by the Canadian Forces in Canada's
North. It employs the unique capabilities of the Canadian
Rangers in support of Joint Task Force North (JTFN)
operations in the extreme environment of the high Arctic.
In an interview at the conclusion of the joint
Canadian/Danish exercise, published in the June
2010 issue of The Fan Hitch Captain Neal
Whitman, Deputy Commander of 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol
Group, stated that the Canadian military had no plans to
specifically form a Sirius Patrol-like division. "There
is a very unique capability that works very well for the
Danish concept of operations where they're patrolling
along the north eastern coast of Greenland in a very
isolated environment," Whitman explained. "In
our context it gets a little bit different though
because our area of operations is a lot more heavily
populated really than the areas that the Sirius Patrol
operates in. We operate directly with the aboriginal
communities. Fifty-eight different communities
participate in the [annual] program and a total of
sixteen hundred Rangers, which is quite different from
the twelve that participate in the Sirius Patrol. For
our purposes, again we just choose whatever the
community wants to use to get out on the land. If they
want to use dog sleds then we can support that and if
they want to use snowmachines we can support that. So
for us it's really tied in to what the community wants
to do and what they feel is the way to get around."
C. The population decline There is no doubt that the numbers of traditional Inuit Dogs working in the Canadian North6 has dwindled precipitously in the last century, leading to Bill Carpenter and John McGrath's efforts to restore their numbers with their creation of the Eskimo Dog Recovery Project (see II B). Some of these reasons were:
Challenges to a vibrant
northern population of traditional Inuit Dogs continue
with:
![]() Elder Paloosie Koonaloosie was a traditional and very well respected hunter from Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut. After he died, none of his children wished to continue on with their father's way of life. Photo: Kevin Slater, Mahoosuc Guide Service The presence of non-indigenous dogs is now ubiquitous throughout the Canadian North and currently there are no regulatory mechanisms in place to control this influx, either by outright banning or by allowing only altered dogs to accompany their owners north. In Greenland there is a law forbidding non-indigenous breeds into regions where sled dogs are kept as a measure to keep the Greenland Inuit Dog uncontaminated. However it is believed that strict enforcement has not been in place. For example, after a distemper epidemic around 1986, traditional Inuit Dogs from the north Baffin region of Canada were sent into the Thule District of Greenland. Dogs were also sent into this region from other parts of Greenland as well8. 1 The Inuit Dog: Its Provenance, Environment and History; Ian Kenneth MacRury; Chapter 1. 2 The Inuit Dog: Its Provenance, Environment and History; Ian Kenneth MacRury; pg 45, para. 1. 3 See The Contribution of Dogs to Exploration in Antarctica by Peter Gibbs, The Fan Hitch, V5N2, March 2003. 4 Two of the many examples found throughout The Fan Hitch are: How do you say good-bye? by Peter Noble; V10, N4, September 2008 and Brave Little Heart by Ken Pawson, V2 N2, November 1999. 6 Although it is apparent that there are still pure Inuit Dogs in Greenland, the status of that population is not clearly known to this author. 5 Personal communication, Winter 2009. 7 The RCMP, Qikiqtani Truth Commission and Makivik official reports can be found under "Official reports regarding Canadian Federal Government vis-a-vis Inuit social/cultural issues, including sled dogs" on The Fan Hitch Resources page. 8 Personal communications with people of the Baffin region. |