Late last month I was wandering around the worldwide web with no particular goal in mind, as I do from time to time, when I came across a site – can’t remember where or even what it was about – devoting a section to listing all its contributors. As I was in the process of putting together this concluding issue of our seventeenth year, I became curious to see what a list of participants of The Fan Hitch Journal since the very beginning would look like.

I began the process of re-examining every entry of every issue making sure that every contributor was identified so they could be acknowledged. What I thought would be a stroll down memory lane became more like a journey beginning along a footpath that turned into a highway of sorts. It was an enormously humbling experience.

These donors, individuals as well as organizations (some earning their living by selling their images and literary creativity), have generously given permission to use photos or have offered their expertize and shared their stories. For them, this has been not simply like offering to let me take a cold one out of their fridge. In one way or another, they have had to make the time and effort (and sometimes expense) to create and make available their intellectual property, which they, in turn, have given to The Fan Hitch – to all of us.

Since the very beginning and including this issue, there have been 796 articles published in 68 issues. This represents 317 contributors. You will find a link to an alphabetic list of names (which we will keep current with every issue published) at the head of links “Index of Articles by Subject” as well as “Back Issues by Volume Number”.

On behalf of readers in 137 countries on six continents (since keeping those statistics beginning in 2008) I would like to thank every person and organization who has enriched our knowledge of Inuit culture and the aboriginal Inuit Dog and the diversity of ways and locations this landrace has in the past, does now and hopefully will continue to serve us. Thinking about it, the Inuit Dog itself may well be considered the consummate contributor!