Know The Dog, The Land And Its People

One cannot know the Inuit Sled Dog without an understanding of its recent and ancient history, where it came from, under what conditions it evolved and the people responsible for making this the finest freighting sled dog in the world. For it is the "big picture" that give us a greater appreciation of this marvelous dog. To do any less would not only take the dog out of context, but also be a grave injustice, especially, to the Inuit people themselves.

Inuit people object to the term "Eskimo". The name "Inuit" was officially adopted at the Inuit Circumpolar Conference of 1977. It is often claimed that "husky" was a pejorative term applied to the Inuit (meaning eater of raw flesh ? as in cannibals) and subsequently to their dogs. Another source for the name comes from Labrador where the word eskimo (1575? - 1585) meant to net snowshoes. The Ojibwa term "askime" also means to net snowshoes. However, the Inuit do not use snowshoes, although in the Western Arctic, the Inuit used a crude form of snowshoe made of a bent stick of willow with strips of caribou hide. It could be that the same word had two significations.

As the story goes, the first Europeans to land in Labrador asked the native Indians the name of the people living farther north. Since the native Indians were rather derogatory toward their northern neighbours, they designated them as huskies (meaning cannibal), or huskemaw in the Labrador dialect, and the Europeans adopted the name they heard as Esquimaux or Eskimo, in its anglicised form. Names have a way of enduring through centuries, despite their dubious origins and obvious inaccuracies.

Current research shows that domestication of the dog occurred well before its appearance at archaeological dig sites in the arctic. The roots of the Inuit dog, or Qimmiq, date back 4,000 years BP, with the paleoinuit culture, possibly more. From 4000 BP to 800 BP the following cultures developed: Independence I, Pre-Dorset, Independence II and Dorset. However the first identification of sled runners and harness parts was identified with the Thule culture of about 800 BP, indicating that up until that time, these dogs were used more as hunting partners than sled haulers.

Along with the Inuit people, this breed survived the harsh conditions of the Arctic. It is widely accepted that without the Inuit Sled Dog, ancestors of today’s Inuit could not have survived. The characteristics of the Inuit Sled Dog strongly show its ability to perform such tasks as sniffing out seal breathing holes, holding polar bear at bay, and skill at its most well known characteristic – that of a sled dog.

In more modern times, these dogs took explorers to both poles. Yet his very existence was threatened with the arrival of southern technology and other influences. Crossbreeding with Southern breeds endangered the original purity of the Inuit dog. The advent of snowmobiles into Arctic settlements was the final blow. In recent times, some Inuit hunters and other interested people in both the North and the South have endeavoured to preserve the breed and restore viable numbers of purebred Inuit dogs.

The Inuit Sled Dog originated on the Asian continent, possibly in the region of present day Mongolia. There had been several waves of migration from central Asia and Siberia over the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. The Dorset people, that the Inuit refer to as Tunit, settled along the Arctic coast, the coasts of Labrador and Greenland as well as in the islands of the Canadian Arctic archipelago. They had dogs. The lack of remains of sleds and harness parts tend to indicate the dogs were not used as sled dogs. Hunting, guarding and pack carrying were probably their main functions.

The best documented migration is that of the Thule Civilization. Inuit also call these early people Tunit. They, accompanied by their dogs and sleds, crossed the Bering Strait in continuous waves of migration between 900 and 1100 AD. The Inuit spread out to the south and east, until they reached Greenland and could go no further, the people not having boats to carry them over the ocean. The waves of migration followed the Arctic coast. Some people followed the large rivers inland. Others reached the Hudson Straits and spread southward along the west coast of Hudson Bay, as well as northward to Ellesmere Island and Baffin Island. They eventually found their way to the east coast of Hudson Bay and into Labrador. From Ellesmere Island, they crossed to Greenland via an ice bridge which forms for two months of the year at Smith Sound. From there, they traveled to the southern tip of Greenland and up the east coast. Their journey ended on the east coast of Greenland as they did not have the large boats necessary to cross the North Atlantic Ocean.

Until as late as the 1960s, families travelled back and forth between Greenland and Canada by dog team. Remains of sleds and harnesses have been found with artifacts of the Thule Civilization. The Thule name derives from modern Thule, in Greenland, where the first artifacts were found.

As archeological science progresses, other data are being uncovered showing that much earlier cultures possessed dogs. However there is no concrete evidence that the dogs were used to pull sleds. Many factors were/are responsible for the decline in the population of the pure Inuit Dog in the arctic, particularly in the Canadian arctic (Northwest Territory, Nunavut and Nunavik (arctic Quebec).

Copyright © ISDI 2005