Who Invented Sled-Dog Teams?

The dogsled-racing mania is largely out of the way for the year now that the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod are over, but it is still interesting to ponder the origins of dog mushing.

I am reminded of a question asked by Mr. Alvin Bramstedt Sr. of Anchorage. The query, to the "Dear Bud" column in the Anchorage Times, asked: "Did our Alaska Eskimos and Indians have dog teams before the arrival of the white man?"

In reply, the article suggested that it wasn't until the nineteenth century that Eskimos and Indians used dogs in teams, and that this was taught to them by white people. This answer bothered me, but at the time, I was unable to find anything definitive to rebut or confirm such a conclusion.

Recently, I came across an illustration taken from the 1675 edition of Martin Frobisher's "Historic Navigations." This illustration shows, in the background, a dog in harness, pulling what appears to be a canoe-like sled, or perhaps what might be called a pulk. This illustrates that at the time of earliest contact with Europeans the Eskimos were indeed using dogs as draft animals.

I contacted Mr. Bramstedt shortly after running across the illustration to ask him if he was aware of it, and if he had been able to resolve his question. He had not, and he had received no more information that was obtained after his original query.

I find in the book, "The World of Sled Dogs", by Lorna Coppinger, that the earliest historical records of the use of sled dogs in the Siberian Sub Arctic appear in Arabian literature of the tenth century; in writings of Marco Polo in the thirteenth century; and of Francesco de Kollo in the sixteenth.

What may be inferred from this? Frobisher's voyage to the Davis Straits area of Greenland in 1577 clearly documents a dog in harness being used as a draft animal. Do modern polar archaeology or Native Eskimo and Indian legends have anything to offer on the matter?

It would be interesting to hear any information that our present-day dog mushers might have to contribute.

Oscar J. Noel, Contributor

Comment by Coordinator: After reading Mr. Noel's article, I called the head of the UAF Anthropology Department, Professor Jean Aigner, and asked her what archaeology had to offer. Her response was that there is firm archaeological evidence for the use of dog sleds by Alaska Natives for at least the last thousand years. European influence may have led to changes in details of harnessing, but the use of dogs in harness was originated by Arctic Native peoples. Sue Ann Bowling, Coordinator