Dog sledging in the eighteenth century: North America and Siberia

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Handford, Jenny Mai
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1998
• Subjects: Arctic; eskimo*; Polar Record; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400025705; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400025705

Abstract The different designs of sledges and dog harnesses, the methods of hitching used by the various peoples of the Arctic regions in the eighteenth century, and the influences they had on each other, are investigated. The development of dog sledging reflects not only the migrations of herding tribes of the steppe into southern Siberia — which progressively pushed some peoples farther and farther northeast — but the relationship between peoples whose culture was nomadic or more settled, whose way of life depended on reindeer herding or not, or who had earlier or later contact with the Russians or other Europeans. The Europeans in North America, it is argued, learned dog sledging from the Eskimos and taught it to the Indians. The Russians appear to have discovered dog sledging in Siberia, where their influence ultimately overcame many of the techniques of the native peoples. The Eskimos are found to have had the most-developed harnessing methods during the eighteenth century, and to have been the prevailing influence where they met with other sledging peoples.