Dog-craft:a history of Gwich'in and dogs in the Canadian North

• Published in: Hunter Gatherer Research
• Main Author: Loovers, Jan Peter Laurens
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Gwich'in; dogs; Hudson's Bay Company fur trade; history; Canada; Gwich’in
• Online Access: https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/dogcraft(25dcc173-e003-4d6a-95ce-6257b2a2e440).html; https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2015.21

In this article I propose the notion of dog-craft and explore the expansion of the capital markets in the circumpolar North. Through the fur trade and mineral extractions, indigenous people incorporated and improvised the use of dog teams for trapping, fishing, hunting, and gathering. This article focuses on the Gwich’in people in the northwestern corner of Canada. I elaborate on the history of crafts related to dogs as well as to the dogs themselves. In most recent times, following the disappearance of a particular type of dog – the working dog – these crafts have vanished for the greater part.