WHAT IS A MACKENZIE HUSKY

WHAT IS A MACKENZIE HUSKY?

Note:  This is an updated version of an article first posted on my blog “Mushing Past” on September 15, 2005.

In 1791, when Alexander Mackenzie paddled down the river that now bears his name, he was lost. He was actually hoping to find the route to the Orient, he was looking for the route to the riches of China. In order to do this he knew that he had to travel westward, instead he ended up travelling north to the Arctic Ocean. Little did he know that 150 years later, interested dog mushers with too much time on their hands, would be debating the origins of a type of sled dog that bears his name, the Mackenzie Husky.

The Mackenzie River drains an enormous area in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Flowing northward out of Great Slave Lake, it is joined by several major tributaries as it makes it way to the Mackenzie Delta and the Arctic Ocean including the Liard  and Peel Rivers,  which are major tributaries that drain vast areas to the west of the Mackenzie.. The Slave River, which flows into Great Slave Lake is also a direct link between Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca and those major tributaries flowing into that lake, including the Athabasca River.

We will term this huge area the Mackenzie Basin. It is important to make this geographic statement for while the type of dog is often called the Mackenzie River Husky, it is more correctly termed the Mackenzie Husky. These dogs are found not just along the Mackenzie river itself, but throughout the whole Mackenzie River Basin. When we think of the Mackenzie River, we think of communities like Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River), Fort Good Hope,  Tulita (Fort Norman), Fort Providence and others, but when we consider communities on Great Slave Lake, Fort Resolution, Rocher River, Yellowknife, Fort Rae, and Lutselke (Snowdrift) are added to the list. Fort Smith is on the Slave River and Fort Chipewyan is on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca while Fort Liard is on the Liard River and Fort Mcpherson is on the Peel River. These communities (as well as several other smaller settlements such as Gameti, Jean Marie River, Whati and Wekweeti) represent the true range of the Mackenzie Husky.

The Mackenzie River empties into the Beaufort Sea, but before it does it spreads out into a huge delta which is a maze of river channels guaranteed to confuse any but the most experienced local travellers. Historically this delta has been a transition point in the North along the arctic coast. The word transition suggests a place of gradual change over distance and over time. This transition was the result of a meeting of different cultural influences.

To the west is Herschel Island lying just off the Yukon coast. Herschel Island was a famous destination for whalers when whaling in the western arctic and off the coast of northern Alaska was flourishing in the 1890‘s. Typically the whaling crews would spend the winter in Herschel’s excellent natural harbour, in order to get a head start on the spring whaling season. Herschel Island was also a staging area for explorers, researchers and government officials. Typically they would sail up the west coast of British Columbia and Alaska attempting to reach Herschel Island before the freeze up and the beginning of winter. Once safely at Herschel, they would regroup and begin planning for the coming spring. Herschel Island also became a major staging area for the supply of the communities to the east along the Arctic coast. The major trading companies maintained their own boats as did the Roman Catholic church. A sizable settlement grew up on Herschel Island, eventually traders became established, the RCMP built a detachment and the churches were also present.

With all of these influences, the population of Herschel Island was quite cosmopolitan. For Alaskans, Herschel Island was a common destination for people travelling along the coast and there was a great deal of travel along the coast between the Mackenzie Delta and the coast of Alaska, with many Alaskan natives settling permanently in the area of the Mackenzie Delta.  Many of those travelling from Alaska were Eskimo and in the process they would interact with the Inuit of the west-central Arctic who would come to Herschel Island to trade. These people are known as the Inuvialuit. There are family ties between the Inuvialuit and the Alaskan Eskimo.

To the east of the Mackenzie delta is the area known generally as the Central Arctic (as opposed to the High Arctic and the Eastern Arctic). Communities like Tuktoyuktuk, Holman Island,  Kugluktuk (Coppermine),  Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven and Paulatuk are located in the Central Arctic. The people living in this area are the Inuvialuit. Traders would travel from Ulukhaktok (Holman), initially trading from their ships but eventually establishing trading posts in the communities in this area. When the former Northwest Territories was divided into two territories, this area became part of Nunavut, the new territory. This is a reflection of the fact that the people of the Central Arctic are Inuit in every way, and even though it could be argued that geographically they are “closer” to the Western Arctic, they are in fact Inuit and their ties are with other Inuit living to the east.

To the south of course was the Mackenzie River itself. It was at the community of Aklavik that the Inuit culture met and blended with the Dene culture of the Gwich’in (Loucheux) and Hareskin tribes (and further south with the Slavey and Dogrib people) Also, the established non-Native influences tended to come from the south, with trading posts being established along the Mackenzie River in the early and mid 1800’s. The Mackenzie River was even one of the gateways to the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800’s. albeit not a very popular one, but still hundreds of gold seekers made their way through the area en route to Dawson City.

What does all of this have to do with the Mackenzie Husky? The thesis of this article is that the Mackenzie Husky is essentially the end result of the dogs that were associated with all of these influences. It is known that the Native people traditionally living in the north and along the Mackenzie River kept and used dogs for working. Samuel Hearne writing in the 1790’s documented this fact as he travelled from Fort Prince of Wales to the mouth of the Coppermine River and back. (1) He met many different groups of Athapaskan-speaking peoples and lived and travelled with them. The origins of these dogs and just how they became domesticated is not the focus of this article, it is enough to state that these dogs existed. From the east and the Inuit came the Eskimo Dog. These animals are well documented in arctic history and prehistory going back 4000 years. Originally from Siberia, they made it possible for more than one wave of people to travel from west to east, eventually ending in the eastern and High Arctic, Northern Labrador and Quebec and even in Greenland. The Eskimo Dog is a truly amazing animal that has adapted to survive in the harshest climate on the face of the earth. These animals are even today essentially unchanged from their ancestors of hundreds and even thousands of years ago.   It is not correct to refer to these dogs as a breed but rather as a landrace, a life form that has evolved in perfect harmony with and in response to the environment in which it lives and survives.  Such animals are referred to as being aboriginal dogs.

From the west came the dogs of Alaska a very interesting mixture. The dogs of the Malamuet people of  Northwestern Alaska, said to be the home of the breed of dog known (only since 1935) as the Alaskan Malamute, but in reality just another source of the Eskimo Dog . When anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson mounted his famous 1913-1918 Canadian Arctic Expedition, he stopped in Nome Alaska en route to the Mackenzie Delta and picked up 55 sled dogs from none other than  Alaskan dog racer Scotty Allan of Alaska Sweepstakes fame.   Allan was essentially working as a dog broker and no-doubt the bloodlines represented the odd mixture of dogs brought north during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890’s.  Some of these bloodlines no-doubt eventually found  their way throughout the Central Canadian Arctic. We can only speculate about the variety of the dogs that entered the Mackenzie Delta area via Alaska.

This area of transition became a vortex. The various influences represented by these different types of dogs were brought together and swirled around producing something that was unique. The end result of this mix of influences were many different changes in the world of sled dogs, just one of these was the development of the Mackenzie Husky.

Early photos of this area will show a traditional wooden dog team toboggan, an Inuit komatik and an Alaskan basket sled all lined up together on the same river bank. When the dogs came from Alaska, they came complete with equipment and methods of dog driving that were unknown in the Northwest Territories. Lightweight sleds made of wood tied together with babiche and dogs wearing harness made of cotton webbing, some with wooden spreader bars behind their back legs, harnessed side-by-side and fastened to a central rope. Similarly when the dogs arrived from the eastern part of the Arctic, the Inuit influence was evident with the heavy wooden komatik (sled) and the harness made of sealskin with dogs pulling on individual traces made of hide in a fan hitch. And from the south came the influence of the Native people of boreal forest and the white trader with the wooden dog team toboggan and the padded collar harness and dogs being run in tandem.

As the vortex continued to swirl around, these individual influences started to blend together. The collar harness was adapted to the Alaskan siwash harness, complete with spreader bar. Dogs were run side-by-side pulling a komatik or even a wooden toboggan. Some influences disappeared completely such as the fan hitch and the sealskin harness. In this area the Alaskan basket sleds proved to be impractical and they also fell into disuse. On the sea ice it was practical to run dogs side-by-side, but in the forested areas below the tree line, the tandem hitch and the collar harness proved to be ideal. From the Mackenzie Delta these influences spread throughout the Mackenzie Basin.

In his pioneering book about working with dogs before and during the Klondike Gold Rush A Dog-Puncher On The Yukon, Arthur Walden describes the Mackenzie Husky this way:

“There was another breed of dogs called the ‘Porcupine River’ or ‘Mackenzie Husky’. These originated a great many years ago from a cross of the Eskimo with some large domesticated dog, and were the best freight dogs I have ever seen, being far superior to the Eskimo and much larger and stronger. One team of these dogs, the finest I have ever seen, weighed from a hundred and forty-five to a hundred and sixty-five pounds each, in working flesh” (2).

Walden may be exaggerating just a little bit. Any musher knows that a hundred and sixty-five pound sled dog wouldn’t really be good for too much. But, the Mackenzie Huskies are generally described as fairly large dogs of up to 80 pounds with males and about 50 pounds with females. They have a heavy double coat, sometimes with long guard hairs, their ears are generally erect but not always, they generally have a masked face and “takoolik”” spots above the eyes, but again not always. They have a bushy tail but not the tightly arched tail of the Eskimo Dog. They are tough, strong, long-legged dogs, they can travel at a trot of 8 to 10 miles per hour on a good packed trail when in harness, definitely faster than the Eskimo Dog, They are generally more tractable than the Eskimo Dog, they do not compete for dominance in the same incessant way that is typical of Eskimo Dogs. Still they are to be respected and children should not be unsupervised around them.

The number of dogs used in a team in the Mackenzie Basin tended to range between 4 and 8 dogs, with an average team size of 5 or 6 dogs.  This was a reflection of the fact that sled dogs competed with their owners for the exact same food source.  There was no way that a hunter/trapper in  the Central Arctic and other forested areas of the Mackenzie Basin could support a large number of dogs.  To make up for the smaller team size, the Mackenzie Husky was generally  bred to be a  larger and stronger animal.  What evolved was a dog that balanced power and speed.

Yet when we look at the Mackenzie Husky throughout the whole of the Mackenzie Basin, there are definitely differences. It is well known that when dogs are bred in relative isolation or in the presence of a significant determining influence, these dogs will take on a look or will develop attributes that are unique to that situation or area. Some of the factors that influenced the “look” of the Mackenzie Husky in different areas would be breeder preference, severity of climate, the amount of travel on lakes and rivers as opposed to through heavy bush and over mountains, diet, relative isolation, disease and sickness and other factors.

Ed Nagle was one of the principals of the fur trading company known as Hyslop & Nagle.  This company was well established around Great Slave Lake and eventually along the Mackenzie River.   The following excerpt from a book that describes the history of  this fur trading company gives a glimpse at just one small influence that contributed to the evolution of the Mackenzie Husky.  “Ed turned his own attention toward breeding the dogs he wanted (at the turn of the 20th century).  He needed large animals -- weighing between 60 and 70 kilograms -- with the stamina of Indian dogs but legs long enough to handle deep snow.  He had obtained a big Russian Wolfhound named Bones from a passing Klondiker, and began mating him with some Eskimo Huskies from the Mackenzie River Delta.  Within a few years his Mackenzie valley Huskies would be famous throughout the north.” (4)

In 1970, the Territorial Government in Yellowknife celebrated the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The various communities throughout the Northwest Territories planned commemorative events. The community of Fort Mcpherson planned a re-enactment of the old Dawson Patrol from their community to Dawson City by dogteam. Nine teams of from five to eight dogs each took part in this re-enactment. Photos of this event are striking, the dogs of Fort Mcpherson were all Mackenzie Huskies and were very uniform in appearance. The mushers ranged in age from their early 20’s to their early 70’s. They travelled in single file in a dog train, often with one of the mushers going ahead breaking trail through the deep snow on snowshoes. The terrain was hilly and well-treed. On the downhill the toboggans often were “turned loose” as it was almost impossible to stop them on the downhill. All teams used collar harness and ran in tandem hitch, all used wooden toboggans, At night the canvas wall tent was erected and a tin stove used for heat. At tea time a huge bonfire was lit. The mushers hunted along the way, killing at least one moose for food for themselves and the dogs.

In the January 1971 issue of the Peel River Press (3) published in Fort McPherson, N.W.T., the headline on the front page reads “48 Hunters Travel To Caribou By Dog Team At 60 Below”. A feature story entitled “The 1971 January Hunt For Caribou” describes the use of sled dogs in a way that most of us will only ever read about, sadly these days are probably gone. And in this case, all of the dogs were Mackenzie Huskies.
“On Thursday January 14, after a previously unsuccessful search for caribou the McPherson hunters and the Game Department decided to have one final search by air. These searches are costly but the caribou had to be near and the people had been without meat since the early fall. After several hours of flying and spotting no caribou, they decided to come back to the airstrip via the head of Vittrekwa River before dark. THERE THEY WERE, a small herd wintering on the flats below the mountains. Within hours after the plane landed everyone was talking and planning the hunt.

It was decided that no snowmobiles should go up, only dog teams. The next day everyone was preparing for the trip, checking sleds and harness, guns and shells and other equipment.

By Saturday morning, caribou fever had set in. Everyone sensed the excitement, especially the sled dogs. All over town were calling to each other and through the cold morning fog they answered ‘Car-car-cari-i-boo-oo-oo!.

The men traveled the 60-70 miles in two large parties. It was bitter cold (one thermometer read 68 below and you can bet it was colder on the open river) but not cold enough to stop the hunters. The cold weather did not make conditions ideal for the actual hunt either. Rifles can jam up unexpectedly in the cold and the caribou are often out of view in the fog they create in sub-zero temperatures. The mountains were treacherously icy and the caribou can travel fast on the crusty snow. In other words it took great hunting skill for a man to kill his share. With the odds against them, some were unlucky, but others were happy to share their meat.

A good nights sleep does not come easy on such trips. When you have over 300 dogs in one area, one is bound to get loose and disturb the others. However, many of the people were not disturbed as the spent the late hours of the night playing cards or telling stories of past hunts and experiences. There were ten tents in the main camp.

On Friday January 22 the first three teams returned, each with a full load of meat. During the next few days most of the other returned, the settlement was full of happy faces....caribou for supper.

Some of the men stayed at the camp and sent for their wives. Others returned for a second load of meat. Despite the tough going, few injuries were sustained, a few frozen faces, one man with frozen heels and one hunter wounded his knee while cutting frozen meat. Those discomforts will soon be forgotten but every will long remember 1971—the year 48 teams pulled out to the mountains and the over 13 tons of fresh meat brought home by the courageous McPherson hunters”.

What a thrilling story, yet if this same event was to take place in Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake, the dogs would still be Mackenzie Huskies, they would still be in tandem hitch pulling toboggans, but they would be smaller, faster and the teams might be larger. The terrain would likely be different, there is a good chance that the dogs would be running on the lake ice with very little snow cover. There wasn’t the same need for power in these conditions. The dogs might be fed a diet of buffalo meat for the large herds from Wood Buffalo Park would roam into the mushers trapping territory. At night the camp might look a little different with the mushers sleeping in their “eider downs” under a canvas wrapper with a huge bonfire burning. It is perhaps no accident that it was these dogs that went on to dominate the early days of the Yellowknife Dog Derby with mushers like Ray Beck and Dan McQueen as multiple winners of that race run over the ice of Great Slave Lake.

The 1950’s and 60’s saw the beginning of the dramatic decline in the numbers of sled dogs throughout the whole of the Canadian North and Arctic.  During the 1930’s and 40’s, the number of sled dogs in the Canadian North was probably at its zenith.  This was the time when families still lived on the land in small family groupings and dog teams were absolutely necessary for travel over extended traplines.  However a number of factors contributed to the downward spiral in numbers of sled dogs, particularly among the Inuit who had much larger teams, partly because of the availability of sea mammals for dog food. The decline in the market for furs and therefore a decline in trapping activity negated the need for as many or for large dog teams.  The establishment of localized services in the major settlements attracted people to a different lifestyle remaining sedentary near the school, store, church and nursing station.  The settlement was no place for large numbers of sled dogs which became a liability as they wandered throughout the settlement and many of them were killed as a precaution/result.  The dawn of reliable air and snowmobile travel throughout the north meant that there were now readily available and reliable alternatives to the dog team.  The availability of wage employment on the Dew Line sites that were built every 50 miles along the arctic coastline meant that a traditional hunting and gathering lifestyle which required the use of dog teams was under further attack.  Fatal epidemics of distemper swept through communities, often killing the vast majority  of the dogs in that community.  There was a complex combination of factors that contributed to the loss of thousands of sled dogs in a very short period of time.

Up until the mid 1970’s, the North’s premiere sled dog race, Yellowknife’s Canadian Championship Dog Derby was dominated by Mackenzie Huskies.  The teams of  Rocher River’s Ray Beck, Fort Chipewyan’s Larry Marten, and Dettah’s Fred Sangris were legendary  and dog mushers talk about them today (5).  From the early 1970’s on, this part of the North was flooded by “outside” racing dogs.  Almost overnight wooden trapline toboggans became collector’s  items and paddled leather tandem trapline harnesses disappeared. While there never was a Mackenzie Husky “breed” as such, certainly those influences that served to influence the type of dog known as the Mackenzie Husky became totally diluted.  As sled dog racing became more and more popular in the Northwest Territories, dog mushers were importing smaller, faster sled dogs known as Alaskan Huskies or “Alaskans”. The story of the development of the Alaskan Husky parallels that of the Mackenzie Husky with one significant difference. The Alaskan continues to grow as a significant yet ever-changing type of sled dog while the Mackenzie Husky has now disappeared.

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1. Samuel Hearne, A Voyage From Prince of Wales Fort, quoted in Peter C. Newman’s Empire of the Bay, an Illustrated History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Madison Press Books, 40 Madison Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5R 2S1

2. A Dog Puncher on the Yukon by Arthur T. Walden, originally copyright 1928, there are many editions—originally published by Houghton Mifflin Company, the Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, My edition published by Wolf Creek Books Inc., Box 31275, 211 Main St., Whitehorse, Yukon, lY1A 5P7, http://www.wolfcreek.ca/ Walden was one of the first writers describing the use of working dogs in Alaska and the Yukon. His descriptions of freighting including the types of equipment used are significant. This is the same man who went on the establish the breed of working dog knows as the Chinook.

3. Fort McPherson’s Peel River Press was established in September, 1970 with its first issue costing 15 cents. The operation folded a little over a year later in late 1971, when it had put out 16 issues. Editor Piet Van Loon started the newspaper around the same time as the Inuvik Drum got started. He felt Fort McPherson needed a local paper because the Drum only covered the Inuvik area.

4. Battling the Bay  by author George Zinovich

5. Trapline to Finish Line …The Story of Yellowknife’s Canadian Championship Dog Derby by Fran Hurcomb,  Outcrop Ltd., Yellowknife NT Canada  2001

Jeffrey Dinsdale
Quesnel, B.C., Canada
October 20, 2014
jdinsdale@xplornet.ca