Well, dad thinks that school holidays are to long and we kids are suffering from boredom. I was 'asked' to do some literature research and write an article on the history of the Siberian Husky. Here is what I found. However follow this link ( http://www.sdas.org.uk/thomas.htm) and you will find articles written by an experts which has been published at the website of the Sled Dog Association of Scotland.

Anika

A Short Overview of the History of the Siberian Husky

Over the centuries the dog has successfully taken on a variety of roles with man – a hunter, companion, worker and guardian and it is not surprising that the saying “a dog is a man’s best friend” arose. 

Today’s Siberian Husky, along with the Alaskan Malamute and the Samoyed, are all direct descendants of the Tomarctus and belong to the sled dog group. The Siberian Inuits depended on these dogs very heavily for survival against the cruel forces of the Arctic region. Their dogs would pull heavy sledges across frozen tundra over great distances, they would assist in the hunting and in the summer they carried heavy loads of woods as a pack for storage for the next merciless winter.

The dogs were not restricted to the Arctic regions but appeared sprinkled across Canada, Siberia, Alaska, Labrador and the Baffin Islands and were believed to have been interbred with wolves very early on. The Siberian Husky was given it’s name by the white men, who nicknamed the Inuits “huskies”, and “Siberian” because the dogs originated in Siberia and were only later taken across the Bering Strait by the Inuits into Alaska.

Today grown men sit in pubs and boast about the speed of their cars. Before the 1900s men sat and boasted they had the fastest dog team and so the Nome Kennel Club was founded in 1907 to sponsor dog races to put these boastings to a test. The club was overseen by a lawyer Albert Fink, an enthusiast about the husky, who also made up the rules for the race. It was decided that the all Alaskan Sweepstake races should follow the 408 mile telephone line from Nome to Candle, in the northern Seward Peninsula. 

The Alaskan Huskies were often crossbred with Malamutes and Setters and therefore did not resemble much of the Husky we know today. In 1908 the Russian trader Goosack entered his Siberian Huskies in the 1909 sweepstake races and was not considered to be a dangerous opposition because his dogs were much smaller. Goosack’s huskies came third and there was speculation that gamblers had paid the first driver, Scotty Allen, before he reached the finish in order to save them from ruin.

A young Scotsman, Fox Maule Ramsay, was so taken by the Siberian Husky that he went to Siberia and bought 60 of the best dogs he could find. In 1910, the start of the third Sweepstake races he had 3 teams entered. The first run by John Johnson, another by Charlie Johnson and the third by himself. John Johnson’s team won the race in the record time for the 408 miles. Suddenly the Siberians were taken seriously and their popularity grew.

Roald Amundsen, a famous Norwegian explorer, was planning a trip to the North Pole using dogs and contracted Jafet Lindenberg in Nome. He was to buy and train the dogs for Amundsen. When Robert Peary reached the pole first, Amundsen abandoned his expedition and left his Siberians with Leonhard Seppala, a Lindenberg employee. In 1913, Seppala entered his first race with dogs and won. For the next 15 years the Siberians that Seppala raced and bred won many of the Alaskan racing titles. Seppala became world famous in 1925 when the dreaded diphtheria virus broke out in Nome.

Due to 80-mile-an-hour winds making air travel impossible, another source of transport was needed to be found to bring the serum from the nearest town, Anchorage, some 1000 miles away. The serum could be brought as far as Nenana by rail but from there on it was another 700-miles before one reaches Nome. It seemed that the Eskimo dogs and their handlers were the only way of rescuing Nome and its inhabitants. The entire trip was completed in five and a half days and Leonhard Seppala and his team, lead by “Togo” travelled 340 miles over the roughest terrain and in a blizzard whereas the other teams only travelled 53 miles each. Gunnar Kasson completed the very last leg of the relay with his lead dog “Balto” and arrived in Nome on February 2^nd, 1925 and received the biggest praise. All the other men and dogs received great interest on global newspapers also and the race was dubbed the “great serum race”.  

All the dogs served great gratitude and recognition for their dauntless task but one name stands out the most in history, Balto. He obtained the honour of being Alaska’s best dog and a bronze statue was built in Central Park, New York City with the inscription reading:

“Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of a stricken Nome in the winter of 1925. Endurance – fidelity – intelligence.”

Senator Dill from the state of Washington was so impressed he introduced a declaration to make the events of the great serum race part of the Congressional Record. The Iditarod race is run each year to commemorate the Diphtheria run of 1925 and is open for anyone with the interest, the money and the dogs to take part. The Siberian Husky was recognised in 1930 when the American Kennel Club acknowledged this dog for what it is and within two years it published it’s Breed Standard.  

“A Siberians attractiveness, intellect, adaptability, and sensitivity have won them many dedicated fans all over the world.” Today there are thousands of dogs across the world and the husky is becoming a very popular breed.

Bibliography

The New Complete Siberian Husky - Michael Jennings

The Siberian Husky- International Siberian Husky Club 

Siberian Huskies - B. Pisano 

The Siberian Husky -   Joan M. Brearley

For more information see:

Siberian Husky Club of America

International Siberian Husky Club

Working Dog Web

Siberian Husky Club of Victoria

and more..........