The Original Siberian Sleddog

No one knows for how long the stone age tribal cultures of eastern Siberia may have used dogs and sleds as a transport system. It could be for several hundred years, or it could equally well be for several thousand. Probably dogs were used first to carry packs or to drag travois, until finally it was discovered that wooden or bone runners made it possible for dogs to transport more weight faster and more easily. It is equally uncertain where dogsled transport originated: whether the Siberian Mongol tribesmen got the idea from the Inuit, or vice-versa.

Breed-club claims that the Chukchi tribe (and they alone) maintained a "Chukchi Sled Dog" breed as a purebredfor "three thousand years" are pure myth without anthopological backing of any kind. The original Siberian sleddog belonged not only to the Chukchi but to several other regional peoples and tribes probably including the Yukaghir, the Evenks, the Yakut, and the Kamchadal. Some anthropological sources indicate that the dogs of the Coastal Chukchi singled out by the Siberian Husky Club of America as the sole source of the Siberian Husky breed were considered the poorest dogs of eastern Siberia and were periodically wiped out by severe famines.

It seems probable that the original Siberian sleddog existed in a variety of local types and populations ("demes" from the population geneticist's point of view) that regularly exchanged genetic material as wandering tribal hunters traded dogs on their journeys. It has certainly been documented that there were "dog fairs" at some villages where dogs may have from time to time been gathered and traded.

Rather than a "purebred" in the modern sense, the correct picture of the original Siberian sleddog is probably that of a fairly large population and gene pool made up of dogs in various regional and village populations, heterozygous and heterotypic, without any greater uniformity than that which was imposed by the requirements of their work and the severe natural selection imposed by their harsh environment.