Humans and dogs have a long history together.
In December, researchers from the UA Museum of the North’s (UAMN) department of archaeology published in Science Advances about a study that sampled 111 large canid specimens (wolf, coyote and what is considered domesticated dogs) across Interior Alaska. Analyses from paleontological and archaeological contexts as well as modern have demonstrated that there is physical evidence linking humans and large canids up to 12,000 years ago. The methods used included analysis of the canid diets, which reflected diverse sources of food, including terrestrial (large and small game) as well as anadromous and freshwater resources. The linkage illustrates the ancient symbiotic relationship between humans and dogs that can be seen by modern Alaskans, both Indigenous and non-Native.
The partnership between humans and their canid companions is also represented in modern cultural collections at UAMN and enhanced with knowledge from local tribal members.
Healy Lake (Mendes Cha’ag) tribe representatives worked with the researchers who conducted the study of ancient dogs. Evelynn Combs, cultural resource manager for the Healy Lake Tribal Council, said their community members have long considered their dogs to be mystic companions. Today, nearly every resident in her village, she said, is closely bonded to one dog. Combs spent her childhood exploring her village alongside Rosebud, a Labrador retriever mix. “I really like the idea that, in the record, however long ago, it is a repeatable cultural experience that I have this relationship and this level of love with my dog,” she said. “I know that throughout history, these relationships have always been present. I really love that we can look at the record and see that thousands of years ago, we still had our companions.”
In Richard Nelson’s 1983 classic “Make Prayers to the Raven,” he describes the Koyukon (Tl’eeyegge Hut’aane) affection for dogs. According to the elders who shared their knowledge with him, dogs are specially endowed with the ability to know when evil spirits are around. They are given personal names and are called the “grandchildren” of their owner, who is known as their “grandfather” or “grandmother.”
The symbiotic relationship described in the recent study describes ethnographic examples that include dogs being partners in hunting, transportation, guarding and being used as pets. These roles continue to be seen in 2025 around our community, and are referenced in the objects in the museum’s collection.
Items of material culture, such as dog packs made from caribou, seal skin or canvas, show how dogs help transport heavy loads in communities as far apart as Anaktuvuk Pass, Elephant Point and Northway.Dogs help move these loads, which historically might be part of the seasonal movements between camps or possibly even to carry the results of subsistence activities like fish or game. We can clearly see dogs being used to haul people or even heavier loads through traction related items in the collection, via the presence of harnesses, swivels, collars and other mushing-related items.
The functional relationship between humans and dogs seen in mushing is further personalized when you examine items like two sets of dog blankets made with care by Athabascan/Dene artists. Dog teams, who worked so hard for their human partners, were often “dressed up” for festive occasions by donning fancy dog blankets as they entered annual gathering areas. Bells would adorn the blankets to help draw attention and announce their arrival.
In 2017, Yukon First Nations women created fancy dog blankets for some of the dog teams at the ceremonial start of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in Whitehorse. “It’s to honor the athletes in the race,” stated Shirley Zhürá Adamson, a Southern Tuchone elder and one of the women who made the blankets. “The dogs are the athletes, the mushers are their assistants to get from here to there.”
As we move through mushing season and observe long distance and sprint racers take on the Yukon Quest, the Iditarod, and the Open North American among other races, we have an opportunity to remember the history associated with the Iditarod, namely the 1925 Serum Run to Nome.
One hundred years ago, the residents of Nome depended on mushers and their dogs traveling between Nenana and Nome, to transport the diphtheria antitoxin to their community to prevent an epidemic. Most of these mushers were local Athabascan men contracted to carry the mail between Interior communities, who used a system of roadhouses to form a relay. Over five and a half days, between January 29 and February 1, twenty mushers and approximately 150 dogs crossed 674 miles to bring the serum to Nome. Raising their dogs from pups and feeding them from the same fish harvests as they ate, these men formed a deep relationship with their teams.
Though Leonhard Seppala and Gunnar Kaasen (and their lead dogs Togo and Balto) received the bulk of the notoriety associated with that life saving effort, it was the collective work of the Alaska Native mushers who depended on that intimate relationship with their dogs, based in trust and what we know through oral history and scientific analysis as an ancient connection, who truly made this a successful race against time.
Visit the UA Museum of the North public galleries to see more examples of the human-canine relationship as represented in the circumpolar cultural collections including archaeology, ethnology and history, and fine arts.
Learn more about the 1925 event in “The Cruelest Miles” by Gay and Laney Salisbury. Watch for events happening during 2025 to commemorate this historic episode.
Family programs from the UA Museum of the North are focusing on ice during February. Early Explorers, for children 5 and younger with their caregivers, will be held on Feb. 7. Junior Curators will be held Feb. 8 for children 6 and older (with adult). Siblings welcome!
Family Day: Ice will be held at the museum on Feb. 22 offering a chance for all ages to explore. Kids 17 and under are admitted free on Family Days. Learn more at bit.ly/uamnfamilydays.
The museum’s winter hours are from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., seven days per week. For more information about the museum’s collections, programs, and events, visit www.uaf.edu/museum or call 907-474-7505.
