Around Thule

Hunters, festivals, and lots of dogs

A rare and special breed, the Greenlandic dog. All photos: Robin Davies

Still waiting for conditions to improve up on the transition to the ice sheet, the GrIT team spent another day around Thule on Sunday. Fortunately, it’s a lively place to hang out these days, as GrIT project manager Allen Cornelison wrote in an email:

A few days ago some Greenlandic hunters and families arrived by dog sled from Qaanaaq to the north and Savigsivik to the south. It took them four days to get here. Along the way they hunted polar bear and muskoxen. We hear that over at Dundas Village, there are heads and skins from the hunt. I sure wish a polar bear would wander by here for us to view.

A hunter takes his dog team for a spin out on the sea ice with Saunders Island in the background.

There are a dozen or more dog teams gathered about the sea ice here near the base. They are here for the First Light Festival which has been celebrated in Thule for years. Then, next Saturday is Armed Forces Day.  Dog sled races will be held on the sea ice. One can actually enter a drawing to ride along in one of the hunter’s sleds during a race. Prizes will be given away. I am not sure what all the prizes are, but one is a rifle.

This is last light: a sunset view of the Thule heavy shop. But the point is, look at that light!

I see some new faces around town–hunters and some Greenlandic women and children.  It is wonderful to see kids around.

About the dogs

The Greenlandic sled dogs are called Eskimo dogs and they are beautiful.  Some of the dog’s guard hairs and hackles are like none I have ever seen. The hairs are long, wavy and multicolored. Some dogs have these long guard hairs or hackles covering almost their entire body. The dogs seem less excitable than the Alaska huskies which I am used to and they seem more socialized around humans. While we were alone with the dogs, they barely took notice of us. When a hunter came walking over from the village (about two miles away) the dogs perked up and took notice of him even when he was as far out as 100 yards.

Robin's approach seems of little concern to these composed Greenlandic dogs.

The Greenlandic government has recognized that the Eskimo dog breed is rare outside of Greenland.  Because the Greenlandic government does not want their dog line to have outside influence, they rarely permit foreign dogs entry to Thule.

About Dundas Village

Robin took this photo from the Thule jetty with a telephotographic lens.

People began living at Dundas over 900 years ago. The Greenlandic name is actually “Uummannaq.”  In about 1910 a mission and a trading post were established.  Danes lived in the framed and painted houses and the old framed houses that used sod for insulation were for the indigenous people, the Inuit. These sod homes were a more modern version of the sod home prior to dimensional lumber and nail availability. You can see the small (and long) entrance just like an igloo or an ancient sod home.

Remains of a sod house, showing the long, low entrance. Robin took this shot on a summer visit a few years ago.

In the 1950’s when Thule Air Base was being built, the Danish government moved the people living in the village north to Qaanaaq and other established villages.

Now, Uummannaq is mostly abandoned. The Danish government has given the village back to the Greenland government but no one person owns the land where the houses sit. Danes and Greenlandic hunters have fixed some of the houses up for use. Currently some of the hunters are staying over there in one of the hunting cabins.

Here is some more information on the area if you are interested. http://www.thuleforum.com/jette/greenl1-5.html

That is all from Thule. I’ve gotta go sign up for a dog sled ride.–Allen Cornelison

Go North!

Yearning for arctic adventure? Explore with GoNorth!, the University of Minnesota science education team that’s exploring the Arctic via dog sleds to research the impacts of climate change and report back in real time.

The sled dog team heads out at sunrise on another Go North! exploratory day.

Now in their 13^th week, the team is pushing to Clyde River and facing deep snow, fog and flat light. Their sleds are bottoming out, and their skis stick to the snow when they try to move forward. To avoid the worst conditions, the team is starting to travel at 3 a.m. (which means a 1 a.m. wake up!) 

About two weeks ago, the team left Qikiqtarjuaq, after running into a polar bear—and learning about the Inuit communities that subsist, in part, by hunting those bears. They’ve befriended an eight-year-old boy, Brad, who hunted his first polar bear this spring. The oversight organization allows 30 polar bears to be hunted each year, 15 in the spring and 15 in the fall.  Once Brad’s name was drawn in the lottery, he had 24 hours to complete the hunt. His family will subsist on the meat, and may sell the skin for extra income.

Brad and his first polar bear kill. Courtesy http://www.polarhusky.com

The team is traveling through an area that has one of the highest polar bear populations in the world. The strong ocean currents in the Davis strait create lots of open water that makes for ideal seal hunting.

Learning about the region is one of many objectives of the team that’s been traveling by sled-dog since early April when they set out from Minnesota in the pouring rain. Last week they mushed through Nunavut Territory, Canada, and they plan to continue to Arctic Bay, near the community of Pond Inlet, in the high Arctic. They expect to arrive the first week in June.

The team visits communities along the way, presenting their “What’s Climate Change to You?” program—the heart of the Aaron Doering / University of Minnesota-led National Science Foundation grant–at local schools.  When able, they overnight in these communities, sleeping in the school gym or other host shelters. Still, because the dogs are rambunctious and highly vocal on the trail, the humans sometimes camp with the canines on the edge of town–or more often, as communities are few and far between, along the trail.

Chris Ripken, the team's teacher explorer, meets students along the journey.

In addition to local outreach, the team takes samples and makes observations for a variety of science experiments, including an investigation of traditional ecological knowledge, and NSF-funded projects examining black carbon in snow and a prototype network for measuring winter precipitation. Weekly, the team participates in live chats and updates the GoNorth! Web site with trail reports and photos.

The team’s stars are the polar huskies, sled dogs that are a combination of northern husky breeds: Alaskan Malamute, Greenlandic Husky, Siberian Husky, Alaskan Husky, Mackenzie River Husky, and Canadian Eskimo. These pack dogs work as a team, and are bred to run, and are cuter than any stuffed animal.

Beacon the sled dog greets fans.

Since 2006 the GoNorth! team—two- and four-legged members alike—have lit out on long mushing trips around the Arctic to engage K-12 students in the natural sciences via an interactive Web site, science observations, and live events from the field broadcast via the Internet. Previous expeditions covered remote regions of northeast Alaska and Chukotka in Russia. The last three years will bring the team to Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia.