Great Photos^^^
Tatiana

I'll watch uur video after hunting tonight I should be watching for bucks

So what happened to them? I don't know if I've ever seen such a dog on the various reservations I've traveled through in South Dakota.

I'm sure a number of plains NA tribes used dogs for travois (sp?) work.

What I was taught in college (2nd time around) in the late 1980s was that the various Sioux groups all would come out for extended hunting trips onto the grasslands before they got horses to get bison, etc,.dry the meat, and the then the dogs would be their beasts of burden to drag the dried meat (and prairie berries etc) back to forest transition areas further east there they actually had their villages. The Sioux didn't live full time on the plains until the early 1700s when they acquired horses. Another driving force was that the tribes north and east of them got guns before they did.

Its probably not taught that way anymore...

Probably met the same fate as most of the eastern tribes. Shot out, bred out and went reverse native.

But I imagine crossbreeding as it seems where ever we go we got a dog or two tagging along.

I had a west Siberian Laika for several years. At the time I was contacted by some Native American folks who were trying to bring back the Native American dog. They were asking to use mine for breeding purposes.

The various Siberian Laikas are essentially the same dog as the American dog. They are thought to be the original domestic dog, a 12,000+ year old breed.

Bo, my west Siberian Laika, had a particular way of eating squirrels and mountain beaver (aplodontia). He would first crush all their bones with a methodical crunching of the entire body, then he would start with the head, shear it off at the shoulders, finish that part, then work his way back. the last thing to go down the hatch was the tail.
He was death on everything except chickens, which he completely ignored. The Russian guy I got the dog from warned me that he would consider house cats as "game"; which he did.

David Thompson writes about a "special breed ". that was used to find which holes in dams or bank dens that contained a beaver which they block and dig till they got it . He described it as smaller with a long slender nose and they always had small brown spots above the eye . He states that this beaver dog is different from the general dog . His area only pertains to the north country when he describes this special "beaver sniffer " An amazing man he was .A gazillion miles in canoes ,snowshoes and horseback .

Tatiana, many thanks to you for your post !

I would bet all early humans kept dogs as pets, help to hunt, for protection and food.

Tataina thats interesting that the name of the Yugan River that means( big river) you mention, the Yukon River also means big river. Spelling is so close. We have Russian influence here, I wonder if thats where the name came from. A village near here along the Yukon is named Russian Mission. We celebrate Slavy here too.

My dogs are for bear guards, I live on the edge of the village and bears wander by on occasion. The dogs let me know.

This is Rascal, he is part wolf. The father was a big gray arctic looking wolf dog. It looked more wolf than dog, had beautiful fur. He had a brother that had the prick ears. his stand up when he is alert.

He howls a lot and wont eat dry dog food needs to be meat or fish.





This Malimute is a dog sled breed. I believe it was one of George Atla's pups, (famous Athabaskan sled dog musher) he sold a few when he was working here.



She has hair that covers her pads in the winter, makes for good traction on ice. she is very smart too. knows voice commands.

Nice posts everyone. Very interesting.

thanks for the posts and all that great information.

Native american dogs were a primary food source. When wild game was abundant, they were eaten only on special occasions, but when times were tough the dogs were in real trouble.

When I first came to Alaska I lived around a group of folks who were some of the last semi-nomadic people up here. In the summer they would hunt moose and caribou with dogs. Once they had a kill they would overfeed the dogs on raw meat and then make packs of fresh meat for the dogs to carry back to camp. They fed them first so they wouldn't be tempted to eat what they were packing.

They also had specially trained dogs to hunt moose at "crust time" ......spring time when the crust would hold the dog but not the moose.
The dogs would hold the moose in one spot until the hunter caught up and dispatched the moose

I don't think early humans could have survived well, in some of the harsher environments, without dogs. I suspect dogs helped Native Americans to hunt to eradication the megafauna in the Americas.

Keith