This Nunavut teenager has her own dog team, preserving an Inuit cultural tradition
CBC
Out in the distance in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, 15-year-old Sophia Johnston heard a familiar sound — a team of sled dogs barking.
Johnston knows her team of nine Siberian-mix dogs is anxious for her arrival when they hear her snowmobile approaching a kilometre away.
Tethered to their doghouses, they jump and bark, demanding her attention. Johnston has had them for a couple of years now.
“They’re spread out just enough so they can’t reach each other because they like to get tangled,” she told Juanita Taylor for CBC Radio’s Unreserved.
It was a frigid –24 C Saturday in February. Even on cold days, dogs need to be fed.
Johnston was also going to take them for a run this day. That's their second love in life — after her, of course.
But before harnessing a selected few, she checked on a new litter of pups that her dad put in a tent to keep away from the other dogs and the cold winds. The three newborn pups are nestled in straw in a wooden box with their mom, Sophia’s lead dog, Siti.
Sophia said since Siti’s been out of the pack nursing her babies, the other dogs haven’t been listening as well. As lead dog, Siti typically "puts them in their place," Johnston said.
Johnston knows their personalities of her dogs very well.
“There’s Buddy, she’s really energetic," she said, pointing to one that was named by her nine-year-old brother, Myles. Out of the bunch, Buddy is Myles's dog.
She also points out Bullum — "chubby" in Inuktitut — who's very affectionate and "loves to hug everybody.” There’s also Kangutaq, who is shy, and friendly Pujuq, and Aklak, who is strong and "runs around a lot."
Keeping this dog team is not just a hobby for Johnston. She doing it as a way to help preserve her Inuit culture.
“I think it's a really good tradition. It represents a lot of the hardships of Inuit, you know, and how they had to use their dogs and go hunting and stuff,” she said.
Before snowmobiles, Inuit used dog teams for transportation to move from camp to camp, to hunt and fish, and provide for their families. They could also provide protection at times against predators such as polar bears and wolves.
