Day: 71

Simon Whips It Up

Temperature: -30F

Location: Baker Lake, Nunavut

Latitude: 64deg 05’ 33’’ N

Longitude: 96deg 36’ 20’’ W

Distance Traveled: 0 Miles - Baker Lake

We met a number of elders over the last ten days that we have spent in Baker Lake. One of them, Simon, is in his late 70’s. Almost all the elders do not speak English, so we translated through their sons or daughters. Simon’s daughter, Nancy, did this for him.

We talked a lot about dogsledding. In particular, Simon was an expert in the dog whip. A dog whip is about 35 feet long and, contrary to popular perception, the whip was never used on the dogs themselves. If so, perhaps only in a rare case of a fight. The whip is used primarily for herding the dogs.

The dogs would be running in separate lines called a fan hitch. There would be 10-15 dogs, and each one would have a long line about 17-18 feet, attached to the sled. But they could run side to side without any resistance. So the whip would be cracked on either side of the dogs to keep them in a straight line. Most of the time while running, the driver would crack the whip in a way that it was almost like singing to the dogs. Almost like music. This would motivate the dogs, and not out of fear. The whip was not used as a threat.

Simon gave us a demonstration of his accuracy, which was quite phenomenal. When I was here about 24 years ago, there were a number of elders that had run dogs, and were very good with the dog whip. Today, there are only a few such elders left. His demonstration was quite amazing. He would set up a pop can, and then crack the whip, knocking it over. And then three cans at a time, all with extreme accuracy [video of this is coming soon to the website].

The dog whip is actually a sign of the culture. In 1986, I saw a picture made by a 6th grader on Baffin Island called “Night Camp.” It was a black and white drawing that included a crescent moon, an igloo, a snowmobile, and a sled. The sled was turned upside down for the night. And then there was a dog whip. But of course by that time the snowmobile had completely taken over, and there were no more dog teams in use. But the whip, to this 6th grader, signified his culture.

Dog teams are actually now coming back more and more. Which is something good to see.

We will be leaving Baker Lake tomorrow. There are currently incredible northern lights out. This area seems to have some special northern lights, that appear right on the horizon, and it looks like you can almost reach out and touch them. I have seen northern lights like this since my last trip to Baker Lake, those many years ago.