The history of the Alaskan Malamute is strictly related to the origins and
history of the Eskimos that spread in North America after crossing the Bering
Strait about 6.000 ago.
So we can sure say that our breed is a very old breed, and not one that was
created by man, like many others.
The Alaskan Malamute was forged by nature, to survive the harsh Arctic environment
and serve the function of a multipurpose dog used for pulling, hunting and
fishing.
The Malamute breed takes his name from the Innuit tribe "Mahlemut"
that bred these dogs for thousands years altough those dogs were commonly
bred by several tribes.
The "eskimo dogs" developed some differences depending on the area
in which they were raised and on theyr function. These difference in type
is still present in the breed today and is evident even to the untrained eye.
Of course there were no conformation championsips back then in the Arctic
so there were differences in size and type even among dogs coming from the
same area.
M'loots
The dogs from the inland were taller and had longer legs and were somewhat
lighter in bone. This is probably due to the fact that the inland tribes used
smaller teams, so they needed bigger, stronger dogs. In the inland dealing
with deep snow was not unusual, so a taller dog with longer legs could better
serve his function. This type was later called the M'loot type, taking the
name from M'loot Kennel of Paul Voelker. The M'loot type was not so uniform.
Kotzebues
The coastal tribes on the opposite used bigger teams, seldom had deep snow,
and the teams were often used to pull fishing boats from the shore, so a smaller
dog could probably better serve this purposes than a larger dog. This type
was later called the Kotzebue type taking the name from the Kotzebue Sound
area. They were smaller than the M'loots, heavier in bone, and quite uniform
in type.
Third Strain
A third type which was neither M'loot nor Kotzebue was "imported"
from the Arctic by the explorers Lowell Thomas and Dave Irwin. Dave Irwin
sold some of his dogs to Dick Hinman so this third "strain" was
called Hinman-Irwin. It's been said that these dogs were coming from the far
north, polar areas, but this is not proven, so theyr origin is unknown. The
only thing we know for sure is that they were taken home by Lowell and Irwin
after theyr expeditions to the Arctic.
The third strain dogs resembled the Kotzebues in type but they were bigger
and heavy boned.
This third strain dogs have often been overlooked, but theyr contribution
to the Husky-Pak type was fundamental.
Spawns's Alaska, sire of Husky-Pak foundation dog and bitch, was almost a
third strain halfbreed, and Apache Chief of Husky-Pak (Geronimo) and Artic
Storm of Husky-Pak (Tacoma) greatly resembled in type the third strain dogs.
Interesting historical documents and pictures about the breed can be found under
Breed Info ---> Breed History.
We have collected several excerpts from the Journals of the Arctic Explorers that first
discovered and described our breed, and another page is dedicated to Robert
Zoller, "father" of the Alaskan Malamute, and his Husky-Pak dogs.