SAVAGES, SAVIOURS AND THE POWER OF STORY: THE FIGURE OF THE NORTHERN DOG IN CANADIAN CULTURE MAUREEN RICHE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HUMANITIES YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO JUNE 2015 © MAUREEN RICHE, 2015 Abstract This research was motivated by a recent pattern in animal welfare texts in Canada that portray northern dogs as “savage” trouble-makers, and indigenous people as backward barbarians incapable of caring for the animals that share their spaces. With this comes the troublesome idea that, yet again, the only positive force in indigenous Canada is the civilizing force of outsider intervention: northern dogs need to be rescued; non-indigenous people are their rightful saviours. It is a story that has been circulating in the dominant culture in Canada for centuries, and has urgent implications for both human and non-human animals in Canada’s North. This dissertation consists of three sections. In the first section, I explore the roots of the colonial figure of the “noble canine savage” through representations in explorers’ journals, ethnographic films and tourism marketing texts. In section two, I consider how the represented dog differs in texts created within the framework of indigenous knowledge, including origin stories, indigenous cinema and elder testimony regarding the sled dog cull in Canada’s North in the mid-20th century. In section three, I return to the current media texts, and explore how they reproduce the racist rhetoric of the past. The aim of my study was to validate the indigenous view of northern dogs in order to better incorporate local stories into animal welfare projects in northern Canada. Future interventions in this regard may include the use of cultural exchange activities between indigenous and non-indigenous partners in such projects (e.g. between local community groups and visiting veterinary teams); prioritization of narrative approaches to relationship-building; and the use of more culturally sensitive language in public relations and marketing texts. ii Dedication For Joe, and for Bernie and Belly, and all the others who have shared the prayer road and talked to the gods on my behalf iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the support, guidance and patience of my PhD supervisor Dr. David T. McNab. Your knowledge and suggestions have been invaluable, and your enthusiasm for this research has buoyed the entire project, keeping me focused and engaged throughout the rough patches. Thank you as well for the countless conference, publication and lecture opportunities that have provided me the chance to connect with the academic and indigenous communities and to workshop the material. Thanks as well to my committee members, Dr. Gary Butler and Dr. Leesa Fawcett, for their support and feedback. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. ii Dedication ............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... vii Introduction: Cue the Dog ...................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Dogs in Early Explorer Narratives ....................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: The Northern Dog and the Moving Image: Edison and Nanook .......................... 43 Chapter 3: Desire and Distance: The Northern Dog and Canada’s Tourism Brand ............... 88 Chapter 4: Northern Dogs and Indigenous Knowledge ....................................................... 105 Chapter 5: When Dogs Could Talk: The Truth about Stories about Indigenous Dogs ......... 120 Chapter 6: Symbiosis, Slaughter and Story: Inuit Elders Re-Member Qimuksiit ................. 151 Chapter 7: Dogs in Inuit Film and Video Art: Responding to the Legacy of Nanook .......... 188 Chapter 8: The Northern Dog in Contemporary Canadian Culture ...................................... 228 Chapter 9: “Blood in the Snow”: Media and the Moral Panic of Northern Dog Attacks ........... .......................................................................................................................................... 245 v Chapter 10: “Beautiful Cases”: Love, War and the Discourse of the Northern Dog Movement . .......................................................................................................................................... 283 Chapter 11: Kill the Indian in the Dog?: Narrative Sovereignty and the Rise of the Rez Dog .... .......................................................................................................................................... 329 Conclusion: Always Start with a Story ............................................................................... 367 Glossary of Key Terms ...................................................................................................... 377 Works Cited ....................................................................................................................... 381 vi List of Tables Table 1: Two Views of Nunavut ......................................................................................... 120 Table 2: Kato Creation Story: Two Tellings ....................................................................... 149 vii Introduction: Cue the Dog In late August 2012, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made his annual trip north to promote resource development and Arctic sovereignty. It is a trip he has made every summer since he assumed office in 2006. That year, Harper travelled first to a tourism outfit near Yukon’s capital city of Whitehorse, then to a copper and gold mine in Northwest Territories, then on to an oil and gas development hub. He went eastward to visit a research station his government funded in Nunavut, then backtracked for the grand finale: a demonstration by an elite team of Canada’s military in Churchill, Manitoba. Considering his itinerary, it is evident that these trips are primarily about revenue generating, resource claim staking and nationalist chest thumping on the part of Harper and his government. They are about funding announcements (including one for a renewed search for the lost Franklin expedition), talking points and, of course, feel-good northern photo opportunities1. The image most editors chose to represent the 2012 prime ministerial tour was credited to Adrian Wyld of the Canadian Press, and appeared in numerous print and online publications covering Harper’s Arctic junket. It showed the PM, dressed casually in a navy blue bomber jacket with the word “CANADA” emblazoned in bold block letters across the chest, and his wife Laureen2, in a demure navy blazer, posing together at Caribou Crossing Trading Post in Carcross, Yukon. Between them was a playful husky puppy, a young member of “a group of sled dogs in training” (Levitz). 1 In 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper triumphantly announced the discovery of one of Franklin’s ships, the HMS Erebus, on the seabed of the Queen Maud Gulf. The find was supported by information gleaned from Inuit testimony (Varga), and was funded in part by the Arctic Research Foundation, an organization founded by former Blackberry mogul James Balsillie, who is Métis (McNab, Personal E-mail). 2 Laureen Harper is a noted animal activist, focusing her efforts on cats. In 2014, while speaking at The Just for Cats video festival in Toronto (wearing black costume cat ears), she was heckled for paying such close attention to feline welfare issues while her husband’s government allegedly neglects the more pressing issue of missing, murdered and indigenous women in Canada (“Laureen Harper Interrupted”). 1 In many respects, the dog has become the go-to mascot of Stephen Harper’s Arctic- obsessed tenure. His 2008 trip, for example, coincided with the biennial Arctic Winter Games, a gathering of the world’s circumpolar athletes, and a showcase for their unique sports and culture. The iconic photo for that particular iteration of the Harper-in-the-Arctic narrative was one of the beaming Prime Minister mushing a team of sled dogs – solo! for over an hour! trumpeted the press report – across a frozen bay to attend his ministerial meetings in Yellowknife. He also met with Games’ mushers, and stopped to autograph one of the sleds. Of course, behind every politician’s photo op, canine-centered or otherwise, is a politician’s agenda, and Harper’s is clearly articulated each time he ventures beyond the 60th parallel. In 2008, for example, the PM tut-tutted that “[t]here are some here who retain an older, anti-development view of the North”. But, he assured his audience, “[o]ur government does not share that [view]. The Great White North is as much a part of Canada’s identity as the Red Maple Leaf” (Cotter). In 2012, he called the North and its future development “a national dream” (Levitz). Cue the dog. This dissertation begins as an exploration