Balto and the Great Race

Alaska and Hawaii were granted United States statehood in 1959. Before then, Alaska was an American colony that was purchased from Russia in 1867. As a result, Alaska carries a great deal of Russian culture and heritage with it, including the prominence of Siberian huskies as a method of transportation against the cold and dangerous terrain. Huskies as a breed can be “traced back over two thousand years to Siberia, which lies across the Bering Sea from Alaska” (7), and thus the breed has a long history of loyalty, devotion, and friendship with humans. Alaska is one of America’s largest states but is sparsely populated, making transportation and communication difficult, and Nome is one of the most isolated places on earth. Despite this, in 1925, “there were many opportunities for a strong canine with powerful legs and a healthy set of lungs” (5). Siberian huskies were known to be passionate, loyal workers whose intuition seemed to have evolved to be perfectly in tune with the needs of humans. Although all dogs share a Bond with Humans, huskies are especially devoted. One of the story’s primary musher figures, Seppala, was well aware of this and insisted on only using huskies on his sled teams.