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Eva Brunelle Seeley, nicknamed
"Short" for her height, is often considered "the mother of the Alaskan
Malamute". Mrs. Eva Seeley has been equally influential for the
development and recognition of the Siberian Husky, and perhaps that's why
she is considered as a giant (in spite of her height) in the field of
Northern Breeds in general and of sled dogs in particular.
Born in Worchester,
Massachussetts, 19??, she developed an interest in sled dogs through her
friendship with Arthur T. Walden, a famous explorer, writer, breeder and
musher. In 1923, when she was commissioned to organize a winter carnival
in her town, Worchester, Eva Seeley asked Arthur Walden to give a sleddog
demonstration as the main attraction of the feast. Walden agreed and
during the carnival Eva Seeley had an opportunity to lead a team herself.
This experience was so exciting that Eva's course of life would utterly
change.
In 1924 Eva Seeley (then Brunelle)
and Milton Seeley got married and spent their honeymoon at Arthur Walden's
inn. The friendship between Walden and the Seeleys went on and a few years
later, when Walden was preparing an expedition to Antarctica with Admiral
Richard Byrd, he convinced the Seeleys to run his Chinook kennel at
Wonalancet, New Hampshire, during his absence. The Seeleys agreed and the
couple dedicated themselves to the world of sled dogs with increasing
passion. Eva "Short" Seeley soon became a skilled musher and trainer of a
sleddog team of her own.
During Byrd's expedition, the
Great Depression struck America and the financial situation was so bad
that Arthur Walden's wife, Kate, had no other choice but sell the Chinook
dogs to the Seeleys. Thus, all the dogs Walden had set off with on his
expedition and the name of the "Chinook" kennel passed to the Seeleys. To
escape the Great Depression, the Seeleys took part in trade activities.
They moved the Chinook kennel to a land of 200 acres and started to
advertise their dogs as Dogtown Village, proposing sleddog laps to
tourists and capitalizing the profits in polar expeditions.
During the arrangements for
Admiral Byrd's expedition to Antarctica, a good number of dogs had been
brought to the Chinook kennels to be trained and selected. Chinook sixteen
dogs were not enough for the expedition, so more dogs were acquired from
Labrador and Alaska. Among the arrivals was a big male with a thick wolf
grey coat and a beautiful tail like a plume. His name was Rowdy Of Nome
and he had been brought by "Scotty Allen", a famous sleddog musher.
Allen had bought Rowdy Of Nome in
Alaska and, enthusiastic about the gentle nature of the dog, he kept Rowdy
with himself. He told Eva Seeley that, in his opinion, Rowdy was the ideal
representative of Alaskan sled dogs. Eva Seeley was captivated by Rowdy's
beauty: he was very different from the dogs she had seen so far. Rowdy was
bigger than a Siberian Husky, he weighed about 80 pounds, while he looked
just like a wolf, but had a very sweet disposition.
When Byrd's Expedition left, Eva
Seeley began to search for more specimens of that kind of bigger sled dogs
and in Elizabeth Ricker's kennels, called Poland Springs, in Maine, she
met a dog called Yukon Jad, who had been imported from Yukon to Canada.
Leonhard Seppala was breeding
Siberian Huskies at Mrs. Ricker's kennels. He was more interested in
smaller sled dogs, who were more suited for racing. It was Seppala who
gave the Seeleys Yukon Jad, who had become famous after the 1925 heroic
serum run to Nome. Like Rowdy Of Nome, Jad was a big, strong dog of a wolf
grey colour, his ears were straight and his tail was carried over his back
like a plume.
The Seeleys found a suitable mate
for Yukon Jad called Bessie, who had been given them by Walden. Bessie's
ancestors were unknown, even though Eva Seeley once referred to her as an
Groenlanded dog ("Kit Kirby's Interview to Eva Seeley", Alaskan Malamute
Annual, 1981). According to Eva Seeley, Bessie had a rougher coat than a
Siberian Husky and he had a "wide head, erect ears and an excellent racket
snow foot" ("Kit Kirby's Interview to Eva Seeley", Alaskan Malamute Annual,
1981). Bessie was crossed with Yukon Jad and on the first days of 1929
Seeley's first litter of Alaskan Malamutes was whelped - four remarkably
similar puppies. They were called Tugg Of Yukon, Gripp Of Yukon, Finn Of
Yukon and Kearsarge Of Yukon. The Seeleys soon developed a uniform strain
of dogs. This was accomplished thanks to accurate interbreeding and by
choosing dogs of similar looks only. In order to preserve the original
function of the breed, i.e. work dogs, the Seeleys used specimens that had
taken part in the various expeditions and whose skills had been
ascertained.
Eva Seeley turned to the American
Kennel Club (AKC) to have her dogs officially recognized. The AKC would
accord recognition provisionally. There must be the necessary conditions:
a number of dogs of sufficient quality and uniform features were to be
shown in mixed class till it was possible to have such a number of them as
to grant the continuity of the breed. Seeley and the other breeders of
northern breeds agreed to the condition and began showing Alaskan
Malamutes, Siberian Huskies and Samoyeds in some of the most prestigious
shows of the country. In 1935 the registration of the Alaskan Malamutes
with at least two generations in their pedigrees was started and Rowdy of
Nome was the first Malamute to be registered. Registration was granted
even to dogs with unknown ancestors, provided they got points in
conformation shows.
Shows, anyway, were not Eva
Seeley's priority. Her breeding program was mainly based on the selection
of work dogs for expeditions. In fact she was carrying out two kinds of
selection at the same time, one to produce work dogs, including crossbred
dogs, the other to develop the Alaskan Malamute pure breed. After a few
years, the Seeleys decided to adopt the name "Kotzebue" for their kennels.
The original name "Chinook" was not abandoned, though, and it was used as
a suffix, for example in the case of Kotzebue Panuck Of Chinook.
Every Alaskan Malamute that was
registered before 1950 was a Kotzebue, or a descendant of the Kotzebues.
During this period, however, a lot of other dogs, not registered at the
AKC, were defined Alaskan Malamutes by their owners and breeders. Roughly
at the same time, while the Seeleys were acquiring dogs for their kennel
of Alaskan Malamutes in New Hampshire, a man called Paul Voelker was
similarly operating for his kennel in Marquette, Michigan, known as M.Loot
Kennels. Together with the Kotzebues, the M'Loots and the Hinman-Irwin
dogs are the basis and the foundation of the breed.
When the Alaskan Malamute Club of
America (AMCA) became a member of the AKC in 1953, Eva Seeley became its
first president. She was officially bestowed the title of AKC judge. Her
merits are many; she was the owner and breeder of the first Malamute to
become an AKC champion (Gripp Of Yukon, in 1936), as well as the owner of
the first Alaskan Malamute to be registered (Rowdy Of Nome). Eva "Short"
Seeley became famous also for the demonstration given with her sled dogs
at the Olimpic Games of Lake Placid in 1932, an event that helped to
promote the popularity of Alaskan Malamutes and other sled dogs.
When Eva Seeleys died in 1985,
Carol Williams, who had been collaborating with her for years, took over
the Kotzebue line. Her dogs are pure Kotzebues and have Heritage and
Chinook as their kennel name, as in the case of Heritage's Kotzebue
Dakota. The other kennels that bred or are breeding pure Kotzebues are
Sno-Pak, of Arthur e Natalie Hodgen, and Tigara, founded by D.C. and
Dorothy Dillingham, now owned by Samuel Walden (Arthur Walden's nephew).
The mingling of Kotzebues, M'Loots,
Hinman-Irwins e Husky Paks, the selection that has been mostly successful,
is going on today and has dimmed the differences among the original
strains; Eva Seeley's legacy, however, shall be remembered forever. Thanks
to her dedication, the Alaskan Malamute was officially recognized as a
breed and successfully presented at shows. Yet, Eva B. Seeley's most
relevant contribution to the development of the breed perhaps lies
elsewhere, that is, in her love for sled racing. As a breeder, as well as
a professional musher of sled dogs, she offered all modern breeders a
standard and a model, showing how the best show dogs are also skilful
workers on a trail.
Reference:
Barbara A. Brooks e Sherry E. Wallis, "Alaskan Malamute - Yesterday and
Today", Alpine, 1998.
"Kit Kirby's Interview to Eva Seeley", Alaskan Malamute Annual, 1981.
Joan McDonald Brearley, This is the Alaskan Malamute, T.F.H.,
1975.
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