ILULISSAT, Greenland — When Stella Davidsen Olsen was 12 years old, her father presented her and her twin sister with a choice. Her family owned sled dogs, which can be expensive and a lot of work. Her father asked the girls if they'd like to take care of the dogs.
"If you don't want to take care of them, we have to put them down," Olsen, now 26, recalls him saying.
She and her sister immediately sprung into action, hunting and fishing to feed the dogs, and working to train them to pull sleds across Greenland's snow and ice.
Now, 14 years later, she's raising sled dogs of her own. Her dogs are like family.
"You cannot just have a dog and just not think of it. It's just a part of who you are," she says. "The dog is a part of you."
For generations, Greenlanders have relied on sled dogs for transportation and hunting. It's a proud tradition. Today, dog sled rides are a popular activity for tourists who travel to the island. But it's also a part of Greenland's unique culture that is under threat.
The number of sled dogs has been cut in half over the last 20 years — from 25,000 to 13,000 animals, according to researchers at the University of Greenland.
"One of the reasons is that simply, the traditional fishing and hunting culture is changing," Morten Meldgaard, a professor at the University of Greenland, said. Sled dogs are not as common in small settlements, and people are opting to use snowmobiles and other modes of transportation.
But those who have long relied on dog sledding are also having to adapt to a warming climate.
"This means that sea ice is not as common and as widespread as it was earlier on. And so, the use of the sled dogs on the ice is limited," he said. "And so in that way, the sled dog population is declining because of the warming of the Arctic."
That means mushers like Olsen have to adapt to keep this tradition alive.
On a recent excursion, she explained that the warming climate even impacts how many dogs she uses to pull a sled when mushing.
"I know that in some areas, you can see that we don't have snow so it's harder for the dogs to pull when we have snow. So, at least 10 dogs I need," she said. When there's more snow, fewer dogs are necessary to pull a sled.
She's also considering buying a sled with wheels to train her dogs, to account for the fact that there is less snow lately.
"It's been warm and the snow has been melting. It's really sad, but we just have to live with it," she said. "I'm not gonna quit my dogs because of the weather…but as I can see, it's really difficult."
Olson is fiercely committed to preserving this part of her homeland's heritage. For her, it's hard to put into words what it feels like to dogsled.
"You are living in the moment. You just have to be present all the time," she said. "I'm just here with the people and the dogs and nature. People always ask about how it used to be, but I can only tell it in my version because I live here and now."
And putting all of this into words will be key to preserving many of Greenland's traditions.
"Our lifestyle is changing. We don't live the same traditional way that we used to ... climate change is happening, " says Manumina Lund Jensen, a Ph.D. student at the University of Greenland. She's working to preserve knowledge about dog sledding through research and by collecting oral histories.
"That is the wisdom," she says. "That we have in Greenland that we pass on to the younger generations."
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