In the icy tundra of Siberia, people speak in tightly wound sounds with consonants packed like frozen gravel. A few thousand ...

"He isn't at all afraid of power tools, so we joke that he was a site supervisor in a past life," Ackley's owner told Newsweek.

Siberia was eventually to yield resources far more precious than furs, including gold, diamonds, uranium and, most important nowadays, natural gas and oil.

Throughout their long history, Qimmit have remained working dogs–still almost exclusively bred by mushers to pull sleds for ...