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Samuel Johannesen Balto (May 5, 1861 – 1921) was a Northern Saami explorer and adventurer. Balto skied with Fridtjof Nansen across
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
in 1888–89.


Biography

Samuel Johannesen Balto was born in
Karasjok Municipality or (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; ) (also: ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Karasjok (village), village of Kara ...
in
Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...
county,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. He had worked as a
lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...
, as well as in
reindeer herding Reindeer herding is when reindeer are herded by people in a limited area. Currently, reindeer are the only semi-domesticated animal which naturally belong to the North. Reindeer herding is conducted in nine countries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russ ...
and
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
. In 1888, Balto was recruited by Fridtjof Nansen for Nansen's Trans-Greenland Expedition. Balto participated in the first recorded crossing of the interior of Greenland, together with Nansen and four other expedition members. Balto wrote his own book after the expedition: ''Med Nansen over Grønlandsisen i 1888 – Min reise fra Sameland til Grønland''. In 1898, Balto moved to
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
and signed a two-year contract as a reindeer herder. In 1900, he led a large group of Sámi hired as
reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
herdsmen during the Lapland-Yukon Relief Expedition later known as the ''Manitoba Expedition''. Samuel Balto, together with 113 other people from Finnmark were hired by Sheldon Jackson to be involved in the introduction of reindeer in Alaska. Jackson promoted a plan to import reindeer from Russia to introduce reindeer husbandry to the Inupiaq as a solution to their loss of subsistence resources. The group was responsible for transporting goods and mail from
Nome, Alaska Nome (; , , also ''Sitŋazuaq'', ''Siqnazuaq'') is a city in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough, Alaska, Unorganized Borough of the US state of Alaska. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula c ...
, to gold mining workers up the Yukon River valley in the central parts of Alaska. Eventually Samuel Balto became a gold miner at Nome, Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush. Balto staked three claims at a site which became known as Balto Creek. Samuel Johannesen Balto died in 1921 in Karasjok. Balto, the Alaskan
sled dog A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in Dog harness, harness, most commonly a Dog sled, sled over snow. Sled dogs have been used in the Arctic for at least 8,000 years and, along with watercraft, were the only transpor ...
made famous during the
1925 serum run to Nome The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the territory of Alaska, US territory of Alaska by 20 mushing, mushers and about 150 sled dogs ...
, which transported
diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...
medication across the U.S. territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic, was named in his honor.''Balto'' (Balto's True Story)
/ref>


See also

* Balto (dog), namesake * Jason (Ship)


References


Other sources

*Jackson, Sheldon ''Alaska and Missions on the north Pacific Coast'' (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. 1880) *Nansen, Fridtjof (tr. H.M. Gepp) ''The First Crossing of Greenland'' (London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1890) *Salisbury, Gay; Laney Salisbury ''The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race against an Epidemic'' (New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003) .


External links


Samuel Johannesen Balto (Fram Museum)

Image of Samuel Balto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balto, Samuel Norwegian polar explorers Norwegian Sámi people 1861 births 1921 deaths People from Karasjok People of the Klondike Gold Rush Sámi-American history Norwegian Sámi-language writers People from Nome, Alaska Fridtjof Nansen Balto Sámi in Norway History of Greenland Pre-statehood history of Alaska