The Chukotka Sled Dog (Russian: чуко́тская ездова́я, chukótskaya yezdováya, 'Chukotsky riding dog', literally 'riding Chukotsky') is the aboriginal spitz breed of dog indigenous to the Chukchi people of Russia. Chukotka sled dog teams have been used since prehistoric times to pulls sleds in harsh conditions, such as hunting sea mammals on oceanic pack ice. While most famous as the progenitor of the Siberian husky (and related to the Alaskan Malamute), Chukotka Sled Dogs almost died out during the Soviet era due to lack of interest in preserving genetically purebred examples and have only recently made a resurgence. In 1999, the Russian Kynologic Federation (RKF) approved the first official standard of the breed. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)