Читать книгу Racing Toward Recovery. The Extraordinary Story of Alaska Musher Mike Williams Sr. онлайн

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Those lessons I learned as a boy are still important to me now. I think they rooted me in being independent and not dependent on anything or anybody else. They were teaching me to be able to take care of myself and confident in whatever I did. I have confidence in what I need to do and it came from those times. They also taught me that you had to work for what you needed. They had discipline. There was a sense of responsibility in providing for yourself and the family.

I come back to discipline. My father and Frankie had a lot of discipline. Not just to be able to get up in the morning, but to carry out all of their tasks in the right way. They were adapting to the environment and they took care of the fish and the meat. They took care of everything in providing food for the family.

Part of what I learned was to be respectful of the animals. They were our food, but in a way moose were presenting themselves to us to eat. Also part of the entire experience learning to hunt and to fish was sharing what you got. I was taught to share what you had, what you gather, and what you catch with others who needed food. That’s what we did and that’s what we do now. If we hunt a moose we share the meat. If we catch fish in the nets on the Kuskokwim River, we share the fish. There are always people who need food and there are Elders who fished and hunted for a lifetime who are no longer strong enough to work to get their food. It is our responsibility to make sure they have enough to eat.