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

37 страница из 77

That form of schooling out of town changed us from having a strong family unit to breaking us down. Then we had to adjust when we came back to villages. It was very difficult for us. Also, as adults that had children, they had a tough time raising them in the proper Yup'ik way, in the traditional way, as had been done in the past.

One thing I did like about being at Wrangell was the sports teams. That was good. I really enjoyed getting involved. I played basketball and I participated in track and field and long-distance running. For me, that was a relief from the rest of the routine.

When the school year ended in the spring I went home and it was so good to be back. My family was going to spring camp for hunting and I went almost directly from Wrangell to spring camp. That was so nice. It was a good homecoming. It was always good to be back with my brothers and sisters.

Looking back I can see that not everything was wrong at Wrangell. The curriculum, the schooling, was OK, was even good in some respects. But the marching around was silly and it was a loss not to be with our parents at a young age when you need your parents. We didn’t have that. We resented that somewhat and we would be angry at members of the staff that we felt treated us badly. I think I’ve gotten over it, but I still feel some resentment about the way it was all done. There were kids who went to school there and later hurt themselves, committing suicide, or drank themselves to death.