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

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This started in 1975 or 1976 and at the same time we had about thirty dogs in the kennel. My brothers were taking care of them, mainly Walter. But back then we always had around thirty dogs in our family for transportation and racing. It was pretty tough for me to spend too much time with the dogs because of all the things I was doing in Bethel during that period. But I took turns with getting fish for the dog food, feeding the dogs, and handling their sleds and equipment. I would go to Akiak on the weekends and mush the dogs. I kept my hand in with the dogs.

At about this time there was an explosion in suicide amongst young people in Alakanuk, which is a little bit more than 150 miles from Bethel. There seemed to be suicides happening every week. This was exactly the type of thing we were trying to prevent from happening in Bethel through our program. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation was working with more than fifty tribes. We were trying to provide counseling services for the villages and it seemed as if Alakanuk was an important place to go.