Racing Toward Recovery

Lew Freedman, Mike Williams

Description

For the first time, Alaska musher and tribal leader Mike Williams shares his remarkable life story with veteran sports writer Lew Freedman. Williams is a man of many parts, a sports figure, a government figure, a leader of his people, a husband, a father, and a Native man with one foot firmly planted in the twenty-first century and another firmly planted in the roots of a culture that dates back 10,000 years in Alaska. Williams competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race fifteen times, and was once the only Yup’ik Eskimo musher, a symbol to all Natives around the state. Although he was never a top contender for the Iditarod title, he was a competitor whom everyone cheered because he resolved that to shed light on one of Alaska’s greatest threats to the health and future of its Native people, he would carry in his dog sled pages—pounds worth—of signatures of people who had pledged sobriety.
A Yup’ik Eskimo, Williams saw firsthand how alcohol could devastate people as surely as if they had contracted a deadly flu: each of his brothers had succumbed to alcohol-related accidents, incidents, or illnesses. Williams describes how he recovered from his dependence on alcohol through religion, loved ones, and racing dogs. For many years Williams carried those sobriety pledges in his sled, focusing attention on a troubling, seemingly intractable problem. Williams gained national attention, being profiled by CNN, Sports Illustrated, and Good Morning America. Fellow Iditarod competitors have voted him “the most inspirational musher.”
“. . . These people were what you would call bad influences when it came to drinking, so I stopped hanging out with them. I spent more time with the dogs than people. The dogs were good therapy. I had to take care of them. I could take rides out into the back country and spend time alone in the wild. The dogs were very good for me.
“A lot of people might say that is an easy choice to make, to choose your wife and family over drinking, but it’s not an easy thing to stop if you feel you are addicted. That’s hard. There were some very hard moments in there. It was a huge challenge. I think when I started the real healing over losing my brothers and discontinued drink¬ing to mask my emotions that I did a better job of dealing with my grief. Elizabeth Sonny Boy helped. Several Elders spoke to me and they were helpful talking to me. They were not just standing by and watching. They came and talked to me and offered a lot of support. It was a nightmare with all of those deaths. There is only so much grief a person can stand.”

Sujets

• Sports d'hiver
• Sports d'hiver
• Sports d'hiver
• Sport d'hiver
• Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
• Recreation
• Iditarod
• Sports
• Animal Sports
• Dog Racing

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 12 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781941821671
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

RACING Toward RECOVERY
The Extraordinary Story of Iditarod Musher Mike Williams Sr .
By MIKE WILLIAMS SR. and LEW FREEDMAN
Text 2015 by Mike Williams and Lew Freedman Photographs courtesy of Mike Williams
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Mike, 1952-
Racing toward recovery : the extraordinary story of Iditarod Musher Mike Williams Sr. / by Mike Williams and Lew Freedman.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-941821-44-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Williams, Mike, 1952- 2. Recovering alcoholics-Alaska-Biography. 3. Alaska Natives-Biography. 4. Iditarod (Alaska)-History. I. Freedman, Lew. II. Title.
HV5293.W544A3 2015
362.292092-dc23
[B]
2014034748
Also available in e-book (978-1-941-821-67-1) and hardbound (978-1-941-821-77-0) formats.
Design by Vicki Knapton
Published by Alaska Northwest Books
An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118
Portland, Oregon 97238-6118
503-254-5591
www.graphicartsbooks.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Mike Williams Sr. is a resident of the village of Akiak in Alaska. He is a longtime competitor in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a leading figure in the Sobriety Movement for Alaska Natives, and an activist for improved living conditions for Natives in the Alaska Bush.
Lew Freedman is a veteran journalist and author who lived in Alaska for seventeen years and is the author of numerous books on dog mushing and stories from Alaska.
FOREWORDS
I have known Mike Williams since 1976 when I lived in Bethel. I knew Mike, his brother Walter, who was a really good sprint musher, the best of the best, and I knew his father Tim, who was a fisherman. I moved to Bethel to work for Alaska Fish and Game and everybody fished for salmon for their dogs.
When I first knew Mike, he and his brothers, and just about everyone else in the Bethel area, were subsistence fishermen. Mike and his brothers had a substance abuse problem. It is hard to watch people you really like self-destructing. It was just so sad. So it is incredible what Mike has overcome in his life.
Mike would come from Akiak and stay with me and my husband, Mike, in Bethel. So did his brothers. We loved to have them, but we were so worried about them. Once, I remember somebody going out in the winter without a coat because he was drunk. We prayed they didn t freeze to death on their way home.
Mike s brothers all were lost due to problems with alcohol, but Mike overcame the problem. You have to really respect where that man has come from. He is a spiritual inspiration.
Dog mushing was a big part of the Williams brothers lives. It brought them into the forefront of the community and gave them some success. The key for Mike being strong was in part due to dog mushing. He recognized the destruction facing his family. His faith in God was the only thing strong enough to change him. And his wife, Maggie, was driven to be successful. She has been incredibly strong for Mike.
The Iditarod became a big part of Mike s life, too. I always thought that dog mushing can be a real savior for rural Alaska. It gives Alaska Natives a closeness to their culture. I love to see it when Alaska Natives do well in the Iditarod. There is a realization they can be the best in the world. This is one thing that can help save the culture.
When Mike announced that he was going to carry signatures of Alaskans pledging sobriety along the trail to Nome during the Iditarod I was really proud of him. I knew Mike had made a big change in his life.
I think that the Iditarod can be a platform for more than a single year s race. It is an opportunity to connect with people everywhere. You can squander it or use it. Mike used it and built it so that he became known as the musher for sobriety. Doing well and being out there is admired in his culture, too.
Dog mushing and the Iditarod are so loved and respected in the villages. The people respect that you are regularly taking on the challenge of the thousand miles of the Iditarod. They understand the weather, the elements, and how hard it can be to be out there. The fact that you are in first place or fiftieth place, they don t care. They respect that you, that Mike, is tough enough to stay with it. Mike has been using his platform in the Iditarod to build something for his people.
Over the years Mike and I have done training runs together. I have been in Akiak and he has been in Willow. I spent the night at their house. Our families are close.
Mike can get a little bit radical at times and there can be differences of opinions over issues, but the person behind what Mike says is someone who is watching his Eskimo culture diminish. At one time Akiak was more of a metropolis than Bethel was. Mike knows of the days when things were really rolling. He remembers the times when there were only honey buckets instead of flush toilets in the Bush. He has worked to make sure his people retain their dignity.
He is right about so many things. Many of our people in Alaska live in more deplorable conditions than in other countries where we send foreign aid.
Mike Williams does what s good for his people. I think Mike is very sincere. He s passionate, and his passion shows that he has a great heart. His motivation is correct, that he wants to help people.
-DeeDee Jonrowe
Veteran Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race musher
I first met Mike Williams about thirty years ago. He introduced himself to me when I was coordinating an Elders conference in the Bethel region. He said he was interested in doing things to help his people. My wife, Amy, and I had fostered what had become known as the Sobriety Movement.
There was a blue ribbon commission to evaluate the problem of alcohol in Alaska s Native villages and it was concluded that Native leaders needed to take responsibility if they wanted to make meaningful change in the villages.
The first tangible action that was taken was that Native Alaskans discontinued the availability of alcohol at their meetings and functions. Mike was modeling the behavior he was advocating. We have spoken pretty regularly over the years about the problems created by alcohol in the Alaska Bush.
We talked over ideas and what could be done. Mike came from a family that was severely impacted by alcohol use. He lost all of his brothers to alcohol-related accidents and Mike drank, too, before he got sober and began raising awareness about sobriety and recovery issues.
As long as people are hurting there have to be people who are willing to step up and face the issue. Mike is willing to do that. It takes a special kind of stamina and commitment to do that and to keep doing that.
Mike told me he was going to gather signatures of Alaska Natives pledging their sobriety. And then he would carry all of the signatures to Nome during the Iditarod in his dogsled. I told him I was looking forward to his involvement. I thought, This is great . He stepped up again in his way.
Many people who used to drink share their stories and feelings, but Mike went beyond that. He took it to a much bigger audience. He has carried signatures in his sled many times because he believes in the Sobriety Movement. He is totally tenacious in that regard. He paid a price because of alcohol in his family. He experienced tragedy, as many people do. Sobriety is one part of the message of recovery.
Mike understands the level of effort and attention that is required to get people to pay attention to the problem of alcohol in the Bush. He knows and he has never quit. I can always totally rely on Mike if work is needed. He is just very well-known for his tenacity in helping people.
When you think about the lives of Alaska Natives getting better, you think about Mike. You think about the good that he does and there is lots of good.
-Doug Modig
Alaska Sobriety Movement leader
INTRODUCTION
The first time I met Mike Williams he was bundled up in a parka standing in a pile of mushy snow a short distance from Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska, awaiting the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
At the time I was the sports editor of the Anchorage Daily News and Mike was an entrant in the thousand-mile race between Alaska s largest city and the old Gold Rush town of Nome on the Bering Sea Coast.
I had written about the race and Mike had mushed in the race, but he was upping the ante. He had decided that to shed light on one of Alaska s greatest threats to the health and future of its Native people he would carry in his sled pages-pounds worth-of signatures of people who had pledged sobriety. A Yup ik Eskimo, Mike saw how alcohol could devastate people as surely as if they had contracted a deadly flu.
It was a cause close to his heart because Mike was the last surviving brother in what had once been a large family. Only each of his brothers had succumbed to alcohol-related accidents, incidents, or illnesses. He recognized alcoholism as a disease with terrible consequences that had wrecked his family. It had also almost claimed him, but he had righted himself.
Through religion, loved ones, and sustained determination, Mike Williams shed his own dependence on alcohol. That would be enough of a victory for some people, but Mike committed to spending much of his time working for the welfare of Alaska Natives by involving himself with committees, commissions, and tribal government.
A somewhat roly-poly man of about 260 pounds with a mustache, a dry sense of humor, and a love of laughter, Mike is an e