Mike Williams, Sr. is a well-regarded man. An Iditarod veteran, Yupik elder, and prominent tribal rights advocate, Williams is the type of musher who draws a big crowd at the finish line, even if he comes in 45th place. He shares some of his stories on the latest edition of KNOM’s Elder Voices.

Williams has mushed for sobriety since 1992. A member of the National Congress of American Indians, and husband to his wife, Maggie, and father to five kids in Akiak, he speaks about his Iditarod adventures. But he also recalls his traditional Yupik childhood in Akiak, and shares his yearning for a well-educated indigenous population. As Williams says, “laws were made by man. And they can be changed by man.”

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