As Iditarod Has Changed, So Has Its Relationship With Its Native Roots, Mushers Say
![Man in black baseball hat and black puffy jacket standing on a busy Anchorage street.](https://knom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/20180303-Pete-Kaiser-at-the-ceremonial-start-in-Anchorage-1200x800.jpg)
Longtime Bethel musher Pete Kaiser surmises it’s become more difficult for some in smaller, rural communities to manage an Iditarod-caliber team. “It’s really not a hobby or anything else, it’s a lifestyle, and it requires my time 365 days a year. And when you have other things going on like family and kids, you kind of need a job to support this job. It gets very complicated.”