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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.

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.”

At Wales’ Kingikmiut Festival, Dancing to Heal

An Alaska Native dance ensemble performs inside a school gymnasium.

The Native dance tradition has been revived in Wales and other communities over the past 20 years, after decades of cultural suppression by colonial forces. Today, as one elder put it, “coming here makes us feel whole.”

Canadian Anniversary Voyage Engages Alaskans, Too

Nome kids aboard the Prince Royal.

A Canadian expedition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the country’s nationhood stopped in Nome last weekend. Canada C3, as it’s called, is traveling by ship around the northern coast from Toronto to Victoria, British Columbia.