Five Indigenous mushers and their dog teams are well into the first leg of the Iditarod. The 1,000-mile race got underway in Willow on Sunday, as mushers headed out onto a vast landscape, covered with a fresh blanket of snow.
Two of the top contenders in a field of 37 mushers are Alaska Native. Ryan Redington, an Iñupiaq musher from Knik, won the race in 2023 —and Pete Kaiser, a Yup’ik from Bethel, took the title in 2019.
Kaiser skipped last year’s Iditarod and hadn’t planned to race this year until three weeks ago, following his historic, tenth win of Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race. After Kaiser set the record for the musher who has racked up the most Kusko 300 championships, he says returning to the Iditarod felt like the right decision.
“By the time the Kusko’s over, you know, you've done 90% of the work. Started training in July, and so I just felt like things were looking okay,” Kaiser said. “Felt like, going down the trail again. So here we are.”
Redington was the first into Skwentna at about 9:00 p.m. Sunday. His team clocked an average speed of 10.6 mph. His timing was very similar to 2023, the year he won the Iditarod.
As of noon Monday, Redington was in 11th place. After taking almost four hours of rest, he was in and out of the Finger Lake checkpoint and en route to Rainy Pass. Kaiser was in 17th place, also on his way to Rainy Pass. His team had about 30 minutes more rest than Redington’s. The two traveled at similar speeds between the Skwentna and Finger Lake checkpoints. Redington’s team clocked at 8.8 mph and Kaiser’s was running at 8:03 mph.
At this point, it’s too early to tell how the race will shake down, as mushers fine tune their rest-run schedules. Also, standings in the race can shift quickly. A 1:30 p.m. Redington moved into 7th place, out of Rainy Pass and headed to Rohn. Kaiser had dropped to 18th, not yet into Rainy Pass.
There are three Indigenous rookies in the race to watch: Jesse Terry, Kevin Hansen, and Jody Potts-Joseph. Although all three mushers are technically rookies, because this is their first Iditarod, they are not new to racing.
Terry, an Anishinaabe musher from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, says he’s been mushing dogs since he was 11 years old. He is a veteran of several mid-distance Canadian races and finished third last year in the Yukon Quest 450.
Hansen, an Iñupiaq from Kotzebue, started sprint racing in the third grade. Hansen grew up helping his father with his team. His father, Paul, also ran the Iditarod in 2017 at the age of 61.
Last year, Hansen finished second in the Kobuk 440, right behind defending Iditarod champ Jessie Holmes. During the noon hour on Monday, Holmes moved to the top spot in the Iditarod pack — and Hansen, found himself in the middle. But Hansen says he’s in the race to do more than win.
“Part of who I am as an Inupiaq, and you really feel it out there,” Hansen said. “And times when it's just you, your dogs and the land and dealing with the elements and challenges.”
Like Hansen, Potts-Joseph, a Hän Gwiich’in from Eagle Village, grew up in a mushing family. She says she was raised in the basket of a sled. Potts-Joseph is probably one of the best-known rookies. She starred in the TV show, Life Below Zero: First Alaskans -- and her daughter, Quanna Chasinghorse, is a model, featured in magazines like Vogue. Together, they’ve been outspoken environmental advocates.
“Why mushing out of all the spectrum of things that I do? It’s because that’s really where my heart is,” Potts-Joseph said. “I just love the land. I love being out on the land with the dogs. And it fills my soul, and it just gives me a lot of purpose.”
Potts-Joseph says it’s been a tough training season. Interior Alaska temperatures dropped down to 30 to 65 below this winter — too cold for her dogs to run safely. Her main goal: to finish the Iditarod with a healthy team. The first finishers are expected to cross the finish line next Monday or Tuesday.
You can follow the standings on the Iditarod website.
Editor's note: Desiree Hagen of KOTZ and Samantha Watson of KYUK contributed to this story.
