Iditarod’s #metoo problem
Update #2: The Alaska Department of Law this morning (2/22/2024) withdrew the charges against Eddie Burke Jr.. A department spokesman said a statement as to why would be forthcoming. The phones were not being answered at the headquarters of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Burke Facebook messaged that “I will be happy to speak…after I get a response from Iditarod.”
The woman he was alleged to have assaulted left Anchorage sometime ago and appears to be back with her family.
He further threatened to “take full action to protect myself if anyone publishes these False accusations associated with my name.”
This continues to be a developing story.
Update: The Iditarod today announced it was disqualifying 2023 Rookie of the Year Eddie Burke Jr. from this year’s race for having violated the “personal conduct” rule. Burke is the unnamed musher in this story who has been in court facing a felony assault charge. He is accused of attacking a woman with whom he was in a relationship in 2022.
The statement did not provide a tally of how many members voted for the disqualification. Burke, who finished seventh in the Iditarod to claim the top-rookie honor last year , has not commented. He was at that time already facing the charges that got him tossed from the race.
This story is still developing.
Original story
With two sled dog drivers missing from the field for the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race last month because of allegations of abusing women and yet still headed for the start line of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race next month, Alaska’s self-branded “Last Great Race” appears to be mushing blindly toward a national #metoo moment.
What Kusko did in asking the men to stay home was, on some level, inherently wrong. Neither man has been convicted of anything, and one of the foundational standards of American society is that people are innocent until proven guilty.
Of the two men in question, one has been charged in court with choking a woman to the point she feared for her life but the case has yet to go to trial. The other has been charged with nothing but stands accused of multiple sexual assaults by an organization that aids women.
That a dog race based in Bethel, the regional hub for rural Southwest Alaska, would want nothing to do with men tangled up in all of this is easily understandable. For months now, there has been much chatter about these two swirling behind the scenes in Alaska’s small community of mushers, and it is natural that any event in rural Alaska, where the rate of domestic violence and sexual assault is even worse than in the rest of the misogynistic 49th state, would want to distance itself from anyone with a possible connection to domestic or sexual violence.
So far the Iditarod has done nothing, but today asent Iditarod competitors a message saying it “has been informed of a number of accusations being made within our community concerning violence and abuse against women. The Board strongly condemns this behavior.”
Two mushers are involved, but before getting into what is known about them some things need to be said about the Kusko-driven implications for Alaska’s best-known and pretty much only major sporting event, the Iditarod.
The problem for the Iditarod today is that the action taken by the Kusko plus the lack of protest from the mushers who were involved there lends at least a hint of credence, albeit tiny, to the possibility there is something to the accusations against both men. But most significantly and more importantly in terms of Iditarod, these accusations provide animal rights activists who’ve been trying to kill the race for years a new weapon to use to try to discredit the race.
The obvious propaganda pitch, or what people now politely prefer to call the “spin,” can be summarized in two sentences:
“Not only do Iditarod organizers not care about the dogs, they don’t care about women. Competitors this year include a man facing a felony charge related to domestic violence and another who has been accused of raping multiple women.”
From there an organization like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the main non-government entity (NGO) now leading attacks on the Iditarod, can pretty easily transition into the well-documented connection between domestic/sexual violence and animal abuse.
All of this is a bad look for the Last Great Race in the here and now even if the accusations are later found to be untrue, which they could be. But think of what happens if there is any substance to these accusations.
Imagine this spin:
“Alaska where men are men and women win the Iditarod while the Iditarod overlooks domestic violence (or sexual assault or, in the worst case, domestic violence and sexual assault).”
The tough choice
All it would take for the proverbial excrement to seriously hit the fan is for the accusation against either one of the mushers to be judged true with the Iditarod having ignored it as if it didn’t matter.
All of this leaves Iditarod with only one sensible choice on what to do here: Follow Kusko’s lead and ask the mushers in question to withdraw from the race until these accusations are resolved.
The Last Great Race, for whatever reason, has not done this. It would be nice to believe the decision is centered on an overwhelming belief in fairness, but fairness is the last thing a race that has worried little about fairness in the past should be worrying about in this case.
Over the years, Iditarod has been riddled with unfairness as is often the case in sports in general. More on this below, but suffice here to say there has been considerable bending of the rules and inconsistent treatment of mushers for a whole variety of reasons.
Against this backdrop, removing a couple of potential Iditarod contenders for 2024 in the interest of the race’s image doesn’t seem all that bad. They can come back next year or whenever the accusations are resolved.
Come back next year has for a long time been the standard advice given back-of-the-pack (BOP) mushers booted from the race for simply going too slow. And never mind that some of them had spent their entire life savings on a one-shot attempt to go from Anchorage to Nome with a dog team. The Iditarod has fairly earned its title as a graveyard of dreams.
The ugly details
Now, for those who must know more as to the nature of the accusations, one of the mushers in question has for more than two years been battling a felony assault charge. The charges stem from Anchorage Police Department (APD) investigation and were filed with the court by the Alaska Department of Law not long after the end of the 2022 Iditarod.
The complaint details a confrontation between the musher and a woman with whom he had a relationship.
She “threw a phone at him, but did not hit him,” the court file says. “He then threw it back at her and hit her. She had a corresponding welt on her chest that was observed. Then (the woman who was first uncooperative with officers) explained she tried to leave…(but) he then grabbed her by the back of the neck and threw her to the ground, then got her in a chokehold from behind.
“She said she tried to grab at his face, and he bit her finger. She described how she was fighting for her life while being strangled and thought she was going to pass out because she could not breathe. She explained that he only stopped because his sister came in.”
The case of the other musher is far more complicated. No charges have been filed against him. In his case, there are only accusations that track back to an email the Alaska state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates sent to the Fairbanks-based Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in November.
Craigmedred.news received a copy of the email not long after the Quest got it. Attempts to obtain comment from Alliance director Rose O’Hara-Jolley have proven unsuccessful in the months since. She hasn’t answered phone calls, text message, emails or Facebook messages. Neither has the Alliance’s spokesman.
As for the musher accused in the email, he has long failed to respond to this website because of past questions about his dog care. The latest accusations against him have not been reported up to this point because there is no way to substantiate any of them.
They would have remained unreported if not for what happened with the Kusko and now the Iditarod.
If the claims in the email are false, the musher has excellent grounds for a defamation suit against O’Hara-Jolley and the Planned Parenthood Alliance, for which she works. Such a lawsuit could be worth considerable money if the musher won.
And the claims could be false. A supporter of the musher #2 has privately suggested the accusations are nothing but an attempt by “disgruntled handlers” to smear the man. This is a variation on a common defense in cases like this, but there are no doubt disgruntled handlers in this state.
Being a dog handler for some, but far from all, Alaska Iditarod kennels isn’t much different than being an indentured servant retained to shovel a lot of dog crap, babysit a mob of dogs and live in marginal housing in exchange for nothing more than a chance to run one of the kennels’ dog teams at some race at some time.
If a deal of this sort is made and the kennel fails to produce the race opportunity, which has been known to happen, someone could well be angry enough to try and strike back in any way possible.
On the other hand, the defense that a woman cried rape to get even with a man is an ancient tactic now treated skeptically because, historically, such claims have more often proven fraudulent than factual. But that doesn’t mean false claims never happen.
Humans are sometimes flawed creatures prone to lie and cheat no matter their gender or claimed lack thereof. Almost anything could be true in the case of musher #2, but if what O’Hara-Jolley said is factual, this is not your normal case of he-said, she-said, either.
“I am writing on behalf of multiple survivors who wish to remain anonymous for their physical and emotional safety,” she wrote. “Over the past six years, I have been approached in my capacity as an advocate by many women from diverse backgrounds and across Alaska.
“Each one has confided in our organization that they have been raped and sexually and physically assaulted by (the musher in question). We believe these women. I believe these women. (This musher) is a rapist.
“To our knowledge, these assaults have taken place over the course of a decade, and the ones we’ve heard about likely represent only a fraction of the ones that have actually taken place. One theme rings true through all of these assaults: Access.
“(The musher) has access to women in remote locations through mushing, guiding and on his homestead. These women have asked us to come forward on their behalf in hopes of protecting women in the future.”
Innocent until proven guilty
Here again, it needs to be stated plainly and clearly that there is at this point no verification of the accusations against musher #2. There isn’t even a hint of verification.
Over the last few months, craigmedred.news has asked various women within or connected to the Alaska sled dog community for help in finding even one of the reported accusers willing to talk privately about her experience. None have contacted this website.
Because of this, there is no evidence to support the claims in the letter, and because of that, it is unfair to name the musher being accused. And if musher #2 is to remain unnamed, it seems a little unfair to name musher #1 although his name is a matter of public record.
The involvement of law enforcement in his case adds to the likelihood of a substance to the accusations, but it comes up way short of proving the accusations true. We have judges and juries whose job it is in this country to determine guilt and innocence.
Unfortunately, however, this matter isn’t just about the guilt or innocence of two individuals. The Iditarod also happens to have a lot at stake.
Up until now, Iditarod’s view would appear to have been summarized by a comment attributed to race executive director Rob Urbach by multiple sources who reported he doesn’t want to ask musher #2 to withdraw from the race because he “has a lot of fans.”
Fans are important, especially for Iditarod. Iditarod needs fans.
In the big world of professional, competitive sports, the Iditarod is a small-time event that has for decades been battling attacks from animal rights activists who want it stopped because they believe a 1,000-mile race across the Alaska wilderness from Anchorage to Nome is too demanding a task for beast or man, though many of both have proven them wrong.
Fairbanks cyclist Jeff Oatley in 2014 rode the Iditarod to Nome in 10 days, 2 hours and 53 minutes in 2014 on a fatbike. His time would have won every Iditarod dog race up through 1995. And if a man can do this, how hard can it be for a dog?
Let the now-gone Andy answer that. A typical though far from typical cross-breed mutt called an “Alaska husky,” Andy worked for the legendary Rick Swenson – a now retired, five-time champ – and on four occasions led Swenson teams to victory in Nome. Andy retired after that and then came out of retirement at the age of 12 to help lead Swenson’s buddy Sonny Lindner to victory in the Yukon Quest.
After that, Andy again retired to Swenson’s kennel to spend his senior years as a leader helping to train puppies. He finally died just short of his 20th birthday. The average husky lives 12- to 14-years, according to the American Kennel Club. A fair number of them, especially among those encouraged to lead sedentary lives, are dead before they reach the age at which Andy ran the Quest.
America might have evolved into an incredibly lazy country full of people happy to embrace the so-called “sedentary lifestyle” and adopt the idea that canine “companions” shouldn’t be asked to do more than their flabby owners could hope to do in their badly out-of-shape condition, but that doesn’t change the reality of mammalian physiology.
Fitness, something achieved through exercise, is a good thing, not a bad thing. So much for PETA’s contention, the Iditarod distance is inherently too hard for dogs.
Bad things
Domestic violence and rape are not good things under any circumstance or at any time, and to even put these words in the same sentence feels uncomfortable. Domestic violence and rape are abhorrent acts. They are criminal behaviors that should rightly send anyone convicted of such acts to jail.
And because they are such, the mere fact that there are accusations of domestic violence and rape committed by Iditarod mushers present animal-rights activists an easy tool to use to smear the Iditarod.
Say what you want about the misguided, a-rat-is-a-pig-is-a-dog-is-a-boy, save-the-fish members of PETA, they are not all idiots.
They know about the connections between domestic violence and animal abuse, and if I have heard the accusations surrounding these two mushers, which I’m sure some of the fanboys and fangirls now covering the Iditarod for Alaska legacy media have also heard, it’s likely PETA has heard as well.
This seems pretty much a given what with all the different people trying to tip me off to these stories in recent months. Someone almost has to have told PETA because I know that at least a couple of the people among those messaging these tips have had past contacts with PETA if not associations.
In simpler terms, they have shown a willingness to cooperate with PETA when they think their interests align as when a dog handler for five-time Iditarod champ Dallas Seavey reported what she considered to be dog abuse in his kennel.
Frankly, at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me all that much if one of the women with rape accusations has had contact with PETA if for no other reason than that PETA could be counted on to stand behind her and provide support if she decided to make a public accusation against a can-do-no-wrong Iditarod musher.
I could understand such a decision on a woman’s part, too, because among those fans about whom Urbach is concerned, there are some who truly believe an Iditarod musher can do no wrong. They are a minority of the Iditarod’s already tiny fan base, but they exist.
Witness the reaction to anyone who talked honestly about the outlaw Lance Mackey, a beloved Iditarod champ, after his death in the fall of 2022. Most of the news coverage in the 49th state would have made you think the only thing he did other than run the Iditarod was spend his free time helping Mother Teresa with her good works.
The reality was that he led a complicated and sometimes difficult life which saw him booted from the Iditarod in 2020 after drug tests found he’d been using methamphetamines, a turn of events PETA was happy to take advantage of though it appeared the meth had little to nothing to do with dog care.
“The truth is that I need professional help with my latest life challenge. I am in the process of making arrangements to go to a treatment center where I can get the professional help and real change I need. I’m ready to confront this with all of my focus and determination.”
Iditarod fans were happy to accept this apology, as was most of the sporting world, because drugs and alcohol present pitfalls that trap many and because the biggest victims of drugs and alcohol are mainly, though not always, those who cannot control their desire for drugs or alcohol.
Domestic violence and rape are a whole different matter. These are behaviors for which apologies and rehab fail to suffice. These are behaviors for which society rightly wants punishment. As such, they are the ideal behaviors for PETA to use to try and trash Iditarod.
Timing
That this hasn’t happened yet is most likely because the time for dropping the bomb is weeks away. The ideal propaganda strategy is to sit on these accusations until shortly before the Iditarod start on the first Saturday in March because that is when a world that ignores the Iditarod for most of the year starts paying some attention.
Suffice it to say, internet traffic well illustrates how little the world cares about The Last Great Race this time of year despite this being the middle of the Alaska sled-dog racing season. The internet, traffic-tracking website Similarweb reports that for the month of January, the Iditarod.com website recorded 72,803 visits or about one-seventeenth of the more than 1.2 million visits to Arrowheadultra.com, a website for a fat-bike/run/ski/snowshoe race in northern Minnesota.
But Iditarod traffic is about to change. Near the end of this month, the traffic at Iditarod.com and at Alaska media websites covering the race starts to skyrocket. It peaks during the race and then crashes back to earth after the race ends almost as fast as it rose.
The time for PETA to #metoo bomb the Iditarod, given a start date of March 2, would probably be on Feb. 28, when Iditarod has scheduled its Media Day in the Spenard Room at the Lakefront Hotel.
Who knows, the animal rights group might already be planning its own little meet and greet to talk about DV and sexual assault downstairs at the Lakefront on that day. But don’t tell Iditarod, which appears clueless to the public relations risks here and thinks it can solve all problems the way it solved Dallas Seavey’s problem with doped dogs.
Don’t investigate what might have happened. Don’t even open the report from experts who concluded the doping most likely happened in the Nome dog lot about an hour before the drug testing took place when Seavey’s wife – now ex-wife – was in the dog lot. Yes, if the scientists are to be believed she was most likely there when her now ex-husband contends an animal-rights saboteur was sneaking around slipping tramadol pills down the throats of his hounds.
Iditarod might have learned something if it had read that report or listened to the chief of drug testing it fired, but knowing more would have meant it might have been forced to do something. And the last thing the race wanted to do was further damage its relationship with its hottest young star.
This is the way things work. Iditarod is an event where race rules have long come second to marketing and other considerations, something an Alaska judge told the race was fine back in 2009. That was the year BOP musher Rob Loveman from Montana filed a lawsuit against Iditarod for booting him from the race after concluding his dog team wasn’t moving fast enough.
Loveman correctly pointed out that in deciding to “withdraw” him, Iditarod violated its own rules. But Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski eventually ruled Iditarod is a private entity unbound by its written rules. It has the power to run the race any way it wants.
The ruling left Iditarod feeling so empowered that in 2016 it imposed a gag order on Iditarod mushers to warn them they’d be kicked out of the race if they were found to have said anything judged to be unfriendly to the event, such as, for instance, voicing their opinions about the behavior of other mushers or publicly complaining about the unfairness of race withdrawals the way Loveman did.
Since the Loveman incident, Iditarod has booted more back-of-the-pack mushers out of the race for not traveling fast enough, some of them fairly and some unfairly, while going out of its way to help a failing BOP musher or two it thought had publicity value or good connections with Iditarod insiders.
In the Iditarod, there are rules and then there are rules. In 2010, Canadian musher Hank DeBruin was kicked out of the race because he left the Nulato checkpoint 12 minutes behind the musher in front of him and because he was running purebred Siberian huskies, which many associated with the Last Great Race consider incapable of keeping pace with the thinner, lighter Alaska huskies of the new era.
In 1986, the race allowed Dave Monson, the husband of Susan Butcher, to fly to every checkpoint along the trail to help coach her to her first victory despite a rule that specifically banned “outside assistance.” Butcher that year beat Joe Garnie, an Alaska Native from the small village of Teller north of Nome, to the finish line by less than an hour.
No one will ever know if Butcher would have won without the help. She was one hell of a dog driver and long appeared destined to win. And, in the wake of that first confidence-instilling victory, she rattled off two more in a row. But her competitors had enough concerns about what Monson did that they pushed to have the rules rewritten to specifically ban such assistance in the future.
Over the years that followed, mushers found various ways to bend the so-called Monson rule. Now, though the ban on “outside assistance” remains in the rule book, the Iditarod’s decision to legalize the use of satellite communications by mushers has significantly undercut it.
In the old days, Sass, who had just struggled through a storm in the Topkok Hills behind him, might have stopped to rest with his team at the cabin but the intel provided by Ellis made it clear that would be a bad idea, so he took off.
No penalty was imposed for Sass’s use of this “outside assistance.” This is the Iditarod. The rules are flexible.
Because they are such, it would seem less than totally unfair to tell a couple of mushers to sit out the 2024 race until the accusations of sexual assault and domestic violence leveled against them are resolved.
Especially since the alternative – letting them stay instead of asking them to leave – is one only an organization that has overdosed on arrogance would consider given that this situation isn’t at all like Seavey’s doped dogs.
In this case, Iditarod can’t win by arbitrarily declaring nothing happened and then walking away as if nothing happened because most of the fans could care less about whether doping happened or not. There is, for most fans, a huge difference between doping dogs and abusing women.
Condemnation and monitoring just don’t seem to cut it here. Investigations and decisions are in order in the cases of both men. Both in fairness to them – as said above, it possible they are innocent – and for the good of the Iditarod.
Some things in life can be made to go away by waving a magic wand and others can’t. And in these #metoo times, DV and sexual assault are on the list of things that can’t be buried and ignored unless maybe you want them to blow up under your Wasilla headquarters and take the whole structure down.
Categories: Commentary, News, Outdoors
Well written article Craig. Its also worth mentioning that PETA (not unlike TMZ) offer compensation to ‘sources’ to contribute any info that can be used/spun to help support their agenda. 100% agree that the timing and sudden random enforcing of this #53 rule is more than suspect and unequal! Can a non- profit run itself the way it choose to write and interpret bylaws chooses? Not entirely, no! Judges and juries should only be allowed to prove guilt or innocence and render the end consequences based on truth. The bylaws should standup within the actual legit law… IE: if you are proven and convicted of a crime, felony, etc… you simply can’t compete from that point on. But until such time, your are presumed innocent and if/when found out later to be guilty, you are banned and will be fined for damages to repay any monetary earnings, and subject to be stripped from any trophy/title you may have earned in that current season of the documented conviction… period!
I’ve spent numerous years supporting (and defending) the Iditarod. I’ve also spent several decades working for/with non-profits and within excessively predator-male, narcissistic dominated industries. As a woman, I have first-hand witnessed many sexual assault violation charges that were true, but double to triple the amount of fake allegations. There ARE ways to conduct a professional organization, enforce rules fairly and equally and legitimately punish unacceptable &
and illegal behaviors… ITC needs to stop being so ignorant to these ways of operating in the modern world, and no lomger allowed to ‘govern’ however they feel like just because they’re a nonprofit org. Anonymous accusers also need to stop being instantly rewarded any kind of justice for claims until their truth can be legitimately be validated, tried and proven! No matter how complex or uncomfortable the situation is here people, EVERY one has accountability and responsibility to uphold in this one!
Sadly, an Alaska judge long ago decided a nonprofit could operate anyway it wanted and didn’t even have to follow its own written rules.
And most major sports organizations these days usually suspend people upon their being charged with serious crimes,
It’s very sad… and that’s the key point isn’t it, legit sport orgs suspend when there are actual charges brought, not rumors. Smh
Not just organizations, but all people should follow the constitution and the resultant laws and verdicts. If we resort to rumor and innuendo to judge we are lost. Anyone who has been affected by bad gossip knows what I mean.
The downside of this type of decision making is very destructive and the resultant damage is usually not reparable.
If we want a lawless society, so be it. Pull out all the guns, hide behind a rock, and give up on reason. Good luck!
I love the iditarod and following mushing – but the horrible actions of a few can tranish the entire community. For me personally, I appreciate the Kusko and Iditarod for saying we wont support it. I hope the quest follows suit.
And I will say, its not about them being found guilty or convicted – it is about a private entity saying i don’t want these stains on my race that I have worked hard to build. You dont want the first thing being said about your race to be about rape or DV allegations. For the time being, they can remove the distractions so they can focus on what makes dog mushing and Alaska so wonderful.
And, also, I was just as shocked (and saddened) as many to see all of this come out. But just because someone appears “great” on the insider and social media – doesnt mean we should brush it under the rug.
An example of PETA compensating sources like a tabloid magazine does would be most appreciated!
Feel free to look it up yourself…
Google search, read their FB and IG Iditarod winner-bashing posts, etc. They’ve literally posted solicitation ads offering compensation for images/info.
They make no secret of it… that’s precisely how I learned of it.
Enjoy doing your own fact-checking homework to validate it to your liking. You’ll find it… I believe in you, Eric! 🙂
Great reporting Craig… It’s worth mentioning that PETA (like TMZ) offers people compemsation for tips and info (more often in photo/video format) to ‘encorage’ sources to contribute anything that can be used/spun to forward their efforts. 100% agree, with you the timing and sudden frequency of enforcing this #53 rule is more than suspect! Can a non-profit run itself the way it chooses to interoret their own bylaws? Not entirely, no. Judges and juries should only be allowed to prove guilt or innocence and render the end consequences based on truth. Just like with financial reports, NP bylaws should be transparently written and enforced equally within the confines of actual law and legal rights… IE: #53 should specify … if you are proven guilty/convicted of a crime, felony, etc… you simply can’t compete from that ‘legal’ point forward. But until such time, you are presumed innocent and if/when found out later to be guilty, you are banned and can be fined fir damages and to repay any monetary earmings, trophies and even be stripped of any title you may have earned during that current race season… period! Then, theres no room or random influence or misinterpretation or responsibility on ITC side, and iits the burden of the competitor if they want to risk all that or withdraw themselves from the race beforehand.
I’ve spent mamy years supporting (and defending) the Iditarod. I’ve also spent several decades working in/with non-profits and within overly macho-male dominated, narcissistic industries. As a woman, I have first-hand witnessed many sexuall violations cases/charges that were true, but double the amount of fake allegations. There are ways to conduct a professional organization, enforce rules fairly and legitimately punish unacceptable behaviors… ITC needs to stop being allowed to be ignorant of the right ways to handle things in today’s modern world, and keep doing whatever they feel like just because they’re a nonprofit. And, anonymous accusations need to stop being instantly rewarded any kind of justice or influence for any claims until the truth can be tried and proven!
I agree one hundred percent.
I get it. The Iditarod board of directors don’t want bad press. They don’t want media focusing on a controversial side show of the Iditarod. But damn … it seems like bad press and controversy will be likely magnified exponentially now. All because the board went on a virtue-signaling mission that was not based on sound rationale. The state just proved their logic was flawed. I got the popcorn out and am watching to see what the Iditarod board of directors’ next mistake will be. Based on past history, I would bet the next move of the Iditarod’s will be a wrong move that hurts the race more than it helps.
Spot on Tim, 100% agree. The baffling hypocracy of DQing one musher with no actual charges filed while reinstating another with a actual legal case activity that were just dismissed (after allowing him to compete last season when those charges were actively known/filed) does zero for the organization’s integrity or credibility. Abysmal disservice to their own community all the way around!
I’m new to following mushing and I’m loving it, partly because women compete on the same playing field as men and I love rooting for them. I would hope there’s zero tolerance for toxic behavior, domestic violence, and sexual assault in this sport, and that people keep speaking out. When there are multiple accusers spanning years against someone who’s “known to be creepy,” maybe more folks should be calling on him to do the right thing and withdraw.
And shame on the person victim-blaming in the comments.
My heartfelt respect and support is first and foremost to the women. I am so sorry if any of them are reading this for what has happened to each of you. No woman should ever have to feel unsafe with a man. One just needs to put themselves in the shoes of these women who have gathered the strength and bravery to act on what no doubt has become a living nightmare in their world. Alaska has one of the highest rates of domestic violence and sexual assault for many reasons. Women in every state in the USA & Canada are constantly begged to report the violations if they have been or feel they’ve been a victim of this abuse. There are countless programs & groups dedicated to this explosive issue. These women no doubt have considered the risk, knowing it will become public and more so if the assailant is someone in the public realm such as the Iditarod where lets face it the mushers are placed on a pedestal by thousands of fans and financial supporters – in essence they can do no wrong. It becomes a fallacy for the supporter to even remotely consider a musher they may revere so highly, is really subject to bad abusive behaviors behind the scenes. When that person is in the public eye, perhaps won some big races and elevated higher, the dark side is not easy to see, or perhaps easier to excuse or turn a blind eye to. It takes courage to report something such as these allegations to an organization or employer – only to see your legitimate report be ignored? From the cryptic comments I’ve seen for a while now, the allegations did not happen yesterday or last week, they seem to have occurred in 2023 or earlier. What does a woman do when all the channels they follow are shoved aside, swept under a rug and ignored? They likely feel frustrated, hopeless, shame, embarrassment, likely self doubting. An organization that gives lip service but doesn’t act on initial complaints or allegations, won’t survive too long or perhaps shouldn’t deserve to in this day and age of 2024, Using the well known fallback of “innocent till proven guilty” seems a cowardly and weak excuse to not act immediately on anyone’s difficult attempt to report an assault. The Kuskokwim made the right decision. The Iditarod unfortunately can’t sweep this under the rug any longer. All too often society has fallen on the “innocent until proven guilty” mantra. In the case of abuse and sexual assaults, isn’t it time that society consider “the victim is innocent and let the accused prove they aren’t guilty? As for Craig, Thank You for bringing this to the attention of the public in such a careful and considered way.
Curious why you mentioned the victim’s name, Rose, but not the alleged assailant.
What story are you reading? Or do you know something I don’t? Rose O’Hara-Jolley hasn’t claimed to be a victim. She told the Yukon Quest she wanted to make it aware of multiple women who were victims. Are you saying she is among those victims? If that was the case, I probably wouldn’t have named her.
Anyone with a history of Alaska, knows these dogs are abused. I have read both the “Seventymile Kid” & “Burning Daylight” this winter…both books based on Harry Karstens and his mushing throughout Alaska at the turn of the 19th century. These guys had 3-5 dogs tugging the sled, they changed dogs at roadhouses every 70 miles of so…they let their dogs sleep in the cabin at 40 below…even let them in the saloon some nights. Anyone who thinks the Iditarod model is “how things were” is a complete idiot to real Alaskan history.
“The discovery of one or two bad apples in a barrel full of apples is not one bad apple to them. It’s “proof” that the whole damn barrel is bad. And they will go to great lengths to try to sell that idea to anyone and everyone.”
The problem is that the “whole damn barrel ” IS bad. Bad to the bone when the majority remain silent or on the sidelines of abuse, be that domestic or dog.
Iditoarod and LD racing in gemneral has backed itself into its own corner by failing to adequately address increasing travesties within and simply taking a lame and weak defensive stance against those who they constantly provide substance to to attack it.
I’m going to say right now, If some guy raped me, the planned parenthood chick would be the last person I would go to, to tell my story to. I would be filing charges with the authorities not having a hens gathering, or I’d just take care of it myself.
With the assault charges, there’s always three sides to the story, his, hers, then what really happened. I personally don’t give a care about the situations people purposely and repeatedly put themselves into, stay away from the dumbass if they do that to you.
As far as race associations getting involved and making judgements of who races or not, stick to proven animal welfare and animal treatment judgments and out of the hear say of peoples personal lives. Leave it to the courts and then the fans to decide who they still want to or not support.
The courts don’t get a say in who gets to run Iditarod. They can only take people temporarily out of action by sending them to jail.
I’m hoping you’re not suggesting someone who ends up convicted of abusing a woman should be treated less harshly than someone accused of abusing a dog. And we’ve had mushers kicked out of Iditarod after being accused of abusing dogs and at least one permanently.
Going to have to agree to disagree with you here Craig.
Last time I checked, it was a dog race not a woman race. Leave the non dog race convictions and punishments up to the authorities. And by the way, no one has been convicted as of yet from what I gather from the article, at least on these two cases. Leave it up to the sponsors and fans to do the shunning if so.
I personally don’t even have a clue as to who the hell is accused or not here, I don’t follow closely enough to get all up into these people’s drama. However I do know that this world has turned into an advocate cesspool anymore. I’m suppose to just take the word of some woman I don’t know down at planned parenthood, why, who the hell is she, what makes her words so fortified. The damndest people have been known to lie for the damndest reasons.
As a last thought here, I might be being a bit cold and not so todays popular touchy feely towards my fellow women out there, but stop being a damn repeat victim. Get out there and do something for yourselves.
Zip: It is a dog race. It also has a personal conduct policy that says mushers should be disqualified if they “engage in any public conduct injurious to and in reckless disregard of the best interests of the race.” I can’t think of a professional sporting event in the country these days that wouldn’t consider charges of assault conduct injurious to the race. Suspensions seem to be the order of the day in other professional sports when athletes are charged with assault. https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-vikings-cincinnati-bengals-nfl-entertainment-sports-23a5e3b3a16e852f41af2bd1c9319097
As for the accusations of Rose O’Hara-Jolley at Planned Parenthood, I think we are close to agreement. Not enough is known about her or what axes, if any, she might have to grind. And people lie. They all lie. It is especially complicated here because the musher she has accused is a world-class liar.
And because past handlers who have reported abuse in Alaska kennels have come under seroius attack from many in the mushing world, including some well aware of bad behavior in said kennels. It’s not hard to imagine some woman handler believing even worse might happen if she accused a musher of sexual misbehavior, especially if it is a musher with a big fan club.
O’Hara-Jolley, meanwhile, is someone in a position to come in contact with such women. The organization with which she works makes avaliable morning-after pills in Fairbanks. All these complicating factors would seem to make the accusations worthy of investigation, which would actually be good for all parties. Either something happened here or it didn’t. Get to the bottom of it.
Lastly, I’m glad to have known a lot of women like you in Alaska. The I’m-not-taking-shit-from-anyone group. It’s very old school, but even in the old school there were some women who gave in to regular abuse and somehow embraced the idea that it was, for lack of a better desription, “their responsibilty” to live with it. I’ve known a lot of women like you who couldn’t begin the grasp the idea of such behavior, but it reguarly happens even in these new, #metoo times.
All of which has left me with the opinion that alleged sexual assaults could have happened, or they could be total bullshit. All any of us can really “know” at this point is that O’hara-Jolley thought the claims creditable enough to put her name to them and take them to the Quest board.
There is no comparing the 2. Animal abuse is in the Iditarod’s lane since the race focuses on competing animals. Abusing a woman/person has nothing to do with the race, especially since there are no formal allegations. Not 1 woman has made a police report, they all allegedly shared with a random Planned Parenthood person? That’s highly suspicious.
100% The timing and sudden frequency of enforcing this #53 rule is more than suspect! Can a non- profit run itself the way its bylaws chooses? Not entirely, no. Judges and juries should only be allowed to prove guilt or innocence and render the end consequences based on truth. The bylaws should be within the actual legit law… ‘if you are proven and convicted of a crime, felon etc… you simply can’t compete from that point on season to season. But until such time, your are presumed innocent and if/when found out later to be guilty, you are banned and can be stripped from any trophy you may have earned in that current season… period!
I’ve spent several decades working in/with non-profits and in macho male dominated industries. As a woman, I have first-hand witnessed many sexuall violations charges that were true, but double the amount of fake allegations. There are ways to conduct a professional organization, enforce rules fairly and legitimately punish unacceptable behaviors… ITC needs to stop being allowed to be ignorant of those ways and do what they feel like just because they’re a nonprofit. And anonymous accusers need to stop being instantly rewarded for claims until the truth can be tried and proven!
“Humans are sometimes flawed creatures”.
This sentence should read.
Humans are flawed creatures pretty much all the time.
Otherwise, great article.
Planned Parenthood was a Margaret Sanger experiment in modern Eugenics…not the most credible organization.
I expect very few alive today even know who Margaret Sanger was.
Or what eugenics is.
She’s infamous for eternity.
Horrifyingly so.
I got no problem with asking the alleged abusers to withdraw. The worse that can happen is one or both say “no”. So, what do you think should happen if they say no?
If they are asked and refuse, then they should be allowed to run. The ‘ask’ should be an internal move and not public.
So does that apply to both the guy in court facing criminal charges and the guy who only stands accused? The New York Yankees in July suspended Jim Cordero for the rest of the baseball season though he hadn’t been charged with anything but was the subject of an inverstigation. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/yankees-reliever-jimmy-cordero-suspended-for-rest-of-2023-season-for-violating-mlbs-domestic-violence-policy/
NASCAR, the motorized version of what Iditarod would like to be, suspended Cody Ware for an indefinitive period after he was charged with strangling a woman, which is pretty similar to the case of musher #1 here. https://apnews.com/article/nascar-cody-ware-suspended-arrest-e900f0ddb512c599a0eab8e81ae17365
This seems to be a general policy in most major sports. The accusations against musher #2, however, are a different matter. Iditraod should, in my opinion, investigated those charges when they first emerged and formed its own opinion as to the substance of the mater. But that didn’t happen.
So your proposal there seems reasonable, except if a musher is lies. Then what? He gets to run the race with no repercussions?
That said I might go for your approach if the ask came with the provision that “if it is later shown that you lied to us, you will be permanently banned from the race.”
Well, here we go! I have always maintained that the rule of law should always run the show, not rumor. I have seen endless examples where the media has announced the arrest of someone who turned out to be innocent later. The social harm is immediate and permanent…and unearned.
It is important that all parties involved are held to account for the accusation(s) and the final result.
In the case of the Iditarod and the mushers, one way to go forward would be to have the alleged offenders sign a legal document that allows them to run, but should they be convicted, would need to return their prize money(if any) and be removed from the race ranking and pay a fine of X dollars for lying to the organization and (thereby) causing harm to the race organization and dog mushing in general.
Lay out the rumors for the alleged offenders, right there in the open, and give them a choice.
I also disagree with the treatment of alleged victims. Again, if people cast aspersions on others and it is found in court that they were lying, then they should face repercussions as well.
Keep it fair and level….and place the ‘load’ where it belongs.
Very well written and important article!
Sexual violence is systemic in society and unfortunately the world of mushing is not exempt. I found your comments about sexual violence against women and animal abuse to be very interesting. Something that has been established in research. It is not about sex . It is about the exercise of power of mostly men over women. It is about fear. It is problematic when it is allegations being made about an offence as opposed to the pressing of charges and a conviction. It is well established that a majority of women who experienced a sexual assault are highly reluctant to come forth publicly and press charges. This gets back to the role of fear. Again this is well documented. But times are changing. More and more women are coming forwarded when there is sufficient support in place of fear. It is a process and the presumption of innocence is recognized while a formal legal proceeding is initiated. The sooner this takes place the better for all concerned. In the end we can all hope that the facts will determine the outcome.
Without doubt this situation to which you describe so well will place the spot light on the Boards of major race organizations. It will focus on ‘who knew what, when’ and how the Board decided on the path of action. This obviously could be problematic and seriously negatively affect the integrity of the race if there was a lack of sufficient oversight. A tough situation but as the expression of ‘ truth to power’ implies, it is crucial to be on the right side. What is the right side? this will be reflected in how the Board dealt with the situation from the get go. ‘Who knew what when’? This is all the more complicated when the situation has not been legally adjudicated. But nonetheless decisions affecting the integrity of the race still have to be made.
Hopefully, the women who have allegedly been impacted come forth and press charges so that the legal system can make a determination of innocence or guilt. And the cloud of fear to some extent
has been lifted at least with respect to this situation.
Trial by media, real or social, does not agree with me. In the old days the rumor mill and good old prejudice could leave you hanging from a tree…. but things are different now. We have laws and all the stuff that comes with it. Let the law do what it does. Not always perfect, but rumor never is, and rumor usually hurts many. I’ve chased mushers down the Yukon Quest trail with my cameras for over sixteen years and know the conditions out there, physical, emotional, financial, and did sit on the YQ(Canada) board for seven years. I have rarely seen truly untoward behavior from the many mushers I have observed out on the trail-beyond the eyes of the public. I have seen many outstanding examples of determination, strength, courage, and resourcefulness, a powerful ‘can-do’ attitude that is to be admired. It appalls me that unfounded rumors, regardless of their nature, should interfere with any dog race. This type of behavior leaves all events and everyone open to destruction by gossip and ill intent.
Let the law sort it out, then, if convicted, DO rain down punishment with a steady, unbridled hand.
I generally agree with you on much of this other than the claim that things have changed. People have always been full of prejudice. They still are. And social media is now a force multiplier. Because of that and in this case, the rumors affect more than just individuals; they also affect an entity important to many people, ie. the Iditarod.
There were long before now people who wanted to do more than “interfere with any dog race;” they wanted to kill any that appeared to be competitive sporting events. They still do. What has happened here is nothing but ammunition to them. They see themselves (wrongly so in my opinion) more principled than the rest of us, and in the world of people who think like that, the ends justify the means.
The discovery of one or two bad apples in a barrel full of apples is not one bad apple to them. It’s “proof” that the whole damn barrel is bad. And they will go to great lengths to try to sell that idea to anyone and everyone.
As to the quantity of bad apples, my relationship with Iditarod goes back to the ’80s. I spent a lot of time on that trail over the years and my observations as to the behavior of the competitors pretty well echo yours. But I will highlight what you wrote: “I have rarely seen truly untoward behavior.”
Rarely is not the same as never, and I’ll leave it at that.
This isn’t really rumor either. As regards one musher, there is a court file. Law enforcement investigating potential crimes and turning the results of said investigation over to prosecutor who then decide files charges in court is not rumor. In the case of the other musher, we’re closer to rumor, but someone in a position to have knowledge of sexually assualted women put her name to accusations and presented those accusations to the Quest board in Fairbanks which aided some weight to what is being said.
It’s messy. I don’t like it. But I confess I’m most interested in what happens to the Iditarod, which already has a lot of problems.
I think it’s a bunch of crap that the Iditarod board can pass moral judgment on a racer based on an allegation (s) out of nowhere. These people should not be ruling on whether a musher can compete or not until after a thorough police investigation and charges are filed. I am very unhappy with the way Sass and Burke were treated by the race committee. They have destroyed Sass’s reputation and lifestyle with no proof…..Burke will always have this unfortunate stigma following him.
It’s very convenient that they can claim this behavior has been happening over 10 years but the police report has been filed. Not buying it