Аляска мұз шанасының шебері: Рами Брукс туралы деректер

Alaska Native dog musher, kennel owner, and motivational speaker

Ramy "Ray" Brooks (born December 24, 1968 in Fairbanks, Alaska) is an Alaska Native kennel owner and operator, motivational speaker, and dog musher who specializes in long distance races. He is a two time runner up in the 1,049+ mi (1,600+ km) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the U. S. state of Alaska, and a former winner of the 1,000 mi (1,600 km) Yukon Quest dog sled race across both Canada and the U. S.

Brooks is descended from the Yup'ik Eskimos and Athabascan Indians, two of the Indigenous groups who were the first to mush dogs in Alaska. His grandfather, Gareth Wright, was a competitive musher who won both major Alaskan sled dog races of the 1940s, the American Championship (twice), and the Fur Rendezvous World Championship (three times). Wright was also a dog breeder and kennel owner who became known for breeding the Wright's Aurora Husky from the Irish Setter, the St. Lawrence Siberian Husky, and village dogs. Brooks's mother is Roxy Wright (or Wright Champaine), another kennel owner and competitive musher. She became the first woman to win both the Fur Rendezvous World Championship in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Open North American Championship in Fairbanks. She won the open class of each event three times, and the women's classes eight times apiece. In 1990, she also won Europe's largest dog sled race, the Alpirod, across Italy, Austria, and France. She was also honored with the Mush with PRIDE Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996, and once competed in the Iditarod. Brooks's maternal aunt is Shannon Erhart, who competes in sprint races. She placed third in the Women's Fur Rondezvous race in 2000, and has also raced in the Open Fur Rondezvous. Her ex husband Curtis Erhart has raced in the Kuskokwim 300.

Brooks was raised in a Yukon River fish camp in the Fairbanks and Rampart areas. During the summer he operated a fishwheel, and during the winter he mushed the family dogs. After high school he joined the U. S. Navy then went to the University of Washington before returning to Alaska and married his wife, Cathy. His wife was raised in a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and attended Penn State, but moved to Alaska where she is employed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and works as the 4 H youth development specialist for the Alaska. Originally they lived in Fairbanks, but moved briefly to Delta Junction, Alaska, then Eureka, Alaska, in 1997, before settling in Healy, Alaska by 1999. They have two young daughters, Abbigal and Molly. The cabin they lived in at Eureka was owned by former Iditarod champion Susan Butcher. He and his family are currently living on Murphy Dome Road in Fairbanks Alaska. They still own the kennel in Healy. The family owns and operates Kami Kennels, primarily composed of Alaskan Huskies. Kami is a respectful Japanese term for sacred spirits, and Brooks chose the name to symbolize the importance of his family. Brooks has visited schools as a motivational speaker since 1993, participates in Mush for Kids since 1997, and from 2003 has been a trustee of the Alaskan Children's Trust. He attempted to commit suicide at age 16, and suffered from depression in his 20s. As a result, he began working with the Alaska Mental Health Trust in 2005, in an attempt to reduce the extraordinarily high rate of suicide among Native Alaskans.

During the 2007 Iditarod, witnesses said they saw Brooks punch and kick some of his dogs and hit them with a ski pole when they refused to leave a checkpoint during a March 15, 2007, stage in Golovin, Alaska, less than 100 mile (161 km) from the finish in Nome, Alaska. Brooks denies the more serious allegations, but acknowledged "spanking" the dogs in his team with a trail marking lath. One of Brooks‘ dogs died the day after the incident, but a necropsy could not determine why the dog died and race officials said there was no evidence that Brooks was to blame. On March 17, 2007, the judges voted unanimously to disqualify Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod. On May 18, 2007, the Iditarod Trail Committee Board of Directors announced that they had suspended Brooks for the 2008 and 2009 race, and following that, Brooks would be on probation for 3 years. Interviews of three adult and two child witnesses by an independent investigation team factored into the decision.