Raising Ourselves

Amazon.com Price: $12.45 (as of 10/11/2019 16:30 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

Born in 1960, the sixth of thirteen children, Velma Wallis comes of age in a two-room log cabin in remote Fort Yukon, Alaska. Life is defined by the business of living off the land. Chopping wood. Hauling water from the river. Hunting moose. Catching salmon. Trapping fur. Caring for the dogs. For a thousand years, the Gwich’in clan had followed migratory animals across the north. But two generations before, the people had settled where the Porcupine River flows into the Yukon. Now, the Wallis circle of relatives has a post administrative center box and an account at the general store, and Velma listens to Wolf Man Jack on armed forces radio. The writer discovers that her people have surrendered their language, traditional values, and religion to white teachers, traders, and missionaries. Flu epidemics have claimed many loved ones. Village elders appear to be strangers from any other land, and in a way they’re. There is much drinking when the monthly government checks come, and that may be when the pain comes out of hiding. Written by the writer of the international bestseller “Two Old Women,” this memoir yields a gritty, sobering, yet impossible to resist story filled with laughter while generations of Gwich’in grief seeps from past to present. But hope pushes back hopelessness, and a new strength and wisdom emerge.

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » Native American » Raising Ourselves

Recent Products