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Born in 1960, the sixth of thirteen children, Velma Wallis comes of age in a two-room log cabin in remote Fort Yukon, Alaska, a location accessible only by riverboat, airplane, snowmobile, or dog sled. Life is defined by the business of living off the land. Chopping wood. Hauling water from the river. Hunting moose. Catching salmon. Trapping fur. Taking care of 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 family has a post office box and an account at the general store, and Velma listens to Wolf Man Jack on armed forces radio. The author 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 seem like strangers from another land, and in a way they are. There is much drinking when the monthly government checks come, and that is when the pain comes out of hiding. Written by the author of the international bestseller Two Old Women, this memoir yields a gritty, sobering, yet irresistible story filled with laughter even as generations of Gwich'in grief seeps from past to present. But hope pushes back hopelessness, and a new strength and wisdom emerge.

Velma Wallis' career as a bestselling author would have seemed improbable - if not fantastical - to her as a young girl.

Wallis' personal odyssey began in the remote Fort Yukon, Alaska. Having dropped out of school at age 13 to care for her siblings after their father's death, Wallis earned her GED and then surprised friends and relatives by moving into an old trapping cabin 12 miles from Fort Yukon.

For almost a dozen years, she survived by hunting, fishing and trapping - a daring and independent lifestlye that helped define her personal identity.

The now middle-aged author currently divides her time between Fort Yukon and Fairbanks with her three daughters. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1993 Western States Book Award and the 1994 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for Two Old Women as well as the 2003 Before Columbus Foundation Award for Raising Ourselves.