This is a book similar to "Dena'ina Legacy", it just describes different people in a different language. Well, I tried to compare the text and translation - it just won't work for Athabaskan, but the texts are interesting, there are pictures, biographies of the informants in English only, bilingual mythical texts, and bilingual stories taken from life. Tone is marked. The texts together are quite long, not just examples. If you are interested in Northern Athabaskans, this book is worth reading.

Severson & Denkler have done a great job offering delicious, do-able, interesting recipes and delivering them in an entertaining style. One doesn't have to be in Alaska to appreciate or use these recipes.

This book is one of my favorites. I am buying another as I have worn down the original paperback that I found in a used bookstore. The book follows the life of Noel Wien from his beginnings in rural Minnesota to his eventual ownership of the largest Airline in Alaska. If you are a pilot or if you are an aviation afficianado, this book will appeal to you. The stories are very readable and the writer does a great job of making them storylike. He ties Wien into Alaska's history, especially the early days of aviation.

North of Nowhere is a coming of age story with a twist. What distinguishes it from others of its type is the author's ability as writer. William Reid is a VERY good writer who tells a story in engaging style.

Darren Freeman is 17 years old and heading down a destructive path. The product of an upper middle class family, Darren is a "pot head" who doesn't seem to give a damn about anything but smoking dope and defying or embarrassing his social climbing parents.

Carrie Spears is main "caretaker" of irresponsible, alcoholic parents. At 17, all she can remember is cleaning up vomit and the messes created by the adults in her world. Life has not been pretty or easy for Carrie, and she trusts no one but herself. Life at home and on the streets has hardened her to everything and everyone.

As a last ditch effort to change their outlooks, Darren and Carrie's parents send them to the Grizzly Bear Adventure Outings in the Alaskan wilderness. Camp Counselor Gary Cornwall is a military wannabe who uses shock tactics as a means of bringing rebellious teenagers to heel. He is not a man Darren and Carrie find easy to like or respect, and Cornwall soon finds he's bitten off more than he can chew with these two strong-willed teens. When Darren and Carrie escape the camp and strike out on their own, Cornwall fails to track them down and they are left on their own to survive the Alaskan wilderness.

The tale this author spins is an exciting one, about two fearless teens who work together as a team to survive and finally thrive as human beings. Their respect for each other's strengths and weaknesses is touching and uplifting. Whatever nature throws at them - bears and freezing blizzards, near mortal wounds or icy rivers - these two young people take in stride and face together. Love blooms, but is mutually put on hold because survival is their foremost common goal. From Alaskan natives who befriend them, they discover universal truths that give their lives fuller meaning:
1. Alaska and the world have become a zoo the white man left by accident.
2. The killing of animals is not glorious but a necessity to feed humans. It leaves the hunter sad and shaken.

How Darren and Carrie come to a richer understanding of themselves and the world over time is the beauty of this story. I highly recommend it to all ages.

First, it is a mystery to me why this title doesn't appear from search words "Tlingit, Haida or Salish" since its content goes far beyond Indian Painting/art. While Indian painting, specifically house fronts and interior screens (dying arts enjoying a resurgence) are extremely well covered and illustrated in this book Malin adeptly intertwines culture, geography and history which makes these art forms come alive and take on meaning beyond 'art for art's sake.' This book could have been complete with just the 120 pages of fantastic color and black and white picture and illustrations -- that combined with 160 pages detailing and clearly explaining geography, culture and cultural influences and historical information relating to the Northwest Coast tribes of Alaska and Canada (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Tsimshian, Bella Coola, Kwakiutl, Salish and Nuu chaa nulth) make this a "must" for anyone interested in these tribes -- either in their art or culture and history! Art was integral to the daily life of these natives...tools made and used for daily subsistence and living were artistically fashioned using the crests "owned" by each clan. Social rank and wealth were at the heart of exterior house painting and interior screens. The author's 55 year fascination with the tribes of the northwest coast is clearly evident in this book.

In her several essays on the landscapes through which Carolyn Servid has traveled, from India to Alaska, she lets us understand her secret longing, the drive of her restlessness and her seeking for something outside herself. She also takes us into the journey with memories and descriptions that are powerful and simple. She describes India so you feel the heat and hear the music. She gives us Alaska as close to the way it is, which is impossible to capture completely, but Carolyn comes as close as anyone I know.

The economy in Southeast Alaska depended for a long time on timber harvest as one of its foundations. That is changing and has changed. In her chapter "Thoughts on Trees: Who Could Live Without This Grace?" Carolyn takes us on a very different journey than one might expect. This is no purely "greenie" diatribe but a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation about value, comunity, value-added, nature and humanity in its intricate struggle for survival and our constant battle to find and place meaning where it can do either harm or much good.

It is clear throughout this book that Carolyn loves this land and its people and its problems. Falling in love with the landscape over and over again, she reminds us how fragile we are, how implacable are all of nature's forces, and how, if we listen, we can learn.

This is on my "I recommend this book to everyone I know" list. It is also a very good introduction to life in Southeast Alaska.

The is truly a fabulous book. When her mother Nedercook broke her hip at the remarkable age of 109, Edna Wilder took the opportunity to record stories and memories from her childhood. Years later, Wilder developed her notes into book format after attending a simple magazine article writing course at the University of Alaska.

The book documents what life was like when Nedercook was about ten years old and living the traditional Eskimo lifestyle that her people lived prior to direct contact with Europeans. Her people, who lived at Stoney Point near Nome, Alaska, led a difficult life, and survival depended on the availability of a number of species of animals, not to mention the weather, which at times would disrupt the general cycle of animal availability. Such a strong dependence on these two factors is a major element of Nedercook's recollections, but has harsh as life was, it was by no means miserable. There were many things for the young Nedercook to do, and when she was not assisting her mother with chores or accompanying her father when he went out to fish, she play or more importantly--as it was her duty to perpetuate the history and legends of her people--listening to her father or mother tell stories--stories which would have been long forgotten had it not been for this book.

Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed this book and how it has depended my understanding of First Nations culture. I urge everyone to read it.

That a book changes something fundamentaly in ones life is a rare occasion, but this book did that to me. I read the book in the fall 1998 an was moved by it, but nothing more. Than, after a year, I read it again. During this time I had continued my search for my Patron Saint within The Orthodox Church which had been going on for eight years. Suddenly everything fell in their right place. St.Gabriel of Pskov and Kazan(commemorated September 24.(Julian calendar)/October 7.(Gregorian calendar)) was to be my Patron Saint. I won't go into any details, but the shining love of this Holy Elder is a lasting impression. And the love of God for the love of one's neighbour was the Gospel of this Starets.

It should also be noted that the author, New Martyr Fr. Simeon a saint himself, was not only St.Gabriel spiritual son, but also took over the Eldership after the Elders repose in 1915. The author therefore knew the Elder Gabriel very well and so did many people still alive when the book was first published in Russia in 1917. Thanks to this we can regard theses accounts as highly reliable. And the strange occurances of how this book was refound and published again is a mystery I leave to the happy reader to find out for him- or herself in it's Foreword and Introduction.

I highly recommend this book to everybody!

The reason I would enjoy having this book again is my grandfather was Lawrence Mezzenna who died on that polar bear hunt that year and also I would enjoy sharing this book with my son some day. THANK YOU ANTHONY M.SEEGANNA

David is a member of one of the surviving tribes all along the Northwest American Pacific coastline. Annette Island in Alaska is where David's great-grandfather lived & died, where David's father spent his childhood & learnt much of his wisdom. Here on this little island is where David's father will hold a potlatch for the people to honor the life & heritage of David's great-grandfather. An evocative coming-of-age photographic record of traditions newly revived & a boy at home in his culture. Deeply satisfying, full of interesting sights & new things to learn. END