Velma Wallis shares the love, loss, and struggle that mark her
coming of age in a two-room cabin at Fort Yukon, Alaska, where
she is born in 1960, the sixth of thirteen children. Family life is
defined by the business of survival: Haul water from the Yukon.
Kill a moose. Chop firewood. Feed the sled dogs staked around
the cabin. Run the trap line. Catch salmon. It is a time of innocence
and laughter, too, as the children escape into a world of
play under the midnight sun.
The once-migratory family has settled at the confluence of two
she is born in 1960, the sixth of thirteen children. Family life is
defined by the business of survival: Haul water from the Yukon.
Kill a moose. Chop firewood. Feed the sled dogs staked around
the cabin. Run the trap line. Catch salmon. It is a time of innocence
and laughter, too, as the children escape into a world of
play under the midnight sun.