This autobiography tells of Wallis's coming of age.
She lives in a small log cabin in Fort Yukon, Alaska. She survives by living off of the land using old Alaskan techniques that have been handed down for a thousand years through the Gwich'in clan. She regularly chops lumber, hunts moose, fishes for salmon, and her relationship to her dogs is important to her.
The Wallis family has a PO Box and an running tab at the General Store, but they've only been living in Fort Yukon for a few generations.
She talks openly about the inadvertent effects of existing in a culture defined by white people. She feels her heritage slipping away as she learns new ways of life. She encounters religious missionaries and teachers, along with the people she meets in her trips to the market.
The flu kills many of her loved ones. When her relatives visit, she can tell how far away they have drifted culturally, and she reflects on the agony and pain of that realization. Many in her clan survive on government assistance, and most of her clan is addicted to alcohol.
She says that these conflicts brought her to a state of full awareness, and she realizes that her life is genuinely difficult, but still worth while.
