Alaska's Little Chief

Mush with ten-year old David Salmon and his pet ermine through Gwich'in Athabascan traditional life: the biography of Tanana Chiefs Conference late First Traditional Chief, a close father-son story within the traditional subsistence trapping life style, presenting all of Alaska's fur-bearing animals. In the 1920s, an epidemic forced David, the former First Traditional Chief of the Interior, and his father, to leave their village and trap for eighteen years in 'No Man's Land.' The fur-bearing animals (wolverine, fox, ermine, marten, lynx, and wolf) of Alaska were their daily and closest companions. David, who thought he would never get to Fort Yukon, became the first Episcopalian priest in the Interior and the chief. The moral to children is 'shoot high and aim well because you don't know how life will turn out.' A letter from the chief signed by him to the children is included along with glossary and maps.