As our nation’s biggest and wildest state, Alaska looms large in true adventure literature. In Alaska, the most casual country stroll could score you a moose sighting or a bear encounter. That’s rich material, and it’s been mined extensively by writers both good and bad. We recently bagged ourselves a treasure trove of Alaskan stories thanks to the great advice of Katrina at Hearthside Books in Juneau. Two of our favorites are reviewed here.
Raising Ourselves: A Gwich’in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River, by Velma Wallis, is a plainly-told memoir about the challenges of growing up Gwich’in in a white-dominated world. Wallis, the 6th of 13 children, watches her parents and most of the other adults in her village succumb to the ravages of alcoholism as she and her siblings raise each other. The cherished Gwich’in traditions of hunting, trapping, and fishing have been largely replaced by accounts at a general store, white teachers in English-only classrooms, and monthly government checks that are spent mostly on booze. When her mother stops drinking for a time, Wallis brings her to a cabin in the woods and the two live off the land, using the “old ways” of their people to survive. This story is a heartbreaking but also hopeful look at a culture that most Americans know nothing about—a culture that can teach us all something about survival.
For lighter fare, dive into The Accidental Explorer. This book of humorous and insightful essays is about Simpson’s forays into the wild edges of Alaska—the rivers, bays, forests and mountains that promise serenity yet bristle with threats. Simpson is no hard-bitten wilderness warrior. She is a urbanized human who’d lived most of her life in Alaska and realized that she had never really explored the outdoors much. So she gets out there—and because it’s Alaska, the adventures come fast and hard. She falls into a glacial river and nearly drowns; she has to abandon a solo backpacking trip after three difficult days; she has a terrifying encounter with an aggressive bear. To find out what Alaskans really think of Christopher McCandless, read her essay about visiting the schoolbus where the doomed adventurer spent his last days—it’s a treat.
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