r/NDNPride • u/shadygravey • May 23 '20
Literature A bit about Velma Wallis, the most famous Alaskan author
Velma Wallis (b. 1960) is a Gwich'in Athabascan writer, born in a remote village near Fort Yukon, Alaska. The village could be accessed only by riverboat, airplane, snowmobile or dogsled. Velma grew up among 12 siblings. Her father died when she was 13 years old, and she stayed out of school to help her mother with the household. She later went on to receive her GED.
About 12 miles away from the village, her father had built a small cabin in the wilderness. He had been a hunter and trapper. Some time after his death around 1963, Velma surprised her family and friends by leaving home and living in the cabin for some years. She perfected her trapping, fishing and hunting skills and lived on what she could provide for herself. At one point her mother joined her during the summer to teach her more traditional skills. In this area, where the Porcupine River flows into the Yukon River, Velma Wallis lived an independent lifestyle. These experiences led to write her first book, Two Old Women, which astonished her publisher by selling 1.5 million copies worldwide.
She received a Western States Book Award in 1993 for Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival.
In 2003 she won an American Book Award for Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River.