Velma Wallis
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Velma Wallis is an Athabascan Indian born in 1960 in a remote Alaskan village near with Fort Yukon, approx. 200 km to the north-east of Fairbanks in Alaska. She is a US-American novelist whose work has been translated into 17 languages.
Velma Wallis spends her time with her three daughters in Fairbanks and Fort Yukon, north of the Arctic Circle. She was born and raised in Fort Yukon, Alaska. This location could be accessed only by riverboat, airplane, snowmobile or dogsled. Velma grew up among twelve siblings. When her father died, she was thirteen years old. She stayed out of school to help her mother with her siblings and the household. Velma went on to receive her GED diploma which is a High School equlivant. About twelve miles away from the village in which Velma grew up, her father had, while still alive, built a small cabin in the wilderness. He had been an active hunter and trapper. After his death Velma surprised her family and friends by leaving home and living in the cabin for the majority of 12 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 of the traditional skills needed to survive. In this area where of the Porcupine River flows into the Yukon River Velma Wallis lived an independent lifestyle. Wallis is a writer whose first book "Two Old Women," has sold 1.5 million copies worldwide.
[edit] Bibliography
- Two Old Women. An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival (1993)
- Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun. An Athabaskan Indian Legend from Alaska (1996)
- Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River (2002)
[edit] References
- This article is based on a translation of the article Velma Wallis from the German Wikipedia as of 27 October 2007.
[edit] External links
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