Everyone in the family, except her mother, was away at fish camp. Her mother, Sophie, stayed in the village of Emmonak awaiting the birth of her second daughter, Molly. Molly was born in the territory of Alaska in the summer of 1956. Alaska would not become a state in the union until 1959 Molly Hootch was born into a family that knew only a subsistence lifestyle along the banks of the lower Yukon River. It was a harsh life by today’s standards. Her mother was the typical Native wife. Her father, James, was a fisherman, trapper and hunter. He built dogsleds, boats, snowshoes, and fish traps. Molly, while a young girl, enthusiastically followed her father and observed his lifestyle that made her people Eskimo. He taught her everything she needed to know about living a subsistence existence. From this rugged environment, Molly breathed the Alaska air, loved deeply, lived fully, and studied diligently--and made history! As a teenager, Molly had to leave Emmonak to attend high school in Anchorage. That traumatic departure set off a series of events leading to a class action lawsuit against the State of Alaska Department of Education, called the Molly Hootch Case. The court case settlement resulted in the construction of high schools in Native villages. It made Molly Hootch a household name in Alaska during the last half of the 1970s. She was selected as the most influential person of the decade of the 1970s. She was also honored as the fifteenth most important person since Alaska statehood.

With facts and figures on geography, history, economy, cultures, and peoples of the Last Frontier, the 29th edition is packed with all-about-Alaska information for people who dream of visiting Alaska, as well as long-lasting sourdoughs.

In this comprehensive history of American Indian education in the United States from colonial times to the present, historians and educators Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder explore the broad spectrum of Native experiences in missionary, government, and tribal boarding and day schools. This up-to-date survey is the first one-volume source for those interested in educational reform policies and missionary and government efforts to Christianize and “civilize” American Indian children. Drawing on firsthand accounts from teachers and students, American Indian Education considers and analyzes shifting educational policies and philosophies, paying special attention to the passage of the Native American Languages Act and current efforts to revitalize Native American cultures.

Alaska had just become a state. It was a time without modern conveniences, where food was gathered from the land and the river. It was a harsh life by our standards today, yet from this rugged environment grew a little girl who lived and breathed the Alaskan sun; one who loved deeply, lived fully, studied diligently, and made history with her life. Molly Hootch shares her life as a young Yupik Eskimo girl in the village of Emmonak, Alaska. You will get a glimpse into a culture of subsistence living. A time when the necessities like food, water, housing and family were not only dependent on one's own creativity and ingenuity, but also of persistent hard work. Experience life as it was lived along the Kwiguk pass of the lower Yukon River.

This book brings together as complete a record of traditional Yupik rules and rituals as is possible in the late twentieth century. Incorporating elders' recollections of the system of ruled boundaries and ritual passages that guided their parents and grandparents a century ago, Ann Fienup-Riordan brings into focus the complex, creative Yupik world view - expressed by ceremonial exchanges and the cycling of names, gifts, and persons - which continues to shape daily life in communities along the Bering Sea coast. Her analysis is illustrated with many contemporary and historical photographs. Identifying "metaphors to live by, " Fienup-Riordan tells of "the Boy Who Went to Live with Seals" and "the Girl Who Returned from the Dead." She explains how in Yupik cosmology their stories illustrate relationships among human beings, animals, and the spirit world - the "boundaries and passages" between death and the renewal of life.