Author: Beverly GrinagePublisher:
ISBN: 9780578615868
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
The North Slope of Alaska is a distant place. It is set high above the Arctic Circle, far away from where most people would ever dream of making a life. This region is marked by treacherous conditions. There are harsh extremes and wild transitions. People have always lived there though. The Inupiat are an ancient culture. Their way of life has, for countless millennia, tied to the land and the water and the animals that live there. At no time during Inupiat history has a transition been as drastic and marked by tragedy as the turn of the 20th century. The white man was coming north. He piloted great ships, breaking the ice, coming to harvest the abundant whales, walrus, and other important animals. One day a ship appeared on the horizon. And then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, a way of life was changed forever. Paul Patkotak was born in the midst of that transition. Disease was rampant. Starvation was common. Animals teetered on the brink of extinction. The ancestral ways were dying out. Somehow, he survived. Patkotak eventually became known across the North Slope and beyond as "The Apostle of the North." He was a man with a deep connection to God and was used by Him to perform many miracles. Not only is this Patkotak's story. This is the story of his people.
