Velma Wallis
From NativeWiki
Velma Wallis Born in Ft. Yukon, Alaska in 1960, she is Gwich'in/Athabaskan. Wallis, one of 13 children, dropped out of school at the age of 13 in order to help her mother care for her siblings after their father's death. She later passed her high school equivalency exam before moving to an old trapping cabin 12 miles from Fort Yukon where she lived alone for a dozen years, hunting, fishing and trapping.
Wallis now divides her time between Fort Yukon and Fairbanks along with her three daughters.
Awards
1993 Western States Book Award for Two Old Women
1994 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for Two Old Women
2003 Before Columbus Foundation Award for Raising Ourselves
Books
Two Old Women, Epicenter Press.
Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun, Epicenter Press.
Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River, Epicenter Press.
See Also
- Interview with Wallis on Two Old Women
- Reading Guide for Two Old Women
- Two Old Women from HarperCollins
- Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun from HarperCollins
- Chapter one of Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun from Harper Academic
- A short biography from the Native American Authors Project at the Internet Public Library
- New Voices from Alaska Writes
