Accessibility Tools

Alaska's Daughter

An Eskimo Memoir of the Twentieth Century

by Elizabeth Pinson

Paperback Price $28.95
Ebook Price $18.95

Buy Now


Elizabeth B. Pinson shares with us her memories of Alaska's emergence into a new and modern era, bearing witness to history in the early twentieth century as she recalls it. She draws us into her world as a young girl of mixed ethnicity, with a mother whose Eskimo family had resided on the Seward Peninsula for generations and a father of German heritage. Elizabeth grew up in and near the tiny village of Teller on the Bering Strait. Despite a harrowing, long midwinter sled ride to rescue her, she lost both her legs at the age of six to frostbite when her grandparents, with whom she was spending the winter in their traditional Eskimo home, died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.

Fitted with artificial legs financed by an eastern benefactor, Elizabeth kept journals of her struggles, triumphs, and adventures, recording her impressions of the changing world around her and experiences with the motley characters she met. These included Roald Amundsen, whose dirigible landed in Teller after crossing the Arctic Circle; the ill-fated 1921 British colonists of Wrangel Island in the Arctic; trading ship captains and crews; prospectors; doomed aviators; and native reindeer herders. Elizabeth moved on to boarding school and marriage and, now in her 90s, lives in the state of Washington, where she compiled her records into this memoir.

 

Reviews

The Western Historical Quarterly Summer 2006 / Phyllis A. Fast

 

Utah State University Press Logo

Details

  • Paperback Price: $28.95
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-87421-591-5
  • Ebook Price: $18.95
  • EISBN: 978-0-87421-505-2
  • Publication Year: 2004
  • Discount Type: Short
  • Author: by Elizabeth Pinson
  • ECommerce Code: 978-0-87421-591-5
  • Get Permissions: Get Permission

Related Titles

Browse Related Titles Tagged Under:

University Press of Colorado University of Alaska Press Utah State University Press University of Wyoming Press