Plunge into Vuntut Gwich'in waters

There is a body of Gwich’in stories about the beneficial deeds of shanaghan — old women who often outwit danger and overcome great obstacles to live and provide salvation for their people.

“Since, as in so much of the world’s folklore, ‘the last shall be first,’ poor old widows, who occupy the least enviable statuses in subarctic American society, frequently…