This book was just great. About 2/3rds of it is Sadie telling her life story in her own words. Info from other sources is interpolated. She was born in the northernmost part of Alaska in a large family, went to high school in San Francisco and two years of college in Alaska, then went back to her hometown. She taught school, got married, had quite a lot of children, did social work and helped set up the hospital, then became the magistrate for not just the town but the entire region as the U.S. legal system was just being established in the 1950s. I like the details of living in traditional ways and sewing mukluks and cutting up whales with her ulu but my favorite bits were how she dealt with being the magistrate.

I wish I knew who left this book along with Vilhjalmur Stefansson's "My Life with the Eskimo" in my marina's laundry room free bookshelves! Whoever you were, thanks!