Why a Booktrail?
1892: A Century-Old Survival Story from the Arctic
The Winter Walk
What you need to know before your trail
Advanced in pregnancy and now newly widowed, Qutuuq sets out with her two children, leaving their camp and following a frozen river to the coast. Homebound, one step at a time, through the subzero wilderness.
This is a chilling, true story dating from 1892. It tells of battles against killing cold, starvation, and exhaustion. It’s the story of a haunting decision made in the throes of desperation. And ultimately it’s a story of survival and triumph amid unspeakable sorrow.
More than a century later, Qutuuq’s story, which has descended through her Inupiat Eskimo family as oral history, is retold in print by her great-granddaughter.
Locations
Reset- America/USA - Alaska
- A: Inupiat Mountain
- B: Inupiat Heritage Center
- C: Iñupiat Assembly of God Church
Travel Guide
Alaska and a true story
This book is inspired by a real life tragedy.
The Iñupiat are a group of Indigenous Alaskans whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaat (Iñupiaq lands), including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough.
Qutuuq is the an Iñupiaq woman stranded on the Bering Sea coast with her two children in winter. Loretta, the author, is related to the woman whose story she tells.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Winter Walk
Destination: Alaska, Iñupiat territory Author/guide: Loretta Outwater Cox Departure Time: 1892
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