"A wonderful read. Wallis's writing is simple yet rich. . . . The story delivers a message of overcoming hardship, of being true to yourself even when it is the most difficult thing to do."  —  West Coast Review of Books With the publication of Two Old Women, Velma Wallis firmly established herself as one of the most important voices in Native American writing. A national bestseller, her empowering fable won numerous awards, was translated into sixteen languages, and went on to international success. Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun follows in this bestselling tradition. Rooted in the ancient legends of Alaska's Athabaskan Indians, it tells the stories of two adventurers who decide to leave the safety of their respective tribes. Bird Girl is a headstrong young woman who learned early on the skills of a hunter. When told that she must end her forays and take up the traditional role of wife and mother, she defies her family's expectations and confidently takes off to brave life on her own. Daagoo is a dreamer, curious about the world beyond. Longing to know what happens to the sun in winter, he sets out on a quest to find the legendary "Land of the Sun." Their stories interweave and intersect as they each face the many dangers and challenges of life alone in the wilderness. In the end, both learn that the search for individualism often comes at a high price, but that it is a price well worth paying, for through this quest comes the beginning of true wisdom. "A wonderful read. Wallis's writing is simple yet rich...The story delivers a message of overcoming hardship, of being true to yourself even when it is the most difficult thing to do." - West Coast Review of Books "Velma Wallis's Bird Girl, in its beautiful mature simplicity, leaves me thinking: How sad life is! But how fascinating people are!" - Ursula K. Le Guin "Because the Indian legends preserved by Wallis are not sanitized, they glow with life and truth. . . . The result is another work rich with her own cultural context and full of universal appeal." - Bloomsbury Review "A riveting story. . . . Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun won't be forgotten easily. Their story will haunt the nights. A stunning book." - Small Press Magazine With the publication of Two Old Women, Velma Wallis firmly established herself as one of the most important voices in Native American writing. A national bestseller, her empowering fable won the Western State Book Award in 1993 and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award in 1994. Translated into 16 languages, it went on to international success, quickly reaching bestseller status in Germany. To date, more than 350,000 copies have been sold worldwide. Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun follows in this bestselling tradition. Rooted in the ancient legends of Alaska's Athabaskan Indians, it tells the stories of two adventurers who decide to leave the safety of their respective tribes. Bird Girl is a headstrong young woman who learned early on the skills of a hunter. When told that she must end her forays and take up the traditional role of wife and mother, she defies her family's expectations and confidently takes off to brave life on her own. Daagoo is a dreamer, curious about the world beyond. Longing to know what happens to the sun in winter, he sets out on a quest to find the legendary "Land of the Sun." Their stories interweave and intersect as they each face the many dangers and challenges of life alone in the wilderness. In the end, both learn that the search for individualism often comes at a high price, but that it is a price well worth paying, for through this quest comes the beginning of true wisdom. Velma Wallis is one in a family of thirteen children, all born in the vast fur-trapping country of Fort Yukon, Alaska, and raised with traditional Athabascan values. A writer and avid reader, she lives in Fairbanks. Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun By Wallis, Velma Perennial Copyright © 2004 Velma Wallis All right reserved. ISBN: 0060977280 Chapter One Two rebels In ancient times, in a land where the sun shone day and night in summer, then disqtpeared for much of the deathly cold winter, lived the Gwich'in. These Indians inhabited the flatlands surrounding the mighty river they called the Yuukon, south of the long stretch of mountains that spread from one end of the country to the other. To the north, beyond these peaks, along the coast of the northern sea, lived the Ch'eekwaii, the Eskimos who were their enemies. Both peoples hunted the caribou that migrated in great herds across the vast landscape, every year traveling through the mountains from their wintering place to their calving grounds along the coast. Sometimes, in following these animals, the Ch'eekwaii and the Gwich'in crossed into one another's hunting grounds, violating boundaries they had been taught to respect. Eventually repeated trespassing and bloody repris