According to the artist, “In 1897 my maternal grandfather left Montana for the Alaska gold rush. In 1911 he wrote a letter to his youngest sister stating that he was planning on visiting the family in Montana and that he had lots of ‘Big Bear Stories’ to tell. He also wrote that this country is not like it was as in the days of the Klondike. Then, as in now, life has other plans. He never left Alaska and three years later married a young Athabascan lady who would become my grandmother.”

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