This is a story about survival -- the survival of a people and their way of life. Focusing on the history of the Sahtuot'ine of Great Bear Lake and the struggles that follow their first encounters with Euro-Canadians in the 1800s, Miggs Morris weaves together their story with her own. As a young teacher in 1965, she accepts a position to live and teach in a tiny, isolated community in what was known at the time as Fort Franklin in the Northwest Territories. The reader will learn, as the author did, to care about these hardworking and proud people. The author's memories of her earlier experiences in this community are balanced with an account of her return trip to what is now called Deline.