FOR THE DETAILS OF the search technique used in the closing chapters of this book, I am in debt to Bill Hess, a longtime friend, Arctic journalist, and photographer. He describes its use during an actual search on Alaska’s North Slope in his lovely and fascinating book, Gift of the Whale, and he generously added much useful information about it in a series of e-mail interviews.
The description of the fate of Chukchi’s last “devil-doctor” is drawn from the diaries of Charles Brower, a Yankee whaler who settled in Barrow in the late 1800s and spent the rest of his life there. The entry I relied on is recounted in Sadie Brower Neakok: An Inupiaq Woman, by Margaret B. Blackman.
Also, my thanks to Dr. D. P. Lyle, who provided advice on the causes, care, and feeding of dislocated shoulders.
Finally, my deepest gratitude to my editor, Laura Hruska, for the skill, insight, and dedication she brought to the task of helping me tell this story.