Martha J Husk

Yakutat Martha J Husk

After her four years as a teacher and principal of the small village school in Chignik Bay, Alaska, Marty Husk decided that she needed to go to a location which was more accessible for her daughter and her mother, who remained in Evansville, Indiana. She took her sons and made the move to a small city in the Gulf of Alaska called Yakutat, and there she remained for the next 12 years. Here she moved into a more traditional teaching mode but found new challenges in her life, which continued her growth as an educator and as a human being. Her adventures were more encompassing of many things, such as her foray into working in a lodge during the summer months and establishing a relationship with a second Native culture. There were still downright wacky things she learned to handle, and the adventure continued as did her love for Alaska and an appreciation of its beauty. Using an entirely different format, rather than using a journal form for any of her years in To the Mountains, To the Sea: A Personal Challenge in Teaching, this second book written by Marty is a more annotated version of her experiences by category as she recalls her time there. As much as this move into Yakutat may seem to have similarities to teaching and working in the lower 48, there are still major differences in the realities of her life there, simply because of the uniqueness of Alaska.