My heart on the Yukon River : portraits from Alaska and the Yukon

In the summer of 1995, photographer Monique Dykstra canoed down the Yukon River traveling nearly 2,000 miles across Canada's Yukon Territory and the State of Alaska. Paddling 30 to 40 miles a day, Dykstra photographed the unique individuals she encountered in the sparsely settled wilderness. My Heart on the Yukon River includes 45 dramatic black and white portraits and insightful interviews of women, men, and children. Many of them are native born, but a surprising majority originally are from elsewhere - the "lower 48" states, the Canadian provinces and Europe. Their reasons for being here are as varied as the vast landscape they occupy. Some are "scarred by something" and running from their past, while others simply "fell in love with the north". Their tales of economic survival, social change, alcoholism, and attachment to the land, river, and animals reveal the unique social fabric of this northern land, when ancient and modern lifeways strangely intermingle.… (more)