Customer Reviews

Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People

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Willie Hensley's life story is one of extraordinary range and comprehension, both literally and figuratively.
From a childhood lived above the arctic circle, in the "twilight of the stone age" among his Inupiat extended family, through an abrupt transplantation for schooling in eastern Tennessee and then Washington DC, the
arc of his life is nearly without parallel in modern America. With powerful imagery and elegant, flowing prose, Willie conveys the essence of life as an Alaska Native in the 20th century as no one has done before. He paints vivid
pictures of the magnificent land of northwestern Alaska, the incomparable wisdom, dignity, grace and
humor of his Inupiat (Inuit) culture---and then the equally harsh challenges facing his people since Alaska
became America: forced assimilation by missionaries and teachers who were both "church and state" in one;and the challenge of sustaining life and culture in harmony with the land and sea and natural resources while also surviving in a
"modern" world driven by a cash economy. Willie's life's work -- of seeing that Alaska's Native
people retain ownership of ancestral lands while they fight to hold onto a fraying sense of cultural identity
and still prosper --is really a tale of universal human challenges. That
is what makes this such an important book, for the lessons we can all learn about adaptability and continuity
from these First People in our nation of immigrants. Willie's is the only such clear and powerful Native voice to have come from Alaska and
find such a wide and receptive audience. For all of our sakes, may there be countless more.

What luck to have a translator who literally and figuratively belongs to two worlds. Hensley is the half-white, half-Inupiat activist whose efforts helped secure portions of Alaska for her native peoples. His account of traditional life is fascinating.

Hensley never knew his father, and was rescued from his natural mother's abusive home by her extended family that taught him traditional ways: hunting, fishing, and camping - not in an LLBean tent, but in a sod hut dug into the land, where he honed his early hunting skills by targeting mice with a slingshot.

These portions of the book - how people live in arctic regions, the foods they eat, the animals they hunt, the clothes they wear - were for me the most interesting parts. For Hensley, the purpose of the book seems to create a historical record not only of his people, but of the political battles that took place to ensure that their lands weren't given over to the new state of Alaska without some set-asides and compensation. The author devoted decades of his life to community organizing, politicking, and flying to Washington to advocate for his people. This part of the book does slog a bit; a Bill Clinton-like list of people met along the way: politically sensible, but boring if you're not one of the named players.

A portion of the book is also devoted to his surprising foray to the mainland for his high school education, where he dates Southern belles, becomes a football star, learns to ride a horse (proudly sharing a youthful, barechested photo to prove it), and survives 'culture clash' quite nicely.

Hensley seems most authentic and likeable when he talks about his vulnerable youth, his love of extended family, and his relation to the land. Like many autobiographies, readers sense that some personal shortcomings have been glossed over. Some of the wheeling-dealing that Hensley engages in late in his career - a short mention about investing in a mining company is never explained, for instance, and some political falling-outs - hint at a person who may be a bit more complicated than he appears at first. The US government, missionaries, and European-Americans all have a foul record in respect to their behavior to native peoples. But when Hensley discusses portions of his childhood - the sexual abuse of his sister, his painful abcessed teeth as a child, the relatives dying of food poisoning and alcohol abuse, it does feel like some of his judgments about the motivations of non-native entities - particularly early in the book - lack some nuance: the same people who barge onto (and "buy") native lands, insist on English in schools, and make a muck of everything also bring medical clinics, scholarships, and some helpful technology. By the end of the book Hensely seems to have forged some kind of reconciliation with himself and others. The young firebrand who rescued his people from the worst of the intrusions seems to have evolved into a person who can rightly rest on his laurels and take credit for being one of the key players in Alaska's recent history. Interesting.

Here is a really excellent book about the recent history of Alaska and unique life. Its about the right person in the right place at the right time with the right idea having the courage to take the right actions.

Willie shares personal details of a very different and impactful life from the relatively humdrum of the rest of us. On a personal level it's a very private sharing of a full and challenging life from a sod hut on the shores of the Bering Strait to the proverbial halls of power in Washington DC. On a political level it tells some of the details of how Alaska came to have a very different, respectful, and sharing relationship between native people and culture and that of the recently-arrived western civilization. On an even broader level it gives us a glimpse of the processes and realities of bringing together widely differing needs and approaches to knowing, loving, sharing, and exploiting the land.

Willies story gives non-natives and even natives, an opportunity to understand how others may look at Alaska.

Willie shares with us a deep well of personal courage, commitment to family and culture, and dedication to see things through to the end envisioned, and in the process reminds us all that if you want to get it done, you just have to go out and do it.

I'll just chime in briefly to say "me, too." A very enjoyable and informative book, if you have an interest in Alaska history and natives.

A few details not mentioned yet: Alaska natives found some unexpected allies in their quest for quiet titles to land in Alaska, including Colorado Democrat Wayne Aspinall, Vice-President Spiro Agnew, and ultimately Richard Nixon himself, who in 1971 signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which awarded Alaska natives title to 44 million acres in Alaska (16% of the state), and almost $1 billion for relinquishing all other claims. 16% doesn't seem excessive -- here in Arizona, the tribes own about 27% of the state -- and the Alaska natives probably got higher-quality land. More of their first choices, anyway.

Hensley relates amusing anecdotes of NANA, the new Inuit corporation, entering the reindeer business -- the main market is for the antlers, which then brought $40 per pound wholesale in the Korean sex-charm market.

Overall, he's a charming guy who doesn't appear to take himself too seriously, and who's made a difference in improving the lives of Alaska natives. Highly recommended.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

William Hensley provides a rare, personal accounting of the awakening of Alaskan natives to their rights. Along the way, he gives the reader an understanding of the richness, as well as the hardships, of the Inuit people before passage of the Native Claims Act. His description of government school's role in denigrating these people was particularly gripping. An important book from an important man in the evolution of Alaska and its native people. Such a book was long overdue. The fact it was easy to read was a marverlous bonus. Bill Duke.

Mr. Hensley (Iggiagruk) has written a wonderful memoir about the Alaska Natives' coming into the modern age. My grandparents lived a total traditional lifestyle with almost no Western influence, and my parents were the 'in-between' generation, between the stone age and the space age. He describes this same situation in that of his family. Although I knew he was a great leader of our people, I did not realize Mr. Hensley had such a huge impact on our Alaska Native society in the form of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. I am very grateful to him for his herculean efforts on behalf of all Alaska Natives to keep a small part of the land and resources that we held for millennia. I applaud him for his continuing efforts to remind Alaska Natives to keep hold of our diverse cultures, languages, and customs. He serves as an example to other Alaska Natives that we too can write our memoirs and be heard, that we too have remarkable stories to tell.

When you open this book, know that you will be peering into the very private life of a very modest man. However, sharing this personal story also gives a full account of an event in Alaska's political history that is a textbook for all indigenous people seeking their historical claims and rights.

I came to know Willie Hensley in the 1970s when I worked as a reporter for the Anchorage Times. I mainly reported on politics and government which, of course, was Willie's thing. My job as a reporter also took me to Kotzebue and other villages he wrote about, though I was there in the summer.

I was so excited when a friend from Juneau sent me his book. What a great read! It's difficult to put down once you start reading it. Willie paints such vivid word pictures about growing up in the Alaskan Bush, you almost feel like you're there. His experience was extra special to me because I'm a member of a Pacific Northwest coastal tribe, and it gave me a clearer idea of what my ancestors went through, albeit without the snow and freezing temps. Thanks, Willie!

I cannot recommend this book enough!

After reading this book, I'd also suggest reading "On the Edge of Nowhere" by Jimmy Huntington, another Alaska Native who writes about the hardships of life in rural Alaska. I was privileged to meet Jimmy when he was a member of the Alaska State House.

William L Hensley is one of the premier role model of many native Alaskans. His political and personal accomplishments were stuff that help shape Alaska as we know it today. This book deals with his life, struggles and conflicts as he fight to find his own place in this world and his struggle to help the native people of Alaska. Having written all this, I found the book to be engrossingly interesting but filled with ironic contradictions. William Hensley is half white, half native. It appears that in his life, his white half took advantages of all the education, training and benefits that the white world can give him while his native half took in the culture from where he hailed from. His book overcompensated on his native heritage as he took care to insert a native word or name every chance he got. He seem to overlooked that his white assets were the elements that made him who he is today as a respected elder. Toward the end of the book, he often railed against the outsiders who he feel, have ruined the native cultural life but yet, he does not demand that natives stand up and fight against the vices that has been destroying natives for a longest period of time...alcohol and drug usages. He hold his greatest disdain toward Bureau of Indian Affairs for ruining native Alaskans by repressing their cultures. In page 218, he wrote about all the great traits of his native people but when I read it, it look like great traits of most people I know. The book is pretty single minded on native rights issue. Maybe that is why I never voted for him in any of the statewide elections he ran for. Mr Hensley always gave me an impression that his interest always lies with the natives.

He also is dour toward the Alaska Native Claims Act that "only" give the natives 16% of Alaska's land. He is however, one of the primary players who help enacted this act. But like the Indian tribes of the great western plains, Hensley's people were historically nomadic people who claims NO land. Land ownership was an alien concept as it was for Sioux or Cheyenne. They roamed where they please. Only when their nomadic lifestyle ended did the landownership became an issue. To say that they "owned" Alaska prior to the whites is to say that natives people of Alaska had European perception of their land...not native perception.

It is interesting that Mr. Hensley, despite of his overcompensation toward his native roots in this book, nevertheless, married a white woman (his second one) and now lives in Anchorage where life is better as well as access to superior education and medical services to his native village. Obviously, outside of visiting, bush life is no longer for him.

Still, this is a pretty educational book in understanding perception from the native point of views during the early years of Alaska statehood. Without a doubt, Mr. Hensley was an important player for the native people during that period and you can't do wrong in reading this book to see how important issues to the native people were viewed, handled and worked upon. I can also understand why many reviewers are in love with this book while I am bit more harder with Mr. Hensley's viewpoints. So despite of my own personal quibbles, this book does come recommended. (Wow, I wrote a lot for a review that probably won't get read much and those who will...will probably hate me for bad mouthing Willie Hensley!!)

As an Alaskan who has lived in the state for nearly fifty years, I was fascinated by this exceptional man's story of his rise from a tough subsistence existence to his successful battle for native land rights.