People of the Noatak

In 1946, Clair Fejes moved from New York City, where she had been exhibiting in the A.C.A. Gallery, to Fairbanks, Alaska. She ultimately became an artist in a pioneering community, and traveled to a Noatak hunting camp on the edge of the Kotzebue Sound, where she was irrevocably inspired by the people and landscape of the Tigara.

Claire eloquently captures the life of the Inupiat in Northwest Alaska, before outside influences changed their lives. In a few simple strokes, her drawings evoke the heart and life of the Inupiat. Thanks in part to her habit of journal-keeping, Claire was able to record what she had witnessed in her years of travel and painting up the Yukon River into the Arctic Refuge.

Originally published in 1966, People of the Noatak is an excellent portrayal of the Inupiat people before modern changes, a glimpse into the Inupiat world when traditional values and roots were strong.