A Twentieth-century, Alaskan-born author, she is best known for her American Book Award-winning work, Russians in Tlingit America. Her other works include The Droning Shaman: Poems by Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Haa Shuka, Our Ancestors: Tlingit Oral Narratives. She received a degree in anthropology. She published her first literary work, Egg Boat, in 1983.