Umingmak: A fine new memoir of N.W.T. Commissioner Stuart Hodgson

I enjoyed this detailed, first-person account of peak colonialism in the N.W.T.

Northerners: 24 short, but vivid, biographies from 1989

These 24 capsule biographies from 30 years ago still do the trick.

The Berger Inquiry, 1970s journalism, and a book that captures it all

This reporter's account rips through the insanity of the Berger inquiry to get to the point: the gripping testimony by northerners, much of which is captured verbatim here. Hard to find, but great reading.

From Lishamie, Albert Canadien’s memoir of a village that no longer exists

I didn’t know that Treaty Day in Fort Providence, N.W.T., was also TB testing day, and I wouldn’t have known it if not for this highly detailed memoir.

An Arctic Arab, or, the story of Peter Baker, free trader

“I, Peter Baker, known as the Arctic Arab, came from Lebanon during the Turkish conquest,” begins this 1976 memoir.

Old Town, by Fran Hurcomb

A concise, charming book that definitively documents ‘Yellowknife’s defining neighbourhood.’

Fire into Ice: The insanely adventurous life of Chuck Fipke, diamond hunter

Armchair adventure at its finest.

The Right to Be Cold: Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s urgent memoir

Earnest memoir recounts minute details of a fascinating life, bureaucratic tussles included.

I, Nuligak: A memoir of Inuvialuit life in the last heyday of the whalers

‘Because I was an orphan and a poor one at that, my mind was always alert to the happenings around me. Once my eyes had seen something, it was never forgotten.’

A short, jam-packed book of Yellowknife yarns

Ah, here it is. The book about the Yellowknife Yellowknifers love to live in.