"Nathan Active, child of a fifteen year-old unmarried Inupiat girl, was given up for adoption and raised in Anchorage. After graduating from the university Nathan became a state trooper. Now he has been posted to his birth village, Chukchi, where they refer to him as nalauqmiiyaak (almost white) since he knows nothing of the indigenous culture. He longs to return to civilization but before that can happen he is confronted with atypical suicides. Can a shaman's curse really be at work?" "Lucy Generous is a beautiful villager who is enlivening Nathan's tour of duty. His birth mother warns Nathan against her; she wants him to marry a college graduate with a good job. But it is with Lucy's help that he begins to understand his Eskimo heritage and to realize that even in remote Chukchi there are crimes to be solved."--BOOK JACKET.