ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Margaret Nakak, Inupiaq and Yu’pik, got her start sewing fur at an early age. Pointing to a picture of her toddler sister in her mother’s arms, she said, “My aunt, my mother's sister, made me a muskrat parka when I was a girl that age. I would always observe her sewing and it was embedded in my mind. And so presently sewing is just natural to me. It just happens.”

Later she went to a missionary school where on Saturdays older girls showed beginners how to make dolls wearing fur parkas and mukluks (boots) using tiny, tight stitches.

“And that’s where I learned a lot of my expert sewing skills was at St. Mary’s mission during our Saturday sewing classes.”

Full story here.