Pictures and places tell such lovely stories together. “Terroir” is the French term for the taste of a place and in this photo there is the flavor of cold sea salt, sweet adventure and warm soft fur. Here is the daring Miss Dobbs visiting a windswept Inuit village on the Bering Sea in 1906. The little fellow in her care enjoys a wealth of playthings, a ball in his hand, a woven high-kick ball (aqsraatchaun) in her arms and a toy Siberian bolo for bird hunting. Inside the stiff walrus hide shelter, with its roof cover and ground skirt held tightly down by rocks and driftwood, he could listen by seal oil lamplight to the storytellers and their fantastic legends of mythic sea creatures, pure white time travel and the clicking songs of aurora borealis. When he grew up and sat on his bed of otter and bear skins surrounded by small wide eyes, he no doubt had an almost unbelievable tale of his own about a giant woman who appeared from nowhere in his island world and then disappeared. And for those who didn’t believe the story… perhaps she sent him a copy of this picture
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tacoma history 