Sister Goodwin is a very interesting person to read about. Through her marriage to Andrew Hope III she was able to merge her Inupiat Eskimo heritage with her husband's Tlingit heritage. Goodwin's Inupiat name was Taliifaq, and after marrying and being adopted into the Tlingit traditions she was given the name Tsanak. Much of Goodwin's poetry from her 1984 poetry collection A Lagoon Is In My Backyard deals with Alaskan nature and landscapes.
Sister Goodwin's poem "Nomadic Inupiat, for Kappaisrunk" published in 1984, relays the story of Goodwin as a young girl and gives the audience her unique opinion of the seasons. Goodwin's description of the Alaskan landscape and the changing of the seasons gives insight to how she was raised. Unlike many other poets who describe colors, feelings evoked by the weather, and physical descriptions of Alaskan landscape; Goodwin's writing gives the audience insight into what she did during those seasons with her family which demonstrates the importance of them.
The poem begins with Goodwin's parents taking the children out of school to go out and enjoy nature. The act of being taken out of the structured/ institutionalized world (school), and being put into the always changing, unpredictable world of nature to enjoy quality time with family gives the audience an idea of her Goodwin's childhood was like. Goodwin seems to have gotten her appreciation of Alaskan Landscape and nature from her parents who thought enjoying nature and simplicity was a necessary part of development. Goodwin's description of her family's activities, gives the impression that nature was synonymous with family to Goodwin as a child. I believe the best example of this is when Goodwin writes, "how special for a whole family to sit together reminiscing laughing planning for the winter" (298).
Goodwin, Sister. "Nomadic Inupiat, for Kappaisrunk" Last New Land. Ed. Mergler, Wayne. Alaska Northwest Books, (c) 1996. 296-298.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=klea&id=I33661
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