Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness
by Robert Specht, Anne Hobbs
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The author tells the story as told to him of Anne Hobbs, a woman who went to Alaska in the 1920's to teach, but who had trouble due to her kindness to the Indians there.Tags
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amysisson Different profession (nursing instead of teaching), but similar spirit, and fascinating!
infiniteletters Same climate, same spirit.
Member Reviews
First read this book probably twenty years ago. Reminded me of CHRISTY. Simple tale of a very young and inexperienced teacher working with a mixed community of miners and Native Americans in the tiny town of Chicken, Alaska. It's a love story too, and the young heroine, Anne, has the temerity to love a mixed race man. Hey, it's a beautifully told simple little love story of life on the wild frontier nearly ninety years ago. I passed it along to my mom, who loved it so much she bought additional copies for her friends and ended up reading it several times herself over the years. And I didn't fault her for it; it's that good a story.
Last week my mother died. She was nearly 97. In the last months of her life she was making her way slowly show more through TISHA one more time, despite failing eyesight and crippling pain. I was reading the final chapters to her myself just two weeks ago. She could no longer speak, but she could still listen, and she would nod and smile at the by-now familiar words and passages. TISHA is that good. My mother and I thank Robert Specht and the book's heroine, Anne Hobbs, for telling the story of a young teacher from many years ago. My mother was a young inexperienced teacher herself just ten years later than Anne Hobbs was. She could relate, I'm sure.
Did I say that TISHA is a good book? Well it is. One that bears up well no matter how many times you read it. Highly recommended. show less
Last week my mother died. She was nearly 97. In the last months of her life she was making her way slowly show more through TISHA one more time, despite failing eyesight and crippling pain. I was reading the final chapters to her myself just two weeks ago. She could no longer speak, but she could still listen, and she would nod and smile at the by-now familiar words and passages. TISHA is that good. My mother and I thank Robert Specht and the book's heroine, Anne Hobbs, for telling the story of a young teacher from many years ago. My mother was a young inexperienced teacher herself just ten years later than Anne Hobbs was. She could relate, I'm sure.
Did I say that TISHA is a good book? Well it is. One that bears up well no matter how many times you read it. Highly recommended. show less
Such a surprise to enjoy a book whose cover looks like a 1960s Mutual of Omaha/Doctor Zhivago romance novel. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I read this for the community book club I'm in against my will (the reading, not being in the club).
But wow. It was so captivating! Put a young girl with open ideas in a remote town and set her loving acceptance against the racist ideals of a scared and small-minded clan. The struggle feels like it could've taken place in 2018 instead of in the 1920s. (Once again, thank you Trump and all who voted for him.)
Two things made this all the more wonderful: first, it's a true story and second, I read it when the temperature was 7 below. In the book they make reference to temperatures of 54 show more below or greater with nothing to heat the house but a small stove... I couldn't stop thinking of the fortitude of these pioneers (but even more so, the amazing survival powers of the Indians. Who we destroyed and continue to mistreat.)
Great read and I would recommend enjoying it on a blowy, freezy, icy night. show less
But wow. It was so captivating! Put a young girl with open ideas in a remote town and set her loving acceptance against the racist ideals of a scared and small-minded clan. The struggle feels like it could've taken place in 2018 instead of in the 1920s. (Once again, thank you Trump and all who voted for him.)
Two things made this all the more wonderful: first, it's a true story and second, I read it when the temperature was 7 below. In the book they make reference to temperatures of 54 show more below or greater with nothing to heat the house but a small stove... I couldn't stop thinking of the fortitude of these pioneers (but even more so, the amazing survival powers of the Indians. Who we destroyed and continue to mistreat.)
Great read and I would recommend enjoying it on a blowy, freezy, icy night. show less
This book began very slowly for me. I would read a chapter and then move on to read a different book that could hold my attention. About half-way through, though, it grabbed me. It was filled with so much action, I couldn't put it down. What would the people of Chicken do next? Would Anne survive? Would the love story find a happy ending? Mostly, I was left with appreciation of the people who populated Alaska, including, especially, the native Alaskans.
Alaska, 1927. Anne Hobbs has traveled by ornery pony to be a teacher in the Alaskan remote village of Chicken. Tisha is a true story as told to Robert Specht. Barely twenty years old, Anne begins her adventure in Chicken battling sub-zero cold winters and even more frigid prejudiced hearts. The natives of Alaska are considered lesser people even though it is their land. The word siwash is derogatory, both as a noun and a verb. Even the children are not exempt from cruel words and actions of the white community. Anne is not fazed by the immature behavior of the white community and, after developing a fondness for one such "half breed" child named Chuck, insists he attend her school. The taunts and threats now targeting Anne grow louder show more when she develops an even stronger fondness for a "half breed" adult named Fred. It isn't until Anne and Fred survive a terrible tragedy that the community starts to slowly come around. show less
Thoroughly enjoyable memoir of Anne Hobbs (1901-1987), Alaskan schoolteacher, as told to author Robert Specht. He took some liberty with location and age, but if the rest of the account is to be believed, Anne's was a remarkable life.
Hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to teach in Chicken, a remote settlement in Alaska, this young 'white' woman does things her own way and treats all the children the same, white or Indian, which riles up the whites. Remembering her own youth, rejected for being part Cherokee while growing up in Missouri, and then dirt-poor in mining camps in Colorado, her Cherokee grandmother her only ally, Anne stands her ground to give her Indian charges an equal education and chance at life. Further complicating show more her role in the community, she falls in love with a half-breed.
This is the story of Anne's adventures in Alaska, learning to live with scarcity, dealing with extreme cold and poverty, and with extremes in people, as well – from gruff but kind-hearted 'old-timers' to openly resentful Indian-haters; from those who came to strike-it-rich and desperately want to leave but can't afford it, to those who love the wild country for what it is, the True Alaskans.
Anne, herself, became a True Alaskan, living there most of her life. The last chapter of her book, dated 1975, tells the rest of her story, and I shan't give away the end, but it was fitting to her initial goals and her heart life.
With a stunning sense of place, this is a nicely written story of courage and love. Recommended! (7 out of 10 stars) show less
Hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to teach in Chicken, a remote settlement in Alaska, this young 'white' woman does things her own way and treats all the children the same, white or Indian, which riles up the whites. Remembering her own youth, rejected for being part Cherokee while growing up in Missouri, and then dirt-poor in mining camps in Colorado, her Cherokee grandmother her only ally, Anne stands her ground to give her Indian charges an equal education and chance at life. Further complicating show more her role in the community, she falls in love with a half-breed.
This is the story of Anne's adventures in Alaska, learning to live with scarcity, dealing with extreme cold and poverty, and with extremes in people, as well – from gruff but kind-hearted 'old-timers' to openly resentful Indian-haters; from those who came to strike-it-rich and desperately want to leave but can't afford it, to those who love the wild country for what it is, the True Alaskans.
Anne, herself, became a True Alaskan, living there most of her life. The last chapter of her book, dated 1975, tells the rest of her story, and I shan't give away the end, but it was fitting to her initial goals and her heart life.
With a stunning sense of place, this is a nicely written story of courage and love. Recommended! (7 out of 10 stars) show less
There are some books that I return to again and again, every few years, and never tire of their ability to charm. Tisha is one such story. I first read it as a girl and was drawn to the idealistic young teacher who travels to the Alaskan frontier to make a difference. As a young adult, I was impressed with Anne's independence and willingness to risk public censure to do right. Having just finished reading it once more, I am thinking of the sacrifices Anne and Fred Purdy made for each other, and how fierce was Anne's love for her adopted children. Simply told, with vivid characters, and a fast pace, I can't wait to share the book with my own daughter and look forward to my next reading of it.
This is a biographical story about Anne Hobbs, a young teacher who went out to Chicken, a remote gold mining town, in Alaska in 1927. The story creates a vivid picture of the hardship, dangers, but also beauty of life in this remote region. Anne begins the story as quiet and demure but finds the fire in her soul when the vitriolic racism of the townsfolk pushes her to action. Firstly she has to fight to allow Native American children to be educated at her school. Next her budding romance with the lovely Fred, whose mother is Inuit and father is white, threatens her employment and existence in the town. Lastly when she adopts two children after their Native American mother dies and their white father disowns them, the powder keg is lit. show more Anne’s grandmother was Native American, but the townsfolk consider her to be white and have very rigid views on how she should behave.
Anne was a brave and kind-hearted person and a dedicated teacher. The story itself was gripping, with some action scenes, a sweet romance, and a vivid portrayal of the nastiness of racism and small-mindedness of life. On the other hand the writing itself was very basic and a little clunky at times. The whole thing feels quite dated to read and although I understood Anne’s desire to protect the children, ultimately she still removed them from their culture. Three stars for me, for the insights it gave into life in the Yukon in the 1920s, and for Anne’s example of not bowing to the racism of others. show less
Anne was a brave and kind-hearted person and a dedicated teacher. The story itself was gripping, with some action scenes, a sweet romance, and a vivid portrayal of the nastiness of racism and small-mindedness of life. On the other hand the writing itself was very basic and a little clunky at times. The whole thing feels quite dated to read and although I understood Anne’s desire to protect the children, ultimately she still removed them from their culture. Three stars for me, for the insights it gave into life in the Yukon in the 1920s, and for Anne’s example of not bowing to the racism of others. show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1976
- People/Characters
- Anne Hobbs; Fred Purdy; Arnold Vaughn; Chuck; Nancy Prentiss; Ethel (show all 11); Angela Barrett; Maggie Carew; Joe; Mert Atwood; Rebekah Harrington
- Important places
- Chicken, Alaska, USA; Alaska, USA; USA
- Dedication
- For Judith, Raphael, and Allegra
- First words
- Even though it was barely eight o'clock and the sun had just come up, practically the whole town of Eagle had turned out to see the pack train off.
- Quotations
- I guessed I was never so happy in my life as around that time. Everything just seemed the way I'd dreamed it would be – the settlement and all the country around hushed under a thick white blanket, the snow dry enough so y... (show all)ou could walk around in moccasins and never get wet. Now I realized what the North was really like. It was made for winter, because winter was when everything went on. You could ski any place you wanted to and get there twice as fast and twice as easily as you could before there was snow. People went out and brought in the trees they'd cut for firewood and left lying until they could use sleds to haul them. The whole country just opened right up. You could hear somebody talking on the trail half a mile away, or dropping a pan on the stove a mile from the settlement. It was so quiet and open and free that it was like being let out of prison. It put everybody in good spirits and they went around looking the way the country did – clean and fresh.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Everytime I do I realize how fortunate I've been, because as much as I love children and sunlight, I know that the sun would never have shone as brightly for me, nor children's smiles seemed so lovely, had I spent those years without Fred.
- Blurbers
- Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher
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