Wild rivers lured Patti-Kay Hamilton north in 1970. On the family trapline she ran a dog team, visited fishnets and raised her son. Since retiring from a 30-year career as a radio journalist, Hamilton's stories have been published in numerous magazines, the first anthology of work N.W.T. writers and translated in France. Hamilton won the 2014 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize and was shortlisted for the 2016 Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story short fiction competition. She is an enthusiastic traditional storyteller and works to encourage youth to share their stories. Patti-Kay lives in Fort Smith, N.W.T..

Buffalo protected people stampeded.

Gunshots pierce Sati's fatigue. A laugh bubbles from her dry throat when she sees the trail ahead trampled by hooves of stampeding buffalo. Sati imagines the hunt. Dog teams wild with the chase, fanning out to drive the buffalo into a clearing. Her father and his brothers leaning onto backboards balancing to take aim as the dogs run close. So close they can see the rolling eyes of the buffalo. So close they can be gored.