“We knew immediately that we needed
to partner with Alaska Natives to develop
it so that it was truly authentic,” Gillim said.
Among those ongoing advisers is Anchorage
resident Rochelle Adams, a Gwich’in
Athabascan linguist who still lives part time
in the tiny Yukon River village of Beaver in
Alaska’s interior, where people continue to
live a subsistence lifestyle, hunting for
moose and black bear. In 2016, Adams and
other advisers met with Gillim for two days
in Fairbanks in what Adams describes as an
intensive time fleshing out the characters and
their community. Adams said she
hopes the series educates the world amid so
many misconceptions about the state and
Alaska Natives.
Each episode contains two stories introducing
children to various cultures, people and places
through Molly, her dog Suki, her Native friend
Tooey and African-American friend Trini, whose
family moved to Alaska from Texas. To reflect
the community’s fictitious location near Denali,
North America’s tallest mountain, Molly’s family
is Gwich’in, Koyukon and Dena’ina — three
Athabascan groups among 11 with ties to the
region, Adams said.
That level of storyline attention is a long
way from Adams’ childhood, when she
never saw anyone like her or her family
depicted in pop culture.
“All I saw was people that didn’t look like us,”
she said. “So working on this has been such an
honor for me.”
Image: Mark Thiessen