Dogsong is a 1985 young adult novel by Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen

Gary James Paulsen is an American writer who writes many young adult coming of age stories about the wilderness. He is the author of more than 200 books , 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for young adults and teens.-Biography:Gary Paulsen was born in...

 and is a Newbery Honor Book. It is about a 14-year-old Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....

, Russel Susskit and his dogs, who is searching for answers about his life that he cannot find. His father could not tell him the answers—but a blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 old man

Old man

-Roles:*Father*Husband*Captain of a merchant ship or a warship*Any male amateur radio operator-People:*"Old Man" of La Chapelle-au-Saints, a skeleton*Joseph "Old Man" Paruta member of the Gambino crime family...

 named Oogruk, sets him in the right direction. Disillusioned with modern life-such as "snow machines"

Snowmobile

A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...

 and cooking meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

-and his people losing tradition

Tradition

A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...

, Russel sets out on a quest

Quest

In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and as a symbol. Quests appear in the folklore of every nation and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and...

 in order to find himself, and the "old ways" of his people.

Inspired by the Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....

 shaman Oogruk, Russel Suskitt takes a dog team and sled to escape the modern ways of his village and to find his own "song" of himself.