Tsamo

In the 1860s, Alaska and Finland are parts of the Russian Empire. The governor of Alaska is a Finn whose brother buys a little Tlingit girl and decides to bring her home. A battle over her identity begins. Based on a true story, it is another chapter in a fictional saga about assimilation, erasure of identity and philistine arrogance of the dominant culture. “Tsamo is forced to leave her people to become an exotic object passed around between strangers. She takes refuge in the beliefs of her people. The family and culture into which we are born shape our view of the world” (Lapsui and Lehmuskallio).