Henry Ekada has lived his entire life in the Nulato area.  The village is one of the oldest on the Yukon River.  It was founded by the Russian creole Malakhov in 1838 as the farthest upriver Russian outpost.  Fifty years later the Catholic Church founded its first Alaskan mission at Nulato.

Henry brings to Nulato a unique blend of three cultures.  His father was Japanese, his mother Athabascan, and his long time job maintaining the largest school of the district makes him an interpreter of Outside technology.