Nancy Danielson Mendenhall is a long-time Alaskan with great love for its people and its incredible surroundings: the ocean, rivers, mountains, and tundra. Her love for rivers began with first memories as a child playing on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington. Her love of boats and fishing developed as a teenager on Puget Sound. She has commercial and subsistence fished in Alaska since 1963 and is still picking a set-net. All of those experiences are brought out in her books: one a short history of Nome, where she lives, one about the political and management survival battles of our commercial fishermen from Oregon to Alaska, and two books about life and issues for the people and the salmon on the mid-Columbia.
Mendenhall is a retired educator as well and is still involved for her grandchildren and community in life-long learning for all. That and the health of the natural environment and many of the social issues we face today are her focus when she writes. Her most recent book, fiction, is set at the mid-Columbia in the 1990s. The multicultural cast of characters is plunged into (still current) troubles--the shrinking Chinook salmon runs and the radioactive wastes seeping to the river from the defunct atomic plant at Hanford, and, of course, what these mean in today's world.

Books:

Storytellers at the Columbia River;

Rough Waters: Our North Pacific Small Fishermen's Battle;

Orchards of Eden: White Bluffs on the Columbia 1907-1943;

Beachlines: A Pocket History of Nome
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Raves for "Storytellers at the Columbia River":

"Given the growing global threat of climate change, the Trump administration’s undercutting of conservation and environmental protection laws, promotion of the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, (this novel) is more than a simple work of entertaining and engaging fiction, it is a clarion call for the support of Native American rights with respect to the land and the waters and the wildlife and people that depend upon them. Especially and unreservedly recommended."
~ "Midwest Book Review"

“Intriguing. . . a compelling cast of characters in an amazing setting. . . wonderfully evocative writing about how globally significant events can affect the lives of everyday people.”
~ Steve Olson, author of The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

“Inspiring. . . fascinating. . . This is a much larger story of what could happen anywhere, told in such a grounded, knowledgeable and appealing way that the readers’ hearts are won, and perhaps their political convictions too. A real gem.”
~ Dr. Evelyn Pinkerton, professor emeritus, Fraser Univ., B.C.

“A powerful and important story--in reality many stories. . . told through the concerns of the novel’s characters. . .”
~ Dr. Gerald W. McFarland, author of "A Scattered People: An American Family Moves West


“This book is brave, inspiring and beautiful!...a sterling tribute to the concept of community and communitarianism. How vital it is. How fragile it is. And hopefully how eternal it is. I truly admire Mendenhall's grit, determination, and courage..."

~ Dennis Brown, author of "Salmon Wars: The Battle for the West Coast Salmon Fishery"


"'A strong voice for the power and importance of place...through a series of carefully constructed interlocking stories that connect the Hanford Reach's different cultures, generations, and (involved) countries. ... And in addition, it's a great read."

~ Jim Lichatowich, author of "Salmon, People, and Place: A Biologist's Search for Salmon Recovery"