Portrait of Norman Wells

Dr. Ross lived in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories, a town of 350 people just south of the Arctic Circle, from 1970 to 1975, and spent the summers there in 1976, 1977 and 1978. The nearest town was Fort Norman, fifty miles south on the MacKenzie River. Dr. Ross spent three winters in the Arctic without running water, including one without electricity.

Portrait of Norman Wells gives a description of life in the community told from the perspectives of eight different people. These include a sociologist, a doctor, a businessman, an evangelist, a man in his thirties, an old Indian, a nature lover, and a hippie.

The different perspectives provide a mosaic, which is the overall portrait of Norman Wells. The eight chapters also provide a dramatization of the limitations of white, western consciousness, which is contrasted with the knowledge and understanding of the old Indian. The hippie has crossed over to the aboriginal way of knowledge, but only partially.