Dakota Erutse was born in Yellowknife and raised in Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. In the last eleven years, he has served as a member of the board of management for the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority and as the vice-chair of the Sahtu Land Use Planning Board. He divides his time between Fort Good Hope and Vancouver, British Columbia. From such writers as Billy-Ray Belcourt and Zadie Smith, to Mary McCarthy and Katherine Anne Porter, to Erich Fromm and Charles Mills, Dakota seeks genuine literary and philosophical understanding in his own life.