This study is a "teaching case." It is a description of events written to help education students understand the complex, ambiguous situations that arise in rural teaching. The limitations of scientific rules and principles for teacher training are especially obvious in rural Alaska schools--where teachers who are typically Caucasian instruct children from Eskimo or Indian communities. Teachers in a culturally-different community must decide to what extent they should participate in community affairs, how they should respond to various community factions, and to what extent they should accept or attempt to alter the situations in which they find themselves. In recounting of actual events, an experienced teacher arrives in a small Eskimo community, in which difficult social problems, such as alcoholism, exist. The teacher is a veteran of rural Alaska--known throughout the region for his success in establishing positive, cooperative relationships with village students and adults. The case describes what he did, how he did it, and the toll it took on his family of six. The story emphasizes his sensitivity toward the villagers and their way of life. (KS)