The Tundra Diary question

It appears that this book is mostly real events, though the author may have taken liberties with the chronology, or borrowed stories from others. (Or maybe he didn't.) Clearly he used fake names for all the places and people he describes (which he admits before the story). Which is why I thought it was so clever that he took a pen name like Roman Acleaf. "Roman à clef" is a French term for a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names.

One sad aspect of Alaska Native life that is particularly concerning is the high rate of fetal alcohol syndrome, which I was surprised he didn't address directly - possibly because it wasn't part of his individual experience. But I think he did refer to it vaguely a few times, when he described "rabbit like" features in at least three students (two related), and suggested that at least one was mentally retarded. I wonder if this was a purposeful reference to FAS in that village?