Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George

To her small Eskimo village, she is known as Miyax; to her friend in San Francisco, she is Julie. When the village is not longer safe for her, Miyax runs away. But she soon finds herself lost in the Alaskan wilderness, without food, without even a compass to guide her.
Slowly she is accepted by a pack of Arctic wolves, and she grows to love them as though they were family. With their help, and drawing on her father's teachings, Miyax struggles day by day to survive. But the time comes when she must leave the wilderness and choose between the old ways and the new. Which will she choose? For she is Miyax of the Eskimos - but Julie of the Wolves.