What is the theme in Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis?

Respect for the elderly is a theme. The abandonment of Sa' and Ch'idzigyaak is not the only tale of abandonment shared in the story. Ch'idzigyaak's grandmother was also abandoned many years previously, and Sa' was abandoned as a young woman when she stood up to the chief who announced that an elderly woman in her tribe was to be left behind.