He was born in 1911 in a sod igloo in Point Hope, an ancient Eskimo Village in northwest Alaska where the people had hunted whales and lived off the land and the sea for centuries.  Instead of becoming a hunter, Rock was to become an accomplished artist and crusading newspaper editor.  He helped defend his people from a controversial Atomic Energy Commission proposal to excavate a harbor near the village with a, huge, above-ground atomic blast, then founded the Tundra Times newspaper to give them a voice.

Under Rock's leadership, the newspaper helped organize Alaska's Native people to press their aboriginal land claims before Congress, ultimately winning a settlement of $1 billion and 40 million acres of land.