Installing nodejs on Debian 6

Installing nodejs on Debian 6

Lots of (old?) posts suggest that if one wants to install node.js on
Debian 6 (in my case this is an Amazon EC2 t1.micro instance I am
experimenting with), then one needs to compile your own given the fact
that Debian packages significantly lag the frenzied pace of node.js
development.
The node.js website lists v0.10.17 as the current stable release. The
current nodejs package information nicely also lists the same
(0.10.17~dfsg1-2) which sounds great right? Don't have to do a make after
all!
Problem is that this request:
sudo apt-get install nodejs
Produces these results:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package nodejs
So my question is this: am I seeing what it looks like when a package is
PLANNED but not yet created, or is there maybe some apt-get issue going on
here that my installation just doesn't see the nodejs package and
therefore cannot install it? Am I stuck with having to do a make? (which
btw, blew up on me when I tried it).