The northern Athapaskan Indians of Canada and Alaska, members of one of the largest indigenous linguistic groups of North American, inhabit a vast region that stretches from western interior Alaska through northern interior Canada, and from the Yukon and British Columbia eastward to the western shores of Hudson Bay. This publication is the first major exhibition to be devoted entirely to the Athabaskans of Alaska and north-western Canada, and combines the best material from two of the foremost collections in this field, those of the Royal Scottish Museum, and the National Museum of Man, Ottawa. The exhibition displayed in this book is concerned primarily with the ethnography, or material culture, of the northern Athapaskan Indians, that is, the objects that they make and used, such as weapons, tools, utensils, houses and clothing, in order to sustain their way of life in a particular environment. The traditional Indian lifestyle is placed in its historical context by including in the exhibition sections on the pre-historic background, reconstructed upon the basis of archaeological material; the changes brought about during the first period of white contact; and the effect of the modern world upon the present-day Indian culture. The black-and-white and colour photographs displayed throughout this publication are extraordinary and essential to understanding the history of the Athapaskan peoples.