In this article, Ives presents a vision of the Native people of northern Alberta from an archaeological viewpoint. To do this, he discusses environments and human adaptations, a chronological framework of events and processes in the human prehistory of the region, and results of archaeological projects that give us specific insights into ways of life in the prehistoric past. Although the community of Fort Chipewyan is a "historical" fixed settlement, Ives includes the lower Peace River and adjacent Caribou Mountains, the Peace-Athabasca Delta and Lake Athabasca, and the lower Athabasca River and adjacent Birch Mountains in this review, since the seasonal activities of prehistoric peoples would have routinely taken them throughout much of these areas. Photographs and sketches of prehistoric tools and debitage are included, as well as maps depicting archaeological sites and the distribution of prehistoric sites on the former Alsands lease. Ives presents evidence of hundreds of sites throughout this region, and explains that the larger site concentrations coincide with the locations of the Athabasca Cree at the onset of the fur trade hence, the locations were chosen for fur trade posts. Ives suggestion that the very existence of the fur trade was inextricably tied to an ancient history of land use that took shape over the last ten thousand years is both founded and fascinating.