This essay reviews the documentary evidence that scholars have relied on to infer both aboriginal distributions and possible territorial shifts due to direct and indirect influences and events stemming from the European fur trade. The main concern of the author is with certain early historical references that present problems of interpretation regarding the territorial movements of the Chipewyan and Cree peoples. Helm discusses how the ambiguities of tribal names and the unknown effects that the fur trade had in the western interior before any direct contact make it impossible to state with any certainty whether Athapaskan people were permanently displaced from any areas by the Cree. In the early historic era, except for the expansion of the Chipewyan southward and westward, only minor changes in exploitative range between Athapaskan and Algonquian speakers as well as among the Athabaskans have been documented for the peoples within the Shield and the Mackenzie Drainage. Maps and illustrations are included.