The great expanse of Arctic and Sub-Arctic lands that stretch across the northern edge of the American continent is as diffi cult and demanding to human beings as any in the world. Th e Athapaskan-speaking Indians who made it their home never captured the imagination of popular writers as did the Eskimo who lived on their northern borders and the Plains Indians who lived to the south. Except to anthropologists, the Athapaskans have remained in relative obscurity, known intimately only to the missionaries, the traders and trappers, and the prospectors who invaded their forbidding territory.