In the 1990s, news stories began to circulate about declining caribou populations in the North. Were caribou the canary in the coal mine for climate change, or did declining numbers reflect overharvesting by Indigenous hunters or failed attempts at scientific wildlife management? Grounded in community-based research in northern Canada, a region in the forefront of co-management efforts, these collected stories and essays bring to the fore the insights of the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, and Sahtú, people for whom caribou stewardship has been a way of life for centuries. Anthropologists, historians, political scientists, ecologists, and sociologists join forces with elders and community leaders to discuss four themes: the cultural significance of caribou, caribou ecology, food security, and caribou management. Together, they bring to light past challenges and explore new opportunities for respecting northern communities, cultures, and economies and for refocusing caribou management on the knowledge, practices, and beliefs of northern Indigenous peoples. Ultimately, When the Caribou Do Not Come drives home the important role that Indigenous knowledge must play in understanding, and coping with, our changing Arctic ecosystems and in building resilient, adaptive communities.

Author's experiences in Lake Athabasca area in 1930s.

Covering vast distances in time and space, Yukon: The Last Frontier begins with the early Russian fur trade on the Aleutian Islands and closes with what Melody Webb calls "the technological frontier." Colorful and impeccably researched, her history of the Yukon Basin of Canada and Alaska shows how much and how little has changed there in the last two centuries. Successive waves of traders, trappers, miners, explorers, soldiers, missionaries, settlers, steamboat pilots, road builders, and aviators have come to the Yukon, bringing economic and social changes, but the immense land "remains virtually untouched by permanent intrusions." ø

Covering vast distances in time and space, Yukon: The Last Frontier begins with the early Russian fur trade on the Aleutian Islands and closes with what Melody Webb calls 'the technological frontier'. Colourful and impeccably researched, her history of the Yukon Basin of Canada and Alaska shows how much and how little has changed there in the last two centuries. Successive waves of traders, trappers, miners, explorers, soldiers, missionaries, settlers, steamboat pilots, road builders, and aviators have come to the Yukon, bringing economic and social changes, but the immense land 'remains virtually untouched by permanent intrusions.'

This is an innovative and collaborative life history of one of Alaska’s pioneering wildlife biologists. David R. Klein has been a leader in promoting habitat studies across wildlife research in Alaska, and this is his first-hand account of how science and biological fieldwork has been carried out in Alaska in the last sixty years. This book tells the stories of how Klein did his science and the inspiration behind the research, while exposing the thinking that underlies particular scientific theories. In addition, this book shows the evolution of Alaska’s wildlife management regimes from territorial days to statehood to the era of big oil. The first portion of the book is comprised of stories from Klein’s life collected during oral history interviews, while the latter section contains essays written by Klein about philosophical topics of importance to him, such as eco-philosophy, the definition of wilderness, and the morality of hunting. Many of Klein’s graduate students have gone on to become successful wildlife managers themselves, in Alaska and around the globe. Through The Making of an Ecologist, Klein’s outlook, philosophy, and approach toward sustainability, wildlife management, and conservation can now inspire even more readers to ensure the survival of our fragile planet in an ever-changing global society.

Saskatchewan’s literary history is both colourful and complex. It is also mature enough to deserve a critical investigation of its roots and origins, its salient features and its prominent players. This collection of scholarly essays, conceptualized and compiled by well-known Saskatchewan novelist, essayist and scholar David Carpenter, examines the Saskatchewan literary scene, from its early Aboriginal storytellers on through to the decades to the burgeoning 1970s. The dozen essays, preceded by a David Carpenter introduction, include such topics as “Our New Storytellers: Cree Literature in Saskatchewan”; “The Literary Construction of Saskatchewan before 1905: Narratives of Trade, Rebellion and Settlement” and “The New Generation: The Seventies Remembered.” Also included are special topics, among them – “Playwriting in Saskatchewan”; “Feral Muse, Angelic Muse – The Poetry of Anne Szumigalski”, and tribute pieces to John V. Hicks, R.D. Symons, Terrence Heath and Alex Karras. Contributing scholars include the likes of: Kristina Fagan, Jenny Kerber, Susan Gingell, Ken Mitchell and Martin Winquist.

Before the Roads, Before the Mines is a narrative-based ethnohistory of a Denesułiné community, also known as the Chipewyan, Kesyehot’ine, or Poplar House People. The discovery of high-grade uranium deposits in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, in the mid- to late 1970s ushered in an era of mining and roadbuilding that largely replaced the traditional livelihoods of these subarctic hunter-fishers with wage labor in mining, construction, and related industries. The advent of new communications technologies and consumer goods, and a road to the outside world, created ruptures in the social fabric of the community. Robert Jarvenpa highlights the historical experiences of middle-aged and older individuals who vividly recall a time before the roads and mines existed—when young and old alike spoke the Denesułiné language and when entire families lived in a seasonally nomadic fashion in the bush. They continually invoke the past in the problematic present, a ritualized form of communication integral to resisting or adapting to the erosive changes of a rapidly industrializing resource-extraction frontier. Jarvenpa showcases the spoken words of the Denesułiné informants as a means of documenting and interpreting their historical past in the face of contemporary peril as the subarctic permafrost recedes and multinational corporations eye Indigenous lands for their minerals.