The subarctic Indians and the fur trade, 1680-1860 /

Based on new and hitherto unused primary sources, Yerbury's scholarly work adds much to the understanding of both the fur trade of northwestern Canada and the subarctic Indians of that area. In a series of chapters or essays, readers are offered an examination of the ``periods'' of the trade: the protohistoric, the early fur trade (1770-1880), the competitive phase (1800-1821), and the trading post dependency period (1821-1860). The most interesting portion of this book, which best integrates material and theme, is the penultimate chapter ``Canadian Athapaskan Ecological and Sociocultural Adaptations.'' This section treats man-mammal use, disease, infanticide, and social/cultural transformations, themes that deserve far wider audiences than will be reached in this format. Yerbury quarrels with other anthropologists, whose works and themes readers are expected to know. A fuller examination of the various interpretations of northern Indian history and trade would have given this important work the broader scope that its subject merits. Maps, bibliography, and index.-B.M. Gough, Wilfrid Laurier University