"Fur trapping, for generations the chief source of income for native people in northern Canada, has seriously declined in recent years. An outstanding exception is the community of Sachs Harbour, Banks Island, N.W.T., where several thousand arctic fox pelts are harvested annually by fifteen to twenty trappers. This study analyzes three topics: the cultural ecology of the colonization of Banks Island as a trapping frontier, the economic geography of trapping and hunting there, and the current status and future prospects of the community of Sachs Harbour. Its purposes are to investigate the ecologic, economic and social basis of trapping, to understand trapping as an adaptive strategy in particular historical circumstances, and to analyze it as a viable resource system."--Abstract, p. iii.