The postcontact experience of the Native peoples of the boreal forest zone has been fundamentally different from that of aboriginal groups living in all other areas of North America. The fur trade has remained important for Subarctic Natives ever since they first encountered Europeans. In most places Europeans have not pushed them off the land because extensive agriculture is not possible. Native languages continue to flourish. Apart from the fur traders, it is the missionaries and government agents who have had the greatest effect on the Native population. Yet, even these officials had little impact on the Natives before the early part of the twentieth century. This means the continuity with the recent past is very powerful in the Northern Interior. Today Native societies strongly reflect their aboriginal roots, two to four centuries of fur-trading traditions, the work of missionaries, and most recently, the impact of government programs.

The Northern Interior has what outsiders perceive to be a hostile climate, where extremes, not averages, govern life. Summers are fleeting; winters are severe. The boreal forest extends from near the Labrador coast west-northwest almost 5,500 kilometers into central Alaska. However, it is by no means an unbroken forest. The eastern two-thirds of the region is the land of the rocky Canadian Shield, where continental glaciers stripped vast portions of the uplands bare of soil so they do not support extensive tree growth. In this Shield country, forests primarily grow in the sheltered lowlands beside the countless lakes, rivers, and streams. Here is where Indians found most of theit large game, chiefly woodland caribou and moose, small prey and fur bearers, and waterfowl. Here fish also abounded, the key staple species being white fish, sturgeon, and lake trout. Toward the northern limits of the forested Shield, barren ground caribou in small herds seek shelter during the winter from the frigid, wind-swept barren lands.

To the northwest, the landscape of the sprawling Mackenzie River drainage basin has a very different appearance from that of the Shield. Mostly this is a poorly drained lowland, covered with glacial and river deposits mantled by a heavy forest. The same animal species found in the Shield region are present here also, but moose were once particularly abundant in the southern sections toward the Athabasca and Peace Rivers. The whole basin teams with beaver and muskrat. Toward the delta Arctic fox are plentiful.