This catalog presents a panoramic selection of art from the native cultures of America’s far north. It is drawn primarily from the great peninsula now called Alaska, a vast geographic area that has played a unique role in the cultural history of our hemisphere. The exhibition this catalog accompanied was the first to celebrate the artistic heritage shared by the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean Eskimos and Alaska’s Indians. The material for the exhibition was drawn from 35 collections, and much of it had not been on permanent display anywhere or seen in an art museum context. The material ranges from works discovered by 18th-century explorers to clan and family heirlooms preserved by the coastal Indians themselves. It also includes objects discovered through modern archaeological excavation.