Book excerpt: "One of Alaska's premier ethnographers, Robert A. McKennan (1903-1982) spent the years between 1929 and 1933 in several remote Native villages where he documented Interior Athabaskan life in a series of books and journals. McKennan's journals are a window onto Athabaskan culture before World War II. While McKennan's two major ethnographies - on the Tanana and the Gwich'in (Kutchin) - represent the scientific aspects of his work, his voluminous letters and journals form an equally significant part of anthropology's humanistic tradition." "McKennan chronicles both his day-to-day struggles to survive in the Alaska wilderness and his frustrations as an anthropologist. He recorded his field methods and the difficulties he encountered in pursuing his research. The result is a personal memoir of a dedicated researcher and sensitive observer."--BOOK JACKET.