In this book, focused on the Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuxalk—for although these groups speak different languages, they have close cultural ties—first-person accounts recall every facet of traditional life: the complex society based on kinship, rank and the potlatch; ceremonies and religion; gathering food, hunting and fishing, crafts; trade, travel and conflict; the environment, prehistory and archaeological discoveries; the arrival of Europeans and the fur trade, followed by settlement, change and the loss of their land.