Tony Penikett spent twenty-five years in public life, including two years in the House of Commons as chief of staff to federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent, five terms in the Yukon Legislative Assembly, and two terms as premier of Yukon Territory. His government negotiated settlements of Yukon First Nation land claims and passed pioneering legislation in the areas of education, health, and language. It also organized Yukon 2000, a unique bottom-up economic-planning process. Between 1997 and 2001, he served as deputy minister of negotiations and, later, as deputy minister of labour for the BC government. He is the author of one book, Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia, and two films, The Mad Trapper and La Patrouille Perdue.

• PrologueContours1 Who, What, Where? Arctic Peoples and Places2 Pawns: The Cold War3 Born in the Northern Bush: Indigenous Government4 No Settler Need Apply: The Arctic CouncilCommunity5 What You Eat and Where You Live: Poverty in the North6 Knowing Yourself: Education and Health7 Underfoot: Resources, Renewable and Non-renewableConflict8 Arctic Security: Control or Cooperation?9 Hungry Ghost: Climate Change10 Boomers and Lifers: A New DivideNotes; Bibliography; Index

This is an insider's view of Canada's North and the Arctic world generally, informed by decades of experience in all aspects of northern life – social, environmental, and economic. It is astonishingly wide-ranging and comprehensive in its approach to topics, as well as lighthearted and anecdotal. It is difficult to think of anyone who knows more, or as much, about this subject as Penikett, which makes his book indispensable reading for anyone interested in the North. Summing Up: Essential. - W. R. Morrison (CHOICE, April 2018) There are tantalizing snippets of memoir in this book—Penikett is an excellent writer, and there's one especially lovely description of his presence as honorary pallbearer at his former mother-in-law's funeral and potlatch. But it is largely a comprehensive review of issues such as governance, international relations (a history and critique of the Arctic Council), resource management, climate change, and social issues like poverty, education, and health. Chapters on climate change, the "hungry ghost," and the complex issue of sovereignty are especially good, as Penikett honours traditional knowledge (known colloquially as TK), and the slow integration of traditional knowledge into scientific research and analysis in the Arctic.- Marian Botsford Fraser (Literary Review of Canada) Hunting The Northern Character is an eloquent appeal to end condescending treatment of the one uniquely Canada region best known to the outside world.- Holly Doan (Blacklock's Reporter)