Chapters 1-3, The Road to Tuktoyaktuk, Pyramids on the Mississippi, Women (and a Few Men) Who Led the Way Summary and Analysis

Tuktoyaktuk is a peninsula that extends directly from Northern Canada into the Arctic Ocean and is one of the northernmost places the humans inhabit, and yet there is both a military base there and a native Inuvialuit village that intermingle. The author, Jack Weatherford, sees the peaceful coexistence of these two groups as the end of a five centuries old path of social and cultural interactions between the various immigrant groups to North America and the various tribes of natives who inhabited the land before. Much of what is great about Western civilization in terms of science, technology, agriculture, culture and art comes from these...