It took more than a century for colonialism to reach Alaska after the first Europeans set foot in what would become the continental United States. The complex society of the Inupiaq, settled at the very top of the world, remained unknown and undisturbed longer than many other Native tribes in America. Ernest S. Burch, Jr., dedicated most of his life and career to understanding this precolonial period and the lives of Northwest Alaska Natives. "Inupiaq Ethnohistory "finally collects in one place Burchs critical research in this area, bringing to light work that had once been buried in scholarly books or scattered across journals. It is a fascinating and accessible window into a now-vanished world.