<p>The Middle Fraser Canyon contains some of the most importantarchaeological sites in British Columbia, including the remains ofancient villages that supported hundreds, if not thousands, of people.How and why did these villages come into being? Why were theyabandoned?</p><p>In search of answers to these questions, Anna Marie Prentiss and IanKuijt take readers on a voyage of discovery into the ancient history ofthe St'át'imc, or Upper Lillooet people, from eightthousand years ago to the present. Drawing on evidence fromarchaeological surveys and excavations and from the knowledge ofSt'át'imc people as acquired in interviews, they follow thehuman occupation of the region from the early peopling of the Interiorto the emergence of the first villages. Explanations for thevillages' establishment and collapse, they argue, lie in theevolution of food-gathering and -processing techniques, climate change,the development of social complexity, and the arrival of Europeans.</p><p>Prentiss and Kuijt's wide-ranging vision of culture andancient history in British Columbia is brought to vivid life throughphotographs, illustrations, artist renderings and fictionalizedaccounts of life in the villages, a glossary and pronunciation guidefor the St'át'imc language, and sidebars on archaeologicalmethods, theories, and debates.</p><p><p><b>Anna Marie Prentiss</b> is a professor in theDepartment of Anthropology at the University ofMontana. <b>Ian Kuijt</b> is a professor in theDepartment of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame.</p>