Oral historical, archaeological, ecological, linguistic and ethnological data are drawn upon in an attempt to delineate the geographical extent of the Athapaskan-speaking Kutchin Indians of northern Alaska and northwest Canada during late prehistoric times. During the past several years interest in the prehistory of North Alaska has greatly increased. This paper represents one attempt to synthesize some of the archaeological, linguistic and ethnological data now available in an effort to reconstruct the late prehistory of the Kutchin Athapaskans. Though the origin and subsequent movement of the Kutchin peoples are my main interest, much of the evidence comes from their sometimes peaceful, often violent, contact with the Eskimo peoples of the same area. This evidence suggests that Eskimo/Indian conflict forced a small group of Kutchin to migrate from the Kobuk River region eastward across the length of the Brooks Range to the area they now occupy. The probable existence of a Kutchin group far to the west of their traditional homeland further suggests that the prehistoric Kutchin occupied a territory different from that known for them historically. The ultimate origins of the Athapaskan peoples, both Northern and Southern, are still in doubt, though there has been considerable speculation based on ethnological and linguistic evidence. Most ethnologists working among the Northern Athapaskans, however, have wisely refrained from speculation on origins due to lack of direct evidence. Before 1950 archaeological evidence from the Northern area was so scant that Frederica de Laguna could offer no hypothesis of origin based on her archaeological investigations.2 Subsequent survey and excavation led Richard MacNeish to postulate a long continuum of fishing and forest-hunting oriented peoples in the area.3 Though he has late Athapaskan phases from several areas (Bennett from the southwestern Yukon,