This is a first-hand account of a reindeer-herding collective in the remote Taimyr peninsula of Siberia. The author gives an intimate description of the day-to-day lives of a little-known group of Evenkis as they face both economic and ecological challenges. His study addresses questions of identity, nationalism, and ecological theory, as well as mapping the changes caused in the region by the formation of and the recent break-up of the Soviet Union.