The Canadian sub-arctic is a world of forest, prairie and muskeg; of rainbow trout, moose, and caribou; of Indian hunters and trappers. It is also a world of boomtowns and bars, oil rigs and seismic soundings; of white energy speculators, ranchers and sports hunters. Hugh Brody came to this dual wold with the job of 'mapping' the lands of northwest British Columbia as well as the way of life of a small group of Beaver Indians with a viable hunting economy living in the path of a projected oil pipeline.

Maps and Dreams is his account of an extraordinary 18-month journey through the world of a people who have no intention of vanishing into the past. Brody's powerful commentary retraces the history of the ever-expanding white frontier, from the first eighteenth-century explorer to the wildest corporate energy dreams of the present day.