Crate presents the first cultural ecological study of a Siberian people: the Viliui Sakha, contemporary horse and cattle agropastoralists in northeastern Siberia.

The author links the local and global economic forces, and provides an intimate view of how a seemingly remote and isolated community is directly affected by the forces of modernization and globalization.

She details the severe environmental and historical factors that continue to challenge their survival, and shows how the multi-million dollar diamond industry, in part run by ethnic Sakha, raises issues of ethnic solidarity and indigenous rights as well as environmental impact.

Her new book addresses key topics of interest to both economic and environmental anthropology, and to practitioners interested in sustainable rural development, globalization, indigenous rights in Eurasia, and post-Soviet and environmental issues.