This dissertation explores how landscape acts as teacher in shaping perceptions of place. At the core of the study is the Thelon Game Sanctuary, located in the central Northwest Territories of Canada. This contentious piece of land has been used historically and is claimed currently by both Dene and Inuit groups. The land also has an intriguing European exploration history, and is valued by various Euro-Canadians for its wilderness characteristics or for its potential for uranium mining. The Chipewyan Dene of Lutsel K'e (Snowdrift) and the Caribou Inuit of Qamanittuaq (Baker Lake) were major primary sources and active collaborators in this study, using project materials for local history and school activities. Using the literature of place for theoretical perspective and the principles of "new ethnography" for method, this investigation employs for analysis historical, scientific, and ethnographic texts, as well as songs, stories, reports, interviews, photographs, literature, poetry, and films. Analysis suggests that four major components contribute to a sense of place (that is, defining oneself in terms of a given piece of land). These land-bonds are toponymic (related to naming places), narrative (involving personal or group stories or legends), experiential (associated particularly with dependence and survival), and numinous (spiritual). The land as teacher in shaping sense of place is explored in the context of indigenous knowledge and models of experiential education. (Contains over 350 references.) (Author/SV)