This preliminary report describes an ongoing project, collection of materials and methods used by North American Indian people to make and to preserve artifacts. The project is based on fieldwork with members of the Blackfoot, Blood, Cree, and Sioux tribes of the Plains Indian group, and is intended to supplement descriptions in the ethnographic literature and to document traditional conservation philosophies and materials. The results are intended to provide information for the development and choice of modern conservation treatments, and to assist in sampling and analysis for the identification of materials. Research to date has already yelded a body of conservation principles which predates our own by hundreds of years. These define who is allowed to handle specific types of materials; frequency and methods of maintenance and storage; and use compatibility of materials as a basis for the choice of treatment methods.