This study is a controlled longitudinal analysis of the impact and meaning of television among Algonkian Indians of central Canada which incorporates eight years of extensive participant observation field work and objective social and psychological testing in the pre- and post-television periods. The impact of television is discussed in terms of stress and modernization, and it is argued that positive and negative television inputs in these areas are heavily conditioned by meanings derived from analogies between television and certain cultural traditions, which promoted exaggerated copying, identification, and trust in TV characters on the part of naive viewers. A report of the ethnographic findings resulting from long term field work in three Algonkian communities reviews the impact and meaning of television in these communities as revealed in field observations and interviews. Findings based on psychological and sociological tests, economic sales records, video tape experimentation, and questionnaire opinion surveys are also reported, and the final section provides a review of the work and its implications, clarifying some of the issues in telecommunication policy for developing areas and making some recommendations. A study of the relationship between music associated with a TV show and its appeal to an Ojibwa audience is appended. (CHC)