The oral traditions are living knowledge — transmitted through active practice, maintained in ceremonial context, connected to ongoing community life.

The scientific record is reconstructed knowledge — extracted from ancient materials, analyzed with specific methods, communicated through the conventions of academic and scientific publication.

The value of the scientific record for the Indigenous communities of the Northwest Coast is not that it replaces or validates the oral traditions.

The communities did not need scientific confirmation to know that their connection to the coast is deep and real.

The value is that it provides a form of documentation that is legible in the legal, political, and academic contexts where Indigenous rights and histories are debated and contested — a form of evidence that can be presented in land rights proceedings, in federal recognition processes, and in academic debates about the antiquity and nature of Indigenous coastal occupation.