The oral traditions of the Tlingit and Haida include accounts of their deep historical connections to this land, accounts that situate the present-day communities within a much longer story of coastal life.

Scientific evidence that confirms and elaborates this deep connection — that provides specific, quantified support for the antiquity of Indigenous coastal occupation — is received by these communities not as alien information from outside but as confirmation of what the traditions already maintained.

The scientific precision of radiocarbon dating and genomic analysis adds specific numbers and specific genetic relationships to a history that the communities have carried in their traditions all along.

The relationship between the scientific investigation of Shuká Káa’s remains and the Tlingit and Haida communities of the region was managed through protocols that respected Indigenous sovereignty and the specific legal frameworks governing archaeological work on Indigenous ancestral territories.