Protected from the full force of Pacific swells by the barrier of the outer islands, it provides an essentially continuous waterway through which boats can travel with reasonable safety even in the winter storm season that would make the open Pacific coast impassable.

For the founding coastal people moving southward from Beringia along the Pacific coast — if the coastal route hypothesis is correct — the Alexander Archipelago and the broader Inside Passage represent a stretch of the journey that would have been navigable by the maritime people making the dispersal.

The archipelago’s islands would have provided landing sites, resource areas, and shelter at intervals along the route.

The marine resources of the region — the same salmon, sea mammals, and shellfish that sustained Shuká Káa 10,300 years ago — would have been available to sustain people in transit as well as people in place.