Some are significant in oral traditions and spiritual practice.

Some have been used for resource storage, for shelter, or for ceremonial purposes.

The specific cave that would become central to one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in Alaskan history was known before archaeologists arrived — part of a landscape that Indigenous people had inhabited and understood for generations.

The formal archaeological investigation of On Your Knees Cave began as part of a broader effort to understand the archaeological potential of the cave systems of Prince of Wales Island.

The karst topography that produces caves also produces conditions that, under the right circumstances, preserve organic material that would not survive in most other environments.