This is consistent with a scenario in which the ancestors of the Northwest Coast peoples moved along the coast as part of the initial human dispersal into the Americas.

Whether that coastal movement was the primary mechanism of American settlement or one of several routes remains a matter of ongoing research and debate.

What the Shuká Káa evidence contributes to that debate is a specific genetic data point showing that the Northwest Coast had a founding coastal population with deep time depth — a population that was already comprehensively adapted to maritime life by 10,300 years ago and that gave rise to the complex coastal civilizations of later prehistory.

The Longer Story of the Northwest Coast