The Shuká Káa discovery fit into this broader picture as a specific, direct piece of human evidence from a period represented elsewhere primarily by artifacts and environmental evidence.

Having an actual ancient individual — directly dated, physically analyzed, and eventually genomically characterized — gave the broader archaeological picture a specific human anchor that had been missing from the Northwest Coast record.

The Tongass: Landscape of the Oldest Rainforest People

The Tongass National Forest — the largest national forest in the United States, encompassing approximately 17 million acres of southeastern Alaska’s islands, fjords, and coastal mountains — is the temperate rainforest landscape within which the On Your Knees Cave is situated and within which the ancient Shuká Káa and his community lived.

The Tongass is not simply a governmental designation.