Other Indigenous scholars have noted that their communities have always maintained that they have been present in their territories “since time immemorial” — a phrase that does not specify a precise date but that asserts an ancestral relationship to the land that predates any particular archaeological record.

From this perspective, the finding that people were in eastern Beringia 24,000 years ago is consistent with, rather than challenging to, the broader Indigenous assertion of deep and continuous presence in North America.

The scientific community’s obligation in this context is to conduct research that is respectful of Indigenous peoples and their relationships to the land and to the archaeological record, to engage with Indigenous communities as partners in research rather than simply as sources of traditional knowledge to be extracted, and to communicate findings in ways that accurately represent what the evidence shows while being aware of how that evidence might be received and used in different contexts.

The Bluefish Caves research has been conducted primarily within the Canadian scientific establishment, with the cooperation of Canadian governmental and institutional frameworks.