It was a place where people lived.

The Beringian standstill hypothesis, supported by a growing body of genetic evidence, proposes that the ancestral Native American population spent an extended period — potentially thousands of years — living in Beringia before the dispersal into the interior of the Americas.

During this period of relative isolation, the founding Native American population differentiated genetically from the Asian populations it had originally derived from, developing the specific genetic profile that characterizes all Native Americans.

The geography of the Seward Peninsula, at the eastern edge of what was once the Beringian landmass, places Trail Creek Caves in a position of special archaeological significance.