This does not mean the living nations have no relevant knowledge.

Their cultural traditions, ceremonial practices, and knowledge systems are continuous with the broader Indigenous tradition of the Eastern woodlands in ways that archaeologists cannot fully trace but that the communities themselves understand.

The consultation process that the park conducts with the affiliated nations is not merely a legal formality.

It is an attempt to bring the living continuity of Indigenous knowledge into dialogue with the physical record that the cave has preserved.

But that dialogue cannot fully answer the central question.