These were not one people in the sense of a single identifiable tribe or nation.

They were the communities who inhabited the rivers and forests of the Eastern woodlands across those centuries, connected by cultural exchange and trade networks but distinct in specific practices and social organization.

They were also, by the evidence of what they left in the cave, people of considerable sophistication.

The woven fiber sandals found in cave passages are not crude footwear.

They are carefully constructed, using plant fibers from a species researchers have identified as Eryngium — rattlesnake master — that grows above ground in the surrounding forest.