He could have been an interior person who had obtained coastal items through trade, as the complex trading networks connecting coast and interior facilitated the movement of goods and technologies across the mountains.

Or he could have been someone whose life bridged both worlds — perhaps a trader, a diplomat, or a person with family connections in both coastal and interior communities.

The Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast and the interior subarctic were not isolated from each other in the pre-contact and early contact period.

Trade routes crossed the mountains.

The Tlingit were known as experienced long-distance traders who maintained exchange relationships with interior peoples, obtaining furs, hides, and other goods from the interior and providing coastal goods — including marine products, copper, shell, and eventually European trade goods — in return.

The mountain passes of the Tatshenshini-Alsek region were part of these trade networks.