Some will be found by people without the institutional connections to the relevant Indigenous communities and scientific authorities.

The challenge of managing the archaeological exposures created by glacial retreat is one that Indigenous communities, governments, and the scientific community are only beginning to address systematically.

What Oral Tradition Carries

The oral traditions of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and of the coastal Tlingit carry knowledge about the landscape of the Tatshenshini-Alsek region — about its routes, its resources, its hazards, and its history — that the archaeological and scientific record alone cannot provide.

The specific routes that travelers used to cross between the coast and the interior through this mountain system are part of the knowledge that traditional oral transmission has preserved.