The Tlingit peoples of the Alaska Panhandle and adjacent coastal areas of British Columbia also have traditional connections to the landscape and routes associated with the Tatshenshini-Alsek region, and their knowledge and interests were part of the consultation process that governed the research.

The coastal-interior relationships that the scientific analysis of Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi would eventually illuminate were, and are, part of the living history of both the Champagne and Aishihik people and the coastal Tlingit — communities whose trade relationships, family connections, and movements across the mountains have continued from long before the colonial era to the present.

The Agreement That Made The Science Possible

The scientific research on Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi did not proceed according to the old model of archaeology — in which remains found in the field were taken to laboratories and studied according to the interests and schedules of researchers, with affected communities having little or no input into the process.