Washington State University students also participated in the excavation as field school students and as research assistants, gaining experience in the specific challenges of waterlogged organic site excavation that was not available from any other comparable North American site.

The training dimension of the project was explicitly valued by the academic team, and many participants went on to careers in which their Ozette experience was foundational.

The dialogue between community participants and academic participants over the course of the project was itself a form of education for both groups.

Makah community members who engaged with the excavation learned aspects of the archaeological methodology that was being applied to their ancestral heritage.

Academic participants who engaged with the Makah community learned aspects of the cultural context that transformed their understanding of what the objects they were recovering actually meant.