Some are fragmentary, represented by sections of the bent plank or by the base or lid.

Others are more complete.

Decorative elements on some boxes document that the aesthetic tradition associated with bentwood boxes in the contact period and later was already present in the centuries before the slide.

The function of bentwood boxes extended beyond simple storage.

They were used for cooking: water could be boiled in a wooden box by placing fire-heated stones into the water, a technique that requires neither pottery nor direct flame under the container.

Boxes were used to store preserved food, particularly dried and smoked salmon and fish oil.