The Ozette assemblage showed, concretely, what the standard Northwest Coast site cannot show.

It demonstrated that the communities living along this coast before contact were not simply communities with stone-flaking skills.

They were sophisticated technological cultures working primarily in organic media.

They were building and using complex composite tools, intricate watercraft, refined woven containers, and elaborate systems for preserving food and managing household resources.

None of this would have been visible without the preservational accident of the mudslide.

The Year of the Storm and the Decision to Dig