The actual relationship between oral history and archaeological evidence at Ozette was different.

The oral history was the knowledge of a community that had been present at or near the event, and which had maintained that knowledge across subsequent generations through the specific traditions that Makah culture used to preserve important historical and practical information.

When the bank began to erode in the winter of 1969 to 1970 and wooden objects emerged from the mud, the people who noticed and who understood the significance of what was happening were members of a community that already knew something had been preserved beneath that location.

The oral history was not a lucky guess.