ARCHEOLOGY OF THE YAKUTAT BAY AREA, 

 ALASKA 



By Frederica de Laguna, Francis A. Riddell, 



Donald F. McGeein, Kenneth S. Lane, and J. Arthur Freed, 



with a chapter by Carolyn Osborne 



INTRODUCTION ' 



By Frederica de Laguna 

 THE PROBLEM 



The archeological and ethnological researches begun at Yakutat 

 in 1949 had as their purpose to trace the development and dechne of 

 northern Tlingit culture from the earliest period that might be 

 represented archeologically down to the present. The aim was not 

 simply to describe the history of the culture, but to analyze, if possible, 

 the dynamic processes involved. 



It was hoped that archeological investigations in northern Tlingit 

 country might furnish evidence to test the hypothesis of ancient and 

 long-continued cultural exchanges between the southwestern Alaskan 

 Esldmo and the Indians of southeastern Alaska (de Laguna, 1947, 

 pp. 12 f.). These exchanges were believed to have begun before 

 the development of specific Northwest Coast cultural patterns, and 

 later to have contributed to their growth, especially by supplying 

 influences from the Asiatic side of the North Pacific. It was also 

 suggested that the distinctive and specialized cultures of the late 

 prehistoric and historic periods on the northern and central North- 

 west Coast had been built upon a foundation culturally and chrono- 

 logically related to the most ancient cultures in the Aleut-Pacific 

 Eskimo and Coast Salish areas. This belief implied that northern 

 Thngit archeology would, therefore, not only reflect the stages of 

 development of classic Northwest Coast culture, even though its 

 centers were assumed to lie much farther south (Kroeber, 1939, pp. 

 28 ff.), but would also indicate to what extent influences from the 

 north and west may have stimulated this cultural growth. Excava- 

 tions at Yakutat were expected to be particularly important in testing 

 these hypotheses, since cultural exchanges between southwestern and 



I note, page XI. 



INSTITUTION ^^^^^ 1300 



