de Laguna] ARCHEOLOGY, YAKUT AT BAY AREA, ALASKA 15 



drifts form in the forest in winter. Most of the offshore winds blow 

 from the south and east, but on land there are often storm winds 

 from the mountains to the north. The tidal range at Yakutat is 

 about 10 feet. 



The most important animals of the area that were utilized for food 

 or skins were: fur seal, harbor seal, sea otter, porpoise, sea lion, 

 whale (eaten when found stranded), black bear, brown grizzly, land 

 otter (until recently avoided as supernatm-ally dangerous), mountain 

 goat, wolf, fox, wolverine, beaver, muslcrat, and marmot. Moose, 

 rabbit, and deer have come or been introduced into the area during 

 the present century. The most valuable fish are the salmon — king, 

 sockeye, humpback, and coho, to list them in the order of their runs; 

 there are also halibut, eulachon, herring, steelhead, etc. Bird life is 

 particularly abundant, especially in the Ankau system of streams, 

 lakes, and lagoons between Ocean Cape and Lost River. The most 

 significant for the natives were swans, geese, salt- and fresh-water 

 ducks, terns, gulls, and other aquatic birds. Cockles, clams, mussels, 

 chitons, crabs, and sea urchins were gathered in the sheltered waters 

 along the eastern part of the bay or in the salt lagoons of the Ankau 

 area. Edible seaweed was obtained on rocky points off Ocean Cape 

 or on the outer shores of the islands. 



Icy Bay was an important area for himting mountain goat, seal, 

 and sea otter, and the Qalyix-Kagwantan territory west of Cape 

 Yakataga was noted for its fur bearers, especially beaver and sea 

 otter. 



GEOLOGICAL CHANGES 



There have been a number of geological changes in the Yakutat 

 Bay region since it was jQrst settled, and recently discovered evidence 

 of these changes (Plafker and Miller, 1958) have tended to confirm 

 native traditions (de Laguna, 1958). The whole area was probably 

 buried under ice during the Pleistocene, and while human occupation 

 may have been possible during the recession which followed the 

 Wisconsin glacial period, we have no evidence of it. After this, there 

 was another advance of the ice, so that Malaspina Glacier and the 

 two lobes that filled Icy Bay and Yakutat Bay formed a continuous 

 front of ice along the sea. The coastal plain east of Yakutat Bay 

 and west of Icy Bay was apparently unglaciated. The eastern edge 

 of the glacier filling Yakutat Bay ran northeastward from Ocean Cape, 

 covering the area around Lake Redfield, and a smaller ice lobe extended 

 south from the head of Russell Fiord, although the land around Lost 

 and Situk Rivers was not glaciated (Tarr, 1909, map p. 106; Plafker 

 and MiEer, 1958). The culmination of the glacial advance in Icy 

 Bay was roughly between A.D. 600 and 920 (A.D. 756 ± 160 years), 



