Prehistory of Alaska

Prehistoric Alaska begins with Paleolithic people moving across Beringia into northwestern North America sometime between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago in western Alaska; a date less than 20,000 years ago is most likely. They found their passage blocked by a huge sheet of ice until a temporary recession in the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age) opened up an ice-free corridor through northwestern Canada, possibly allowing bands to fan out throughout the rest of the continent. Eventually, Alaska became populated by the Inuit and a variety of Native American groups. Trade with both Asia and southern tribes was active even before the advent of Europeans.

Today, early Alaskans are divided into several main groups: the Southeastern Coastal Native Americans (the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian), the Athabascans, the Aleut, the two groups of Eskimos, and Inupiat and Yup'ik.[1]

Coastal Native Americans

The Coastal Native Americans were probably the first wave of immigrants to cross the Bering land bridge in western Alaska, although many of them initially settled in interior Canada. While there may have been migrations across this land bridge, there is also evidence from recent research that supports the arrival by sea to Alaska's southeastern coast 17,000 years ago. The Tlingit were the most numerous of this group, populating most of the coastal Panhandle by the time of European contact. The southern portion of Prince of Wales Island was settled by the Haidas emigrating from Haida Gwaii in Canada. The Tsimshian emigrated during the territorial period from a town near Prince Rupert in British Columbia. The Tlingit were known to travel for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south to trade with Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest.