Teachings From Long Ago Person Found

Teachings from Long Ago Person Found Highlights from the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį Project

Richard J. Hebda Sheila Greer Alexander Mackie

Teachings From Long Ago Person Found Highlights from the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį Project Richard J. Hebda Sheila Greer Alexander Mackie A Joint Project of the:

Royal BC Museum Champagne and Aishihik First Nations BC Archaeology Branch

Victoria, Canada

Written December 2011 Published January 3, 2012 Edited Jan. 24, 2012: minor corrections to text & images, insertion of appendix i Copyright © 2011 Royal BC Museum

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Contents

Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Part 5: Part 6:

Acknowledgements Introduction Respecting the Discovery People, History and Honouring Lessons from a Short Life Learning from Belongings Journeys Connections Appendix i: Authors

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Highlights Acknowledgements

The authors of these highlights thank the authors of the individual chapters from the forthcoming publication. We are grateful to them for the remarkable work that they have done to bring us so much insight into the life and context of the man who died on the glacier. We hope that we have accurately represented their work and words. At the end of the volume can be found a list of the papers and their authors from which these highlights were compiled These authors include: Gail Anderson, Owen Beattie, Kathryn Bernick, Erik Blake, Ron Chambers, Claudia Cheung, Kory Cooper, Brian Coppins, Lorna Carr, Jim Cosgrove, Harry G. Deneer, James H. Dickson, Richard Evershed, John Fingland, Tara Grant, Monique Haakensen, Bill Hanlon, Roxanne Hastings, Paul Hazelton, Kate Helwig, Niki Hobischak, Grant Hughes, Elaine Humphrey, Lawrence Joe, Sheila Joe-Quock, Ivan Kempson, Bruce Leighton, Kjerstin Mackie, Kendrick Marr, Ronald Martin, Darcy Mathews, Valery Monahan, Maria Victoria Monsalve, Karen Mooder, Petra Mudie, Mike Nimmo, Frances Oles, Nick Panter, Mike Petrik, Jennifer Poulin, Michael Richards, Kelly Sendall, Jane Sirois, John Southon, Camilla Speller, Diane Strand, Dan Straathof, Treena M. Swanston, Kevin Telmer, Frank C. Thomas, Peter M. Troff, Wayne Vogl, Al Von Finster, Ernie Walker, David Walker, Michael Wayman, John Webster, Dongya Yan, Gregory Young, Jacksy Zhao, Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, and the late John Adamson, Wilfred Charlie, Sarah Gaunt, Moose Jackson and Jimmy G. Smith.

Thanks also to Eric Espig and Kelly Sendall of the Royal BC Museum for preparing this document for the web.

The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį project involved many individuals and organizations; a full listing of those who have contributed is included in appendix i.

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Introduction

The coming together of seemingly unrelated circumstances often plays a major role in great discoveries.

Some may call this chance, but sometimes it is not so much a matter of luck or coincidence as it is of the meeting of paths or trajectories that bring together people, knowledge, attitudes and events in a special way. Such exceptional convergence has played a significant role in the discovery of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį person and the project that followed from the find. Developments in science and technology, warming global climates and changing attitudes in cultural stewardship and intercultural understanding created a unique set of circumstances that advanced not only our knowledge of life in the past but also ourselves.

These highlights describe key discoveries and points of context from individual papers resulting from the project. They begin by first exploring the circumstances of the initial find and setting the natural stage.

The project’s social context is then considered. We learn about the original people of the discovery area, their current and past life-ways, and relationships with their neighbours. Responsibilities and ceremonies associated with this find of ancient human remains are outlined. The next part explores the life of the “Long Ago Person Found”. Through studies of his remains, investigations seek the reasons that the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual may have traveled to the glacier and why he perished there. The next section reports on the belongings and artifacts recovered at the site, which teach us a great deal about life in the not so distant past. Long Ago Person Found was a traveler, and he lived when overland trips of great distances, by foot, were a regular part of life. The theme of journeys is addressed in the next part of the highlights. We see that while northern wilderness may seem to many to us as remote and inhospitable, people have thrived there for millennia. The highlights conclude with a consideration of the connections fostered by this remarkable project, including those between scholars and First Nations, and those between Governments, institutions, and people. Links between the present and the past, and connections between culture and landscapes are other themes of the Kwäday Dän Ts’inchi discovery.

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Part 1: Respecting the Discovery

The discovery site and its geographic setting. Image: BC Parks

After years of trying, three hunters from southeast BC succeeded in getting a tag to hunt Dall sheep in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, part of the largest internationally protected area in the world. During one of the warmest years ever, and at a time of rapid melt, they hiked deep into the park where they were told they would find rams. Approaching from up-wind, they came to a small ice field on the north side of an unnamed mountain. For safety reasons they decided to walk beside the edge of the glacier not on it, and chanced upon a stick. They were knowledgeable enough to recognize this piece of wood was an artifact.

Being hunters, they scanned the area with their binoculars and saw something more in the ice near them. Frozen in, but just emerging out of the ice they discovered a fur object and glimpsed a human body through a melt hole. How much of a chance this must have been you will learn later because not every year does the snow cover melt to reveal the mass of ice below.

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The hunters were respectful and knew to limit disturbance, especially to the human remains. They also were aware of the potential significance of the discovery and as circumstances would have it, knew of the Beringia Centre in Whitehorse. They took their news to the centre, where staff quickly connected them to the right people. Yukon government archaeologists Greg Hare and Ruth Gotthardt had worked on melting ice patches and immediately understood the significance of the finds. They knew the appropriate cultural and scientific protocols and right contacts at Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, and agreed to provide professional expertise on a return visit, which was immediately arranged for the following day.

The project had begun.

Bill Hanlon, hunter, at the site with the robe at his feet 1999. Photo: M. Roch

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A stupendous and rich land

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Landscapes provide the canvass for human lives. The discovery region is among the most spectacular landscapes on the planet. Massive, ice-covered mountains, deep ocean fiords and cold dry northern forests converge in a zone only 150 km wide.

Today the region spans two countries, Canada and the United States, three political jurisdictions, the Province of British Columbia, Yukon Territory and the State of Alaska. It is the traditional homelands of the Tlingit and Dän, the first adapted to life at the ocean’s edge, the other to life in the inland plateau and mountains. There are few communities in the area. Haines in Alaska and Haines Junction in Yukon are separated by 200 km, but joined by the region’s only road. Between them lie the two smaller settlements Klukwan, Alaska and Klukshu, Yukon. Some 180 km to the west on the Alaska coast is Yakutat.

Chilkat River and Alsek Mountains near Klukwan Alaska. Photo: Royal BC Museum – R Hebda Long steep-sided ocean fiords penetrate deep into the massive angular St. Elias Mountains; these feature exceptionally large ice fields from which glaciers flow to the sea. The Alsek Ranges, site of the discovery, are an eastern part of the St. Elias Mountains; more modest glaciers such as the Samuel and Fault Creek glaciers at the discovery location are found here.

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Rafts on the Tatshenshini River with glaciers in background. Photo: CAFN – L Joe Major rivers direct glacial water to the ocean, forming wide, gravel-covered, braided flood plains on the valley bottoms. The Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers flow southward from the interior of the continent then join and slice westward through the St. Elias Mountains to the open Pacific Ocean. The O’Connor River and its tributary Fault Creek drain the immediate area of the discovery. The Chilkat River and its tributary the Klehini foam their way to Lynn Canal on the coast.

Climate varies sharply with elevation and distance from the sea, as cold dry arctic air competes with cool moist Pacific air. Inland, Haines Junction is dry all year, cold in January but warm in summer. Haines, Alaska on Lynn Canal has mild winters and is relatively damp and snowy. Yakutat has a climate similar to that at Haines, but receives nearly 5m of snow annually.

The highest peaks are bare and support only cushions and mats of mosses and hardy flowering plants. A little lower, patches of mountain heather and rich wild flower meadows of ragwort and larkspur occur widely. Inland the alpine zone is covered in Altai fescue grass tussocks and numerous wildflower species.

Below the alpine zone, dense thickets of dwarf birch, willows and Sitka alder are widespread.

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Alpine tundra and landscape on the Haines Road in British Columbia looking westward toward the discovery site. Photo: Royal BC Museum – R Hebda Toward the coast, mountain hemlock and Sitka alder parkland occupies a zone above mountain hemlock forest. Near the warming waters of the ocean inlets, dense coast forest of western hemlock and Sitka Spruce forms a narrow band. Inland a mosaic of willow and scrub birch thickets mixed with spruce and subalpine fir occupies the transition between the alpine zone and low elevation forests. Lower slopes and valleys are covered in a boreal forest of white spruce, trembling aspen and lodgepole pine.

Cottonwoods grow throughout all forest zones in the region, especially along rivers.

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Western hemlock and Sitka spruce coastal forest on the Haines road, Chilkat River Alaska.

Photo: Royal BC Museum – R Hebda 11

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The Tatshenshini-Alsek area is one of the great wildlife regions of North America, especially known for its large mammals. Grizzly and Black bears roam across most elevations. Spruce-willow-birch habitats support large mammals such as Thin Horn Sheep, Moose and Caribou.

Medium-sized mammals include Wolverine, Lynx and Wolves. Snowshoe Hare, Marten and Ground Squirrels occur widely. The dry interior alpine zone is especially noted for its Dall Sheep and Collard Pikas. Beavers are active throughout the waterways of the boreal forest. The forests support numerous bird species ranging from Common ravens and Spruce grouse to Boreal chickadees and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. High elevation shrub habitats are home to Willow Ptarmigan, Gyrfalcons and Wilson’s Warblers. Inland alpine habitats also have Golden Eagles, Rosy Finches and Snow Buntings. Great Horned Owls, Gray Jays and numerous small birds inhabit the boreal forests.

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Sockeye salmon, Photographer: Unknown

The big rivers and associated tributaries and lakes are home to a modest list of fish species. Chinook, coho and sockeye salmon occur abundantly especially in the upper reaches of the Tatshenshini River; these species were and are an important food for First Nations inhabitants.

Living ice What made this discovery different than typical archaeological finds was its preservation in glacial ice.

Material frozen in ice has the potential to be preserved almost unchanged for millennia, as was demonstrated by the frozen human remains known as Oetzi discovered in the Italian Alps. Glaciers differ, however, from a block of ice kept in an ultra-cold freezer. Glaciers are living ice... their structure can change, and they require special conditions to form. The unique requirements of glaciers helps explain how the human remains and artifacts came to be preserved, why they were discovered, as well as how they remained largely intact until they were found.

Glaciers form where more snow accumulates in a year than can be melted during the summer. The accumulating snow turns to ice under its own weight and with time; the colder the climate, the lower the elevation of this ice accumulation zone. Once enough ice forms, it flows downhill like very slow water to a point where warm temperatures at low elevations melt it. On every glacier there is a special point known as the equilibrium line, where, on average, the amount of melting snow equals the amount of snow turning to ice. Upslope from the equilibrium line, material left on the surface becomes buried in snow and gets incorporated into the glacier. Below the line, objects that have been trapped in the ice melt out and emerge from the glacier.

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The Fault Creek glacier looking south to its source. The discovery site was located at the edge of the crevassed ice at point ‘e’ in the photograph. The Samuel Glacier is visible in the background, marked ‘c’ The Empty Valley is ‘d’, the Fault Creek Glacier is ‘b’. The mark ‘a’ indicates rock knobs that prevented ice movement and helped preserve the remains. Photo: CAFN - S Greer At the time that Long Ago Person Found was alive the northern hemisphere was in the Little Ice Age, a period of cooler climate. The glacier in which the remains were found (called Fault Creek Glacier in this volume) stretched down the valley to the west well below its position today. As recently as 1950, the glacier’s equilibrium line was below the discovery site. When Long Ago Person Found died, he and his belongings were buried in permanent snow, which turned to ice over time.

The human remains and artifacts happened to be located in a part of the glacier that experienced minimal or no flow downslope. Referred to as a stagnant flow zone, this part of the glacier was protected by three bedrock knobs. In a more active part of the glacier the remains and belongings would have been stretched, pulled apart, deformed and even destroyed by the moving ice. The presence of the knobs Erik Blake inside one of the glacier helped keep these things intact. edge cracks.

Photo: BC Parks - G McRae 13

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Glaciers also exhibit deep linear gashes, known as crevasses, which are dangerous to human and animal travellers. This aspect of living ice is explored near the end of this section when we consider how the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual came to the discovery site.

Over the past several decades and especially in the past ten years, the ice in the site area has melted considerably. Repeat measurements of the ice surface revealed that between 1999 and 2003 the glacier surface had dropped 2.5-3.0 m in elevation. By 2004, although parts of the glacier still remained, the actual location where the remains had been recovered was free of ice. The preservation of Long Ago Person Found was the result of unique circumstances of rapidly forming ice in a stable part of the glacier during a climate colder than today. The remains and belongings were exposed during an exceptional interval of rapidly warming climate and melting ice, just at the time that three hunters happened to be at the edge of the glacier.

Challenges in the field The preceding paragraphs describe the exceptional circumstances and setting of the discovery. These presented unusual and challenging conditions when documenting the find and collecting specimens and samples for further study. Though the site was visited on fourteen occasions over a ten-year period, these visits totaled only 300 working hours. Standard access to the site was on a day trip basis, arriving via helicopter. Some site visits were very short because of uncertain weather, and project members overnighted in the site area only twice. On one of these occasions plants and sediment samples were collected. During the other, the hunters returned and found the pieces of the skull, more hair and artifacts. The initial scientific work consisted of surveying the positions of study material, systematically excavating it from the ice and recovering objects from the ice and ground surfaces. Visits after 1999 focused on looking for new items that had melted out of the snow and ice, and monitoring the overall condition of the site. Some years the area was snow covered, so no work could be conducted. Other revisits revealed just how quickly the glacier was melting, emphasizing the fortunate circumstances of the original discovery While excavation of materials from ice is unconventional, modern archaeological techniques were employed, and the work was carried out with due care and respect. Measures were taken to avoid or minimalize contamination, and samples were kept frozen and isolated. Contextual materials such as ice and sediment samples were treated in a similar meticulous manner. Respect for the person who lost his life, and for the traditions and cultural practices of the region’s indigenous peoples, were foremost in the minds of all involved in fieldwork activities.

Landscape images clearly illustrate the conditions at the site during different yearly site visits. In the chapters that discuss the care taken in recovering the remains and belongings, you can visualize the placements of the different finds in their natural setting. Perhaps most importantly you can envisage the surroundings when the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį man died.

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The location and the setting where the Long Ago Person Found died, 2003. Photo: A.P. Mackie

Field conditions at the discovery site in 1999. Photo: CAFN – S Gaunt

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Field conditions at the site 2001. The site, which is in the curve with yellow rocks, is buried beneath snow from the previous winter. Photo: A.P. Mackie

Filed Conditions at the discovery site in 2003. Photo: CAFN - S Greer

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Of plants and places

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A lot can be learned about ancient human remains from the plants associated with them. Plants from the local area of the discovery can help reveal the details of death and provide indications of species transported from elsewhere. A field survey of the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, lichens and algae of the alpine tundra, ponds and snow in the vicinity of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery enhanced our understanding of regional vegetation of this region, which was poorly known.

Collections made during three brief visits between 1999 and 2005 revealed 50 algae, 26 species of lichens, 50 bryophytes and 77 vascular plants. Most of the plants are characteristic of alpine environments or are otherwise widespread in North America. However, a few of the species collected were found to have a more limited distribution Flowering plants and mosses growing near the discovery site. in northwest British Columbia.

Photo: A.P. Mackie The botanical collections provided new insight about the occurrence of algae including species that live on snow and ice. The vascular plants helped clarify which species associated with the remains and belongings grew locally. For example, all but one of the mosses grows in the immediate area; a feather moss may have come from lower elevations.

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Terminal moraines from the Little Ice Age create dams for small ponds at the foot of Fault Creek Glacier.

The mineralogy and aquatic life from these ponds were studied and botanical collections made from all over this area to better understand the man’s last days. Photo: CAFN – G Eikland

How old?

With discoveries of ancient remains and artifacts, one of the first questions asked is how old are they?

The age of organic materials such as human and animal remains or artifacts can be established by dating radiocarbon. This is a naturally occurring form of the element carbon, produced in the atmosphere, and absorbed by all living creatures both plant and animal. Over the long time frame radiocarbon is unstable because it has extra mass. Once a plant or animal dies, the radiocarbon in it decays at a regular rate until none is left. Precise measurements of the amount of radiocarbon that remain in organic materials provide an age for them.

Getting dates of relatively young organic material can be challenging. The first dates obtained from the spruce root hat and a ground squirrel garment suggested an age of about 500 years for the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery. Further samples were dated, including ones from the bones of the man himself and from the beaver bag, an artifact directly associated with his remains. The hat and the fur garment

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(gopher robe) were also re-dated. The additional results reveal that the Long Ago Person Found lived between 1720 and 1853 AD, which is before or just around the time of European contact in the region.

One of the complications in establishing the age of the Long Ago Person Found is that carbon from the oceans has less radiocarbon in it than does carbon originating from land sources. The radiocarbon content also varies according to local marine conditions. This marine reservoir effect has to be taken into account when determining an age of marine organisms and those that feed on them. In this case, the waters off the Alaska and British Columbia coasts make marine organisms seem older than they really are. A marine carbon correction was used to establish the age of the Long Ago Person Found who grew up eating seafood or fish species that live part of their lives in the ocean.

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Part 2: People, History and Honouring

As much as the story of the Long Ago Person Found is about ancient human remains and objects, it is also about people living today. The remarkable find came from a place where people have lived for thousands of years and do so today. A number of modern-day tribes and first nations have historical ties to the region where the discovery was made. Their culture and history are an important part of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį story, and must be considered in order to understand the life of the Long Ago Person Found and the significance of the project.

The people today The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį story is more than the discovery of ancient human remains and artifacts in a remote location. It is also about the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (CAFN), a contemporary indigenous government that stepped forward to take responsibility for the unusual find. Working as an equal partner with the Provincial government, the First Nation played a significant role in the discovery. Without their involvement the project would have been much different in character, and we would not have learned what we did. Ketäníä Tà (Lawrence Joe), who is Director of Heritage, Lands and Resources for CAFN recounts the recent history and circumstances that made their participation possible.

For the Champagne and Aishihik people, the Tatshenshini-Alsek country was once “all about fish” and the fish were salmon.

Traditionally, their people travelled down the great river toward the ocean to harvest the abundant fish runs moving inland to spawning grounds. They met Tlingit people following the fish upriver. This interaction of coast and inland peoples, and the resources of the two regions becomes a central theme in this story.

A Dän elder (Mrs Lily Hume) holding a Tatshenshini River salmon and fireweed.

Photo: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Catherine McClellan Collection

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The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations traditional territory includes lands in southwest Yukon and adjacent northwest British Columbia. Their membership includes about 1200 people, most of Dän (Southern Tutchone) cultural background and some with Tlingit roots. Today, most of their citizens live in Haines Junction (Dakwakada) and Whitehorse, Yukon and in nearby coastal Alaskan communities of Haines and Klukwan. In historical times their people were spread throughout the traditional territory including major settlements on the Tatshenshini River.

Champagne and Aishihik traditional territory is large (42,000 km2), and much of it is remote and difficult to access. Its southern portions, lands now within British Columbia, can be a challenge to traverse even in the summer, when parts of the high country can be accessible by air for only short periods. In the 19th century and earlier times, numerous Champagne and Aishihik villages were located along the Tatshenshini River, which was also a travel corridor.

The establishment of the YukonBC Boundary in 1900 and enforcement of provincial hunting and trapping regulations cut off the Champagne and Aishihik people from their traditional lands in the province.

Their use of this area was only revitalized with the building of the highway between Haines and Haines Junction after 1942.

Map showing the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

Image: CAFN

In 1993, Champagne and Aishihik First Nations signed a modern-day treaty with Yukon and Canadian governments. According to Lawrence Joe, this document, along with its companion self-government agreement, meant that the Champagne and Aishihik people now had “the tools to operate our own programs, make decisions affecting our communities, our lands, our government, our people”. That same year, the First Nation’s newly established Heritage Program began its own heritage investigations in Tatshenshini-Alsek country. They conducted ethnohistory research and

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undertook an archaeological survey for the old villages that once existed along the Tatshenshini River, rapidly developing capacity in managing their own heritage.

Around the same time, the First Nation successfully established a co-management agreement with the Province in regard to the recently created Tatshenshini-Alsek Park. The agreement gave the Champagne and Aishihik government a decision-making role in park management, and exclusive responsibility and authority for conservation, protection and management of aboriginal heritage including cultural sites and naming of places. The experience of self-government and responsibility for cultural resource management Champagne and Aishihik First Nations staff on warden in the park positioned CAFN to play an active patrol duties, Tatshenshini-Alsek Park. and central role in the management of the Photo: CAFN - L Joe Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery and research.

Representatives of the First Nation government immediately flew to the discovery site; following this, they consulted with their elders about next steps.

The First Nation stressed that the young man whose remains had been discovered was at one time someone’s father, brother, son or uncle, emphasizing the need for proper care and respect.

The Provincial government accepted the First Nation’s role as cultural steward of the discovery. This led to a joint project that eventually also included the Royal British Columbia Museum. The nature of and reasons for this successful collaboration are explored later in this account.

Consultation with our neighbours and cultural ceremonies The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations took on a stewardship role in the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery because the find was located in their traditional territory. This role required them to develop ways to make decisions, while acknowledging and respecting the interests of other neighbouring First Nations and Tribes.

Champagne and Aishihik fulfilled their responsibilities to their neighbours and their own community in a variety of ways. These interactions involved meetings, newsletters and other initiatives as well as informal contacts with

First Nations and Tribal communities in the region surrounding the discovery site. Credit: CAFN – S Greer

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individuals and small groups of community members.

These broader discussions were vital to making culturally appropriate decisions about the project, including the types of studies that were undertaken. Consultations about the disposition of the man and his belongings, as well as the ceremonies that would be necessary and/or appropriate were particularly important. In keeping with the inclusive approach, ceremonies to recognize and honour the man’s passing and reburial were carried out in both Yukon and Alaska, and the remains were laid to rest in British Columbia, where he lost his life.

Blessing of the Artifacts Ceremony held at Klukshu on the day of the funeral service Photo: A.P. Mackie

Carved box containing the man’s ashes waiting completion of the burial cairn.

Photo: CAFN – S Gaunt

A central aspect of the stewardship role involved honoring the dual clan or moiety system that is common to the region’s indigenous peoples. This was important as an individual’s clan identity determines how the required ceremonies are conducted, and who leads or participates in these.

Among the Tlingit these moieties are named Eagle and Raven, amongst the Dän they are known as the Wolf and Crow clans. The Tlingit and Dän systems are easily linked and integrated; Eagle and Wolf are equivalents, as are Raven and Crow.

Fixing the cairn over the ashes of the Long Ago Person Found.

Photo: CAFN - S Gaunt

It was important to the elders to conduct an autopsy and related studies to establish how the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual had died. They also wanted to know who he was, meaning what clan he

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belonged to. Once that detail was known, the appropriate (opposite) clan could assume their duties towards the dead. Because his clan was unknown when the funeral ceremonies were being planned in 2001, an extraordinary committee representing Eagle/Wolf and Raven/Crow designed ceremonies that respected traditions of both moieties, and the cultural differences between coastal and interior peoples.

As both the Dän and Tlingit traditionally practiced cremation, this means of treatment was chosen; it ensured there would be no further disturbance of the remains including additional scientific studies. The remains were cremated at a funeral home in Victoria and then transported north. They were laid to rest near where he had lost his life in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, further securing them. It was also decided that the man’s belongings would be retained for future educational purposes, though the matter of their final disposition has been deferred. In keeping with cultural practices, the man’s personal medicine pouch was cremated with him because it was too private to be studied or retained. The remaining artifacts were blessed at a ceremony and cleansed in case they retained powers harmful to the living.

Traditions, trails and trade Today the Tatshenshini-Alsek River area where the human remains were discovered may seem like an empty wilderness but it was once the home to a vibrant population. The river system’s aboriginal and cultural history is documented in 19th century maps, explorers’ reports and later ethnographic studies undertaken when the road connecting Haines Junction, Yukon and Haines, Alaska was built in the 1940’s. Much was learned since that time from interviews and writings of elder residents of both inland and coastal communities. Aboriginal place names of both Dän and Tlingit origins also reveal aspects of the history of events.

The region has been inhabited for millennia, with the Dän having occupied the entire length of the Tatshenshini River system from Yukon to Dry Bay on the Pacific Coast long before the arrival of Europeans. The Tlingit migrated into the basin in recent centuries. Both peoples had intimate knowledge of the region’s biological and physical resources: fish and mammals, stone for tools, copper and other minerals, and were familiar with glaciers and high elevation environments. Today the greater region surrounding the discovery site is home to the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, the Chilkat Indian Village, the Chilkoot Indian Tribe, the Yakutat Tribe and the Huna Tlingit.

The people of the region share common traditions and stories, their cultures being “similar but different”. For all the world began when Crow (for Dän and Tagish) or Raven (for Tlingit) brought light to the dark world. These are matrilineal societies, Carved tree marker located along the old where clan affiliation is inherited from one’s mother. The trading trail by the Blanchard River Crossing on the Haines Road.

Photo: Canadian Museum of Civilization D Leechman Collection

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traditional social world was divided in two, and one was expected to marry a member of the opposite clan or moiety.

Dän, Tagish and Tlingit cultures recognize their moral obligations to take care of the land and its resources.

Many foot trails connected the region’s settlements and peoples, facilitating trade of goods between the coastal and interior ecological realms. These trails had well known landmarks such as the place where Crow put a hole in the mountains with his walking stick, which is located near Rainy Hollow, on the Haines Road. Another place is Stonehouse, where traders may have cached their goods. Both of these are in the Chilkat Pass area, en-route to the discovery site from Lynn Canal, and would have been passed by the Long Ago Person Found on his final journey.

The fur trade of the 18th and 19th century benefited from the established connections between the coastal and interior regions and saw Tlingit people frequently visit the Tatshenshini basin.

Eventually they established a settlement, Klukwan trader ready for trip to the interior at the turn of Nu gha hit, on the Tatshenshini River. By the 20th century. the early part of the 19th century the Photo: Image #11216 American Museum of Natural History area was bicultural, including Dän and Tlingit speaking settlements, and marriage between the groups was normal practice.

When the first white visitors entered the basin in the late 1800’s, they found people living only in the upper reaches of the Tatshenshini River; the downstream population had been reduced by diseases such as smallpox, and a glacial outburst flood that had destroyed a village. Early explorers and later traders relied upon the pre-exisitng trail system, including the foot trail route from Klukwan to Shäwshe (Dalton Post) in Yukon. Known as Alur Dän Tän, meaning “coast Indians trail” in Dän k’è (Southern Tutchone language), this route has also been referred to as the Chilkat Trail.

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The region’s population continued to decline in the 20th century for a variety of reasons, including Provincial government regulation of traditional resources such as furs and game. The Champagne and Aishihik people nevertheless still returned to the Tatshenshini for fish. They also continued to hunt and

Drawing of a Tatshenshini fishing village by late 19th century explorer E. J. Glave trap in the British Columbia portion of their territory. In the 1990’s, they reached a co-management agreement for the newly established park with the Provincial government.

Tatshenshini river villages Oral history, historic reports and key archival maps such as the Kohklux Map of 1869, clearly establish that numerous village sites once existed along the Tatshenshini River. The Long Ago Person Found may have been heading to one of these settlements. The known or suggested village locations are near good fishing sites, particularly salmon spawning creeks. Verifying the locations of the reported villages has been hampered by the difficulties in visiting the region, the erosion of sites next to the very active river and flooding by beavers.

Of particular interest are three “Sticks” (Dän) villages located downstream of the historically inhabited Shäwshe/Dalton Post settlement and the major canyon and rapids of the Tatshenshini River. The best known of these villages is situated on the west side of the river, where it begins to flow southward. This location, possibly a settlement complex, is the setting of the 19th century village known as Nu gha hit in Tlingit, and possibly also of the village known as Àłsêxh (or Alsek). It was first reported by Chief Kohklux

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in 1869, and later mentioned by the explorer Glave, and in Champagne and Aishihik, and Klukwan oral histories.

At least two additional Dän settlements were located on the east side of the river above or near the confluence of the Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers. One of them, called Si’diq, occupied a site near where the O’Connor River flowed into the Tatshenshini. There is little information on Si’diq, but what is known suggests that it might have been a seasonal, rather than permanent community. The second settlement, Tínix Àní has not been physically located, but is known to have been situated around the TatshenshiniAlsek confluence. The location of yet another Tatshenshini River village, Tin Char Tlar reported by the explorer Glave in 1890 is uncertain. Apparently it was “very strongly built” and established by Yakutat people in the late 18th century following a battle on the coast with the Russians.

Three of these sites named in 19th century may have been destinations for the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual. Shäwshe in Yukon 49 km to the north of the discovery site is considered a lesser candidate ased on travel direction and distance. The Nu gha hit (Alseck) site ca. 33 km to the northwest and Si’diq roughly 18 km west are suggested as the most likely destinations.

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Part 3: Lessons from a short life

As is familiar to many of us, modern advances in technology have made possible the recovery of masses of information from human remains especially when combined with traditional techniques of forensic observation. We can learn about the circumstances of death of a person, their health for years before death, and even aspects of their daily lives. Much has been discovered about the life and passing of Long Ago Person Found from the study of his remains.

With due care and respect Frozen human remains provide unique opportunities and challenges from scientific and cultural perspectives. Strict protocols were developed and followed to ensure that the remains were scrupulously handled to limit contamination, maintain preservation and treat the man’s body in a respectful way similar to a standard medical autopsy. The conservation and handling protocol used in this project built upon previous experiences, such as those from the Oetzi discovery in Europe, and from wide-ranging consultation with scientists and First Nations.

The remains were wrapped in the field in sterile hospital fabric sheeting and transported in a helicopter immediately to Whitehorse where they were placed in a new chest freezer. During transport to Victoria they remained packed in ice and frozen in the freezer. At all times of transport a Champagne and Aishihik First Nations representative travelled with the remains.

At the Royal BC Museum the chest freezer was placed in a specially-prepared, environmentally monitored walk-in freezer immediately adjacent to a Class II biological containment facility. The facility and the walk in freezer were scrupulously cleaned and access was strictly controlled through a locked door and monitoring by security staff.

When not undergoing study, the remains were kept frozen at -17C the same temperature as the glacial ice and at 80% relative humidity. Special effort was made to prevent the remains from drying out by placing sterile crushed ice adjacent to the body and wrapping in non-absorbent surgical fabric, itself further wrapped in a plastic sheet.

Sterile hospital techniques (disposable gloves, gown, masks, footwear) were always worn when the man’s body was out of the freezer for the autopsy studies. This strategy limited potential for contamination of the remains and protected the investigators from potential health risks. Remains were thawed for autopsy and sampling. The number of sampling episodes was limited to control unnecessary handling, contamination and out of respect for the person. As a consequence there was little change in the remains except for the removal of samples for the autopsy and research.

With the completion of all studies related to the human remains, all samples held by researchers have been recalled to the Royal BC Museum where they will be destroyed upon receipt.

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Medical history

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As might be expected the human remains were remarkably well preserved. In 1999 most of the body and upper legs and much of the man’s hair were recovered from the ice. The remains included the fleshcovered torso and thighs; ice movement after death had separated the torso and leg portion across the lower abdomen. Lower leg and foot bones were recovered at that time too. Then, in 2003 and 2004 additional material consisting of skull bones, teeth and some hair was found on the ground surface after the glacial ice had melted away. A full medical autopsy and examination of bones was carried out on the 1999 finds. Material discovered in 2003 and 2004 seasons was examined in the field by experts flown to the site and then immediately reburied with the man’s ashes. Radiographs and CT scans were made of the 1999 portions of the body.

Soft tissue preservation was remarkable despite the widespread development of adipocere (grave wax). The heart, lungs, liver, urinary bladder and genitalia were preserved. Stomach and intestines with their contents were also intact. The skeleton was well preserved but had become soft and pliable.

The examinations revealed that the remains were those of a young man about 18 years old at the time of Preparing for the autopsy in the secure laboratory at the Royal British death. He was healthy, of Columbia Museum. Photo: Royal BC Museum average body build and about 169 cm (5’7”-5’8”) tall. There were no markings on the skin or evidence of animal scavenging. There was a break across the top of one lower leg bone but it occurred at, or after the time of death. The teeth showed notable wear in some cases with crown height reduced by one half. Internal organs were flattened back to front as might be expected and the stomach contained a mass of material from a recent meal. Unfortunately the internal preservation of some tissues was poor because of decomposition. Nevertheless no pathologic evidence of infectious disease was observed.

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According to the autopsy the young man seems to have died on the glacier while carrying out regular daily activities. His death was likely accidental, possibly as a consequence of exposure, although a fatal head trauma or immobilizing injury to a lower leg could not be ruled out.

Microorganisms in bone and muscle Microorganisms such as bacteria have been recovered from frozen human remains and have the potential to inform us about the state of health of an individual at the time of death and what may have happened to the remains after death. These organisms may originate from the environment outside the body and enter upon death; bacteria causing adipocere formation are an example. Others may have been in the body at the time of death and perhaps contributed to a reduced state of health.

Originally, attempts to culture living bacteria from internal tissue proved unsuccessful. Lung tissue was dyed with specific chemical stains and examined using light and electron microscopes to see if there was evidence of dead organisms and particularly of the tuberculosis bacterium that had been detected by DNA studies.

Fourteen different microscopic organisms were found after an extensive Transmission Electron Microscope search of skin, muscle and bone of the left arm. These appear to have been acquired from outside the body after death, possibly as the result of at least one freeze-thaw cycle. Microscopic investigations also discovered encysted microorganisms in the heart, lymph nodes and lungs strongly suggesting the occurrence of a pre-death infection. These observations support the conclusion that the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual had tuberculosis despite no obvious physical signs.

Parasites and insects A separate study examined the skin, body tissues, gut contents and hair for the sorts of parasites and insects typically associated with humans. Skin scrapings, tissue preparations of the diaphragm and intercostal muscle and hair rinses revealed no evidence of the itch mite (Sarcoptes scabiei), trichinosis (Trichinella sp.) nor lice (Pediculus humanus) respectively. Nor was there any evidence of blow flies suggesting that the remains were not exposed to post mortem colonization, presumably because of rapid freezing or absence of local populations of flies.

Abundant evidence for fish tapeworm was found in the small intestine and descending colon and rectum. While it was not possible to identify the species from the eggs, tapeworms are commonly found in the fish of the region, including salmon. The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį man may have had a tapeworm infection for many years, or shortly before his death eaten raw or undercooked fish.

DNA and diseases In addition to the traditional investigative approaches, genetic evidence for disease was also sought in order to learn more about the health condition of Long Ago Person Found. Investigators focused on the

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DNA of two organisms, the bacterium Helicobacter pylori a primary cause of gastric ulcers and Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is responsible for tuberculosis. These two organisms not only impact human health but variations in their DNA sequences provide insight into the movements of ancient human populations. Strict sterile procedures were used in all the sampling and analysis.

DNA of both Helicobacter and Mycobacterium were detected. The Helicobacter DNA sequences are unique, although they are similar to others observed in Alaskan aboriginal people. It is suggested that the strain recovered from the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį man is ancient and may no longer exist, having evolved or disappeared.

Analysis confirmed the presence of M. tuberculosis DNA in lung tissue. One of the regions of this DNA showed a sequence identical to that of a European strain. Since there was no physical evidence of tuberculosis associated with the remains, it appears that Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį man had a latent infection without symptoms and was not himself infectious. The discovery of tuberculosis in the individual suggests that the disease could have been present in North American indigenous populations before European contact. Alternatively, the European strains of tuberculosis may have penetrated the indigenous population of northwest North America by the time the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį man lived.

Elements in hair Trace and major elements in biological tissues provide insight into diet and health as well as information about environmental exposure of the remains. Three different analyses for major and trace elements were carried out on human and ground squirrel hair from the robe. Scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive x-rays revealed chemical and physical degradation of human hair but no biodegradation by fungi or bacteria. The analyses also showed that the surface of the hair was enriched in iron, silica, and aluminum. Induction Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry confirmed iron, silica and aluminum enrichment and relatively high manganese values for both human and robe hair.

Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy revealed that the element enrichment occurred in patches on the surface of the hair.

The exceptionally high iron and zinc concentrations are attributed to red ochre that is also visible on the robe, hat and its head-band. Enrichment in silica, aluminum and some of the iron represents precipitation of the elements from ground water onto the hair surface, thus limiting the interpretation of trace element values in the hair. Low zinc concentrations in the man’s hair may have resulted from a dietary deficiency; the sample size was too small, however, to firmly conclude if this was the case.

His DNA Recent advances in the study of human DNA make it possible to relate people long dead to modern human populations provided that the DNA can be extracted. Typically, DNA is extracted from hard tissues such as bone and teeth. In the case of frozen remains, such as the situation with the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį man, soft tissue may yield DNA. In a supplementary study the preservation of soft and hard

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cellular microstructure was examined. Bones exhibited moderate cellular preservation and successfully yielded DNA. Skeletal muscle from the upper part of the body was better preserved than muscles from the lower part (thighs). Heart muscle cells revealed mitochondria, the structures housing mitochondrial DNA, though damage possibly from ice or adipocere formation was visible. Some lung cells were remarkably well preserved including rough endoplasmic reticulum with ribosomes still attached. The excellent preservation of heart and lung tissues suggested that internal organs may have been protected from freeze thaw and provides an explanation for the exceptional preservation of the man’s DNA. Several studies of the DNA analyses have been published since the discovery, each time a better data set was available for comparison. Analyses were carried out on bone from the humerus and muscle tissue of the arm, following strict non-contamination standards and repeated at different institutions.

The results of the DNA sequences indicate that within the broad western North American context the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį remains appear to be more closely related to Athabaskan DNA types than Tlingit types. The genetic connections with Canadian Inuit and Chukchi people of northeast Asia (far east Russia) are even stronger. The genetic connections within the smaller regional community are explored a little further on in this account.

Bones and diet “We are what we eat” is an expression with a strong scientific basis and with special meaning in the case of the Long Ago Person Found. The ratios of the atomic weights of elements notably carbon and nitrogen are clear indicators of the source and types of food consumed by an individual. Marine-based diets (fish, invertebrates) contain a different proportion of carbon 12 to carbon 13 isotopes than landderived diets (plants, game). Nitrogen isotopes reveal the proportion of the diet from lower parts of the food pyramid (plants) compared to predators at the top of the pyramid (fish that eat fish for example).

The carbon isotope ratios of bone and muscle collagen reveal that the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual ate mostly marine foods for much of his life, food that consisted largely of either top of the food chain fish (salmon) or marine mammals. This may seem like a surprising result considering that he died more than 100 km from the ocean. However the analysis of stable isotopes of hair, skin and cholesterol shows that in his last year the intake of land foods went up noticeably. The very high marine signal suggests that he had probably spent much of his life on the coast although an inland life strongly based on migrating fish cannot be fully ruled out. Regardless, within the last year of his life it appears that he lived in a place where it was common to eat foods from the land, plant eaters such as moose, caribou or sheep, which is the more typical inland diet in ancient times. As you will read further on, the contents of his stomach revealed more insights into his diet just before the time of death.

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Part 4: Learning from belongings

The discovery of frozen human remains resulting from an accidental death affords a rare opportunity to see the belongings of life directly in association with the person who used them. The objects found with the Long Ago Person Found represent choices he made, rather than things that others put with him after death, as often happens at funerals. Items made of a variety of materials were found with his remains or in close proximity to them. Other artifacts were discovered further away, and though less likely to be associated with the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual, they nevertheless provide information on visits by others to the site area, thus providing clues as to what might have brought the young man to the glacier location.

Studies of his belongings and the other artifacts included consideration of their form, composition and adhering material, but also the unique circumstances of their subsequent care in the Conservation laboratories where they were being stabilized and cared for.

Spruce root hat As the helicopter approached the site on the first assessment visit, an object was seen to blow away from the area of the remains. This object turned out to be the exquisitely woven hat. It is assumed that the hat had been frozen in the ice with the human remains and melted loose perhaps only days before.

Woven hats are essentially upside down baskets, similarly constructed of intertwined fibres. The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį hat is shaped like a The hat, shortly after it was picked up next to the glacier. truncated cone, flat on top, Photo: Yukon Government circular in outline, with sides flaring to a brim. The hat features an inside head-band; this addition helped fit the hat to its wearer, while ensuring that neither the top nor the sides of the hat rested against the head. Although it shows abrasion and some tears, the hat is largely complete, with part of its chin strap still present.

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The hat resembles other aboriginal hats from the northwest coast culture area, yet is recognized as being distinctly Tlingit in style and design. Made of longitudinally split sections of root, probably from Sitka spruce, the body of the hat consists largely of two strand plain twining. The twining leans up to the left, in the Tlingit style. Warps had been inserted in places to expand the diameter of the hat while maintaining the tightness of the weave. Different weaving patterns ornament the sides of the hat.

Traces of red ochre were detected on the hat, and two slits had been repaired with sinew threads.

Wood above the trees Besides the hat, other artifacts made of organic material were recovered at the site or in the surrounding area. These include twenty-three wooden items, all made from plants mostly native to the nearby coastal region (birch, Sitka spruce, spruce, red cedar, hemlock, false huckleberry or alder). Only two of the wooden artifacts, the Man’s Knife and the Carved and Painted stick, were clearly associated with the human remains.

Painted stick found in 2003 in association with human remains. Photo: CAFN – S Greer

Side view of hooked stick. Scale in cm. Photo: Yukon Government – R Gotthardt

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Several of the wooden artifacts were recovered as fragments and later refitted together in the lab. Some showed clear signs of carving and had reddish paint. It was a challenge to establish the use or purpose of some of wooden pieces, because artifacts made of wood usually rot in archaeological sites and utilitarian pieces are not common in museum collections. Interpretations from Elders as well as comparison with ethnographic objects provided insights about their possible use and function. The collection of wooden artifacts includes everyday items such as gaff poles, walking sticks, and sticks for carrying salmon. An artifact, referred to as a “Hooked Stick“, may have been used for setting snares to catch marmots.

Gaff pole/walking stick, four fragments comprise parts of one artifact Photo: Yukon Government – R Armour Long robust staves classified as Gaff Poles/Walking Sticks appear to have been simple yet sophisticated multi-purpose pieces of technology.

Up to 13’ (4 metres) long, community sources reported that these devices were used to gaff salmon in silty waters, fend off bears, assist in crossing rushing glacial streams, and if necessary, keep upright in small avalanches. These Gaff Poles/Walking Sticks may represent a unique and sophisticated technological adaptation to the Gaffing of Tatshenshini basin salmon, 1960s. particular environment of Tatshenshini-Alsek Photo: CAFN Heritage – photographer unknown country, where rich fish resources occur in fastflowing rivers arising from icy unpredictable glacial and snowy landscapes.

The abundance and distribution of the wooden artifacts from the site and surrounding area suggests that the Long Ago Person Found was not the only one to come to this location. The range of calibrated radiocarbon ages, extending from 1410-1879 AD, supports the contention that the site was visited on more than one occasion.

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Conserving the past

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While generally well preserved, the wooden artifacts varied in condition, as they had been recovered from a range of environments of preservation. Some pieces were fully exposed at the time they were collected, others were almost completely entombed in ice. Many of these artifacts feature breaks, cracks or distortion from physical forces such as stresses in the ice, or uneven drying and freezing. Most of the artifacts were water-logged and had weathered grey on the outside, and some items featured brown rot fungus.

Because of their condition, the wooden materials received special handling when they were being recovered, and specific treatment in the Conservation lab. All but one of the wooden artifacts was placed in a chest freezer upon recovery, remaining in this environment to dry slowly. They suffered little additional damage because of this gentle treatment. One long pole section that had not been placed in a freezer began to split as it dried. This piece, part of the almost complete gaff pole, was then brushed Storage units made for wooden artifacts with polyethylene glycol and wrapped in plastic following drying. to slow the drying process. All of the objects Photo: Yukon Government – V Monahan were placed in purpose-built boxes of chemically inert plastic. The interior of boxes was covered with an inert lining to cushion each artifact and prevent damage during storage and transport.

The woven hat required special treatment. At first it was kept in water that was changed regularly.

Eventually though, the sinew thread and tie strap began to degrade. The hat was then cautiously reshaped and placed on a carefully shaped, lined support made from inert materials and put in a chest freezer where, as with the wood artifacts, it slowly dried. Detached fragments of the tie strap were recognized as being made from mammal hide. These were immersed in a solution of polyethylene glycol and water for several days, then dried by blotting and allowed to dry further in a freezer. The central portion of the strap appears to have been roughly made and added as a repair.

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Hat during conservation, Photo: Yukon Government – V Monahan

Hat brim detail, scale in cm. Photo: Yukon Government - V Monahan 37

Man’s knife

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Of the numerous wooden artifacts collected, the “Man’s Knife” received particular attention because it was found in direct association with the body and is clearly one of the belongings of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ínchį person. Originally referred to as “the hand tool”, the object was re-identified as a “man’s knife” based on similar items found in well-documented museum collections. The knife is a small (16 x 2 cm) composite artifact consisting of a metal blade hafted to a wooden handle, made of hemlock wood. The knife blade sits in an open sided slot situated off-centre in the handle, and was secured with sinew lashing. The blade, originally made of iron traded into the area or from a shipwreck, is completely corroded. A piece of bone had been placed between the hide lashing and the blade, presumably to stabilize the latter. Traces of protein and oil/fat on the handle suggest that the knife may have been used to cut animal tissue. The knife was carried by the Long Ago Person Found in its own sheath made of gopher (ground squirrel) fur.

Man’s knife and ground squirrel sheath, Photo: Yukon Government - R Gotthardt

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X-ray of man’s knife, showing iron (white) at end and under wrapping, as well as bone backing for blade, light grey on upper edge under wrapping Photo: ©Canadian Conservation Institute. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. 2012.”

The copper connection The Long Ago Person Found’s belongings were largely utilitarian, yet a very small item, a copper bead, demonstrates that decorative objects had value too. Less than a centimeter across and about 2 millimeters thick, this item features a centre hole to which two sinew threads are attached. It is unknown whether the bead was being worn as an object of adornment or attached to another item.

Elemental analysis revealed that the bead consisted of nearly pure native copper (99.9 %). It was manufactured in the traditional way that native copper nuggets were worked, by repeated heating and pounding, then shaping. Inland regions of southeast Alaska, adjacent Yukon and British Columbia contain several well-known native copper sources. For at least 1000 years Athapaskan peoples Copper bead and tie of the Long Ago such as the Dän (Tutchone) have traded copper to Person Found. Photo: Royal BC Museum coastal peoples. The copper was used widely for tools including knives, points and awls and was also turned into objects of wealth. Recorded stories and recollections of elders emphasize the importance of the copper trade and that it continued well into the 19th century forming a strong material link between coastal and inland people.

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Fur and hide survive

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Fur and hide objects were recovered from the site in excellent states of preservation; artifacts made of such materials are rare finds. These pieces, a fur garment and a fur bag or pouch were found beside the body and presumably belonged to the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual. They provide remarkable insight into the design and manufacture of such items; they also preserve traces of the activities of the Long Ago Person Found.

Conservator Kjerstin Mackie examines robe fragment for construction details and botanical remains that might be trapped in the fur. Photo: Royal BC Museum A large (204 x 110 cm) blanket-shaped garment, referred to as a robe, was found as it melted from the ice above the man’s shoulders. It consisted of 95 ground squirrel pelts, stitched together side by side in a design still used by the Dän and evident in robes in museum collections. The pelts were joined with fine sinew, the stitches about 3 mm apart. The excess fur along the vertical edges of each rectangle was cut to make fringes. The neck band of the robe was made from a different, unknown type of fur. Attached moose leather thongs were positioned to tie the robe closed over the chest. The inside or skin side of the robe was marked in widely separated lines of red ochre, as were the fringes.

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Robe stitching detail. The 2-ply sinew thread is about 1mm in total diameter. Photo: Royal BC Museum The robe was recovered as a mass and in smaller fragments. Special care was taken with its conservation to allow sampling of adhering materials and to facilitate the unfolding of the mass and reveal its construction. From the frozen state, the mass was slowly thawed and unfolded with the uncovered pieces and surfaces rinsed with distilled water. Each piece was carefully separated and supported.

Adhering debris was brushed and washed off gently and retained for further study. The fragments were then placed on inert tissue, wrapped carefully and supported with neutral materials to ensure even drying. In this condition the robe and its fragments freeze-dried with no loss of integrity and only minor shrinking. The sinew however became brittle.

Robe detail, skin side, showing ochre, seam joining two gopher hides and coarse stitching around edge of two repair patches. Photo: Royal BC Museum

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The outline of every fragment of the robe was traced, and its position in the mass noted; diagnostic features were observed to help in the reconstruction of the overall garment. The pieces are now stored flat at ambient temperature such that they can each be handled and examined with minimum impact.

Robe fragments pieced together showing ochre pattern on inside surface using infra-red photography Photo: Royal BC Museum.

A pouch or small bag made of beaver fur was also recovered from the ice immediately adjacent to the body. The small (28 x 35 cm) rectangular-shaped item appears to be made from a single folded skin sewn fur side in. A thong is attached to the pouch, and a mass of lichen, mosses and leaves was found inside it. The bag is in poor condition compared to the robe; most of the skin is lost.

Beaver skin bag detail showing fragmentary nature of its preservation. Photo: Royal BC Museum

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DNA identification reveals surprising results

The high quality preservation of the fur and hide materials, followed by relatively sterile handling meant that DNA studies could be used to identify the animals represented in the robe and bag. Of particular interest was the question of whether or not coastal and inland species were involved. Standard techniques were used in repeated tests to extract and amplify short fragments of mitochondrial DNA from small pieces of fur and sinew. Each cell of an organism contains DNA in the nucleus that provides the blue print for life, with DNA in the mitochondrion coding for the cell’s energy needs. Mitochondrial DNA fragments were sequenced and their decoded pattern of base pairs compared with known sequences for identification.

The pelts in the robe all belong to the arctic ground squirrel, specifically its local subspecies (Spermophilus parryii plesius). The sinew used for sewing the pelts together is from moose (Alces alces), and the garment’s tying thong from moose hide. Suprisingly one repair patch had been sewn on with sinew from a Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Two other species, Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus), were identified in another piece of twostrand sinew used in a repair. The recognition of sinew from two species of whales highlights the coastal connection to the inland discovery site.

Gopher robe detail, showing seam at head and tail join, including ear hole, tail hole, fish scale, ochre, sinew stitching. Photo: Royal BC Museum 43

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The DNA analysis confirmed that the bag was made from beaver skin, and its attached thong from moose. The fur trim at the edge of the robe could not be identified.

Dr. Camilla Speller sampling robe fragments for DNA analysis.

Photo: A.P. Mackie

Ancient debris from many places Items of daily use are exposed to their surroundings and often pick up traces of the local environment such as pollen and small plant fibres. The robe, covered in long loose hairs, proved to be particularly effective at collecting debris from the places where it had traveled.

Macroscopic plant remains and microscopic pollen and spores trapped in the fur, and the inside of the garment, documented the environments visited by the robe, and by inference the places Cow parsnip pollen from the outside fur of the robe of Long Ago where the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį Person Found. Photo: Richard Hebda, Royal BC Museum man had been.

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The samples yielded a diversity of well preserved pollen grains especially those of herbaceous plants.

Scrapings from the inside surface contained abundant Goosefoot Family (Chenopodiaceae) pollen, probably mostly that of beach asparagus (Salicornia perennis) opening the possibility that the robe had been placed on the ground in the upper intertidal zone or used often in the marine shoreline environment. Pollen of cow parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) in the outside fur revealed that the robe had been near flowers of this plant. Today the species grows in many settings, including subalpine meadows where plants and pollen of Sitka valerian (Valeriana sitchensis) and burnet (Sanguisorba) may been have encountered too. Macroscopic remains of species such as mountain sweet cicely (Osmorhiza berteroi) and microscopic diatoms also revealed visits to shoreline forest, intertidal environments and the alpine zone. Charcoal on the inner surface of the robe suggested many hours spent around fires.

Fireweed pollen with charcoal and mineral debris from the inside of the robe garment of the Long Ago Person Found.

Photo: Richard Hebda, Royal BC Museum

The salmon connection When he died, the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual was carrying pieces of fishbone, meat, skin and scales.

Chinook, chum, coho and sockeye salmon live in the rivers of the region and are important traditional foods for residents. A comprehenisive study of the shape and internal growth rings of the fish scales revealed that only one species was involved, and their form suggested that they belonged to adult chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), caught in its fifth year of life.

Salmon found with the Long Ago Person Found, showing scales and skin, in place on ice surface. Photo: A.P. Mackie

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The original attempts to extract DNA from the fish remains were not successful but later tissue samples analyzed by newly developed techinques yielded mitochondrial DNA fragments. These were successfully and unambiguously matched with the pattern for sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), not chum as identified through scale analysis. Sockeye salmon was obviously an important food for the Long Ago Person Found man, as it is for the people in the region today.

Traditional fish weir for trapping sockeye at Klukshu, 2003. Photo: A.P. Mackie

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Part 5 – Journeys Of glaciers and people

Accounts of travel across glaciers can be found in the traditional stories of the aboriginal peoples in the greater region surrounding the discovery site, including the Tlingit, Tagish, Dän and others. In the indigenous world-view, glaciers were (and are) considered sentient beings, demanding the highest level of respect. Traditional stories acknowledge the dangers of glacier travel and record mishaps that occurred in times past. For anyone familiar with even one of the icy chronicles, the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ínchį discovery was not unexpected.

Published and unpublished recollections of native storytellers include travel under and over glaciers. Stories about travel under the glaciers involve ice that once blocked waterways such as the Stikine, Taku and Alsek rivers and are thought to extend back into the deepest Near Samuel Glacier, Tatshenshini-Alsek Park reaches of time. Some are associated with the Photo: A.P. Mackie origins of specific Tlingit clans.

Travel over glaciers occurred in a number of different situations, during migrations, while hunting, and during trading trips. Exploration parties journeyed incredible distances across some of the largest ice-fields in search of new resources and trading opportunities; travellers were lost down crevasses during some of these trips. There is one account of a trader who froze to death on a mountain en route home to the Yukon after a trip to saltwater. Several stories recall the rescue of traders from crevasses. In one case, a man from a trading party fell into a crevasse while travelling home to Klukwan. He was thought to be dead and left behind, but he was later found to be alive when his people came to recover the body.

The history and traditions of glacier travel continue to be passed down within the indigenous communities, including personal names of ancestors who crossed glaciers. The sharing of these accounts helped residents of the region understand the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery, and the importance of glacier travels in Tlingit, Dän and Tagish history.

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Contemporary experiences

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Ron Chambers of Haines Junction has had personal experience with both glaciers and the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery. Through his work with archaeologists from an early age, and as a mountain guide for many decades he acquired special understanding of prehistoric remains and glacier travel. His personal contact with glaciers give him a deep understanding of the traditional stories.

Ron notes some of the challenges of crossing glaciers, how difficult it is to cross the ice on a cloudy day when you cannot see ice features well. As a warden with Kluane National Park he assisted in many glacier rescues, including a recent incident in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in 2003.

Ron emphasizes that glaciers are more than ice. They are alive. He describes how he has heard them sing. According to the people of the region, glaciers have great meaning and they give the people a spiritual feeling. Because glaciers occur around the world they also connect others to the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery.

Ron’s journeys and experience in glacier country and position as Deputy Chief placed him well to provide guidance in matters of protocol at the site, and in the CAFN’s discussions with the Province of British Columbia. Dealing with the find has been an important journey, demonstrating the capability of his people and the Champagne and Aishihik government to manage and share the discovery with the people of the world.

Last day’s journey from clues in the digestive tract Small things can yield incredible information, particularly when the latest scientific equipment is used to unlock their secrets. To learn more about the diet and travels of the Long Ago Person Found, a high-powered electron microscope (ESEM) and an associated electron probe device (EDS) were used to study minute samples taken from the digestive track of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual. The samples originated from places in the stomach, intestines and colon and represent stages of digestion which document the food eaten during the three days prior to death. The specialized laboratory equipment allowed the microscopic plant and animal remains and mineral grains to be identified with remarkable precision. The materials observed in the microscope were compared with plant, animal and mineral samples in the region of the discovery.

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Petra Mudie and Frank Thomas working with ESEM to identify extremely small remains of plants, animals and minerals Photo: P. J. Mudie

Teachings From Long Ago Person Found (Highlights)

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The Long Ago Person found was an omnivore. His last meal, preserved in the stomach, included fatty meat (possibly seal), crab, a fruit (possibly blueberry) and beach asparagus. At this time he also drank water from a source near a glacier as indicated by snow algae and diagnostic mineral grains. Three to six hours before he died he had a small meal of land meat (possibly bison or moose) and he drank water rich in carbonate minerals, possibly from a source of quiet water well to the east of the discovery site. Over the two days before that meal (samples from the ascending and descending colon, and the rectum), his meals included salmon (possibly smoked), oil, beach asparagus and other coastal plants. Sea urchin spines in his bowel and lower colon reveal that he began his final Salicornia detail showing tiny flowers on the stems. journey at or near saltwater.

Photo: K.E. Mackie Beach asparagus (Salicornia perennis; Tlingit Suk K’ádzi) in the digestive tract provided valuable details about his last journey. The Tlingit have long recognized its food and medicinal values. The Long Ago Person Found ate this plant throughout his journey, ingesting plants with their flowers attached. This observation helps place the timing of his final journey in the month of August, when the beach asparagus normally blooms in the region. It needs unique saltwater growing conditions found only in specific locales, the closest source being St. James Bay on Lynn Canal, south of Haines; it does not grow in the Dry Bay and Yakutat area.

Like beach asparagus, the mineral grain content of the stomach and intestines reveals that his journey included the area of the Chilkat River valley rather than areas to the west, in the Dry Bay and Yakutat areas. Apparently he journeyed from low to high altitude in the limestone carbonate-rich valleys of the Chilkat basin. He did not travel from the Tatshenshini-Alsek valley and the O’Connor River to west, where minerals are iron and sodium-rich. Thus he most likely approached the place where he lost his life from the southeast.

Retracing the Last Journey Changes in the content of the digestive tract of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual, and pollen and plant remains on his garment, show that his final journey likely began near the sea, going inland via the lower

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Chilkat River valley. In perhaps as little as two days he travelled seventy-seven or more kilometres northwestward to the site where he lost his life. To explore the feasibility of taking this route to the glacier and to better understand the conditions of such a journey, a small group retraced the likely path.

Travelling on foot and in the same month (August) as the Long Ago Person Found’s journey, they spent five days retracing the route.

It is likely that the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual followed the historic Chilkat Trail at first, heading inland from the Haines, Klukwan area. This route, like its eastern counterpart, the Chilkoot Trail, has numerous routing variants as it makes it way inland from the coast. The Long Ago Person Found apparently followed the western routing, which goes via the Klehini River, a tributary of the Chilkat.

The Mineral Lakes south east of the discovery site possibly seen by the Long Ago Person Found on the day before he died. Photo: A.P. Mackie The Chilkat-Klehini trail divides into several branches, each heading toward different places along the Tatshenshini River.

A Champagne and Aishihik Elder had reported that one route his ancestors took from the Klehini River over to the middle Tatshenshini involved travel over a glacier. It appears that the Long Ago Person Found may have been following this variant. The party retracing the final journey began their travels at Rainy Hollow on the Haines Road, which follows the Chilkat trail in part. They worked their way uphill and northward through dense shrubbery, before reaching open alpine tundra near Copper Butte. From this point they could see and walk easily to the Mineral Lakes area and beyond to Clear Creek, where one first sees the Samuel Glacier.

The most difficult part of the journey required them to find a way onto the Samuel Glacier between them and the discovery site. It took the party a day of scouting to find a safe route down the steep and unstable slope of the uppermost O’Connor drainage to reach the toe of the Samuel Glacier and onto the

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mass of ice. Deep and fast-flowing braided meltwater streams and unstable moraines had to be crossed.

At the time the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual was travelling, however, conditions were different. The glacier was larger and filled up more of the valley, so it may have been possible for the Long Ago Person Found to step directly onto the glacier from the flat terrain near the headwaters of Clear Creek.

Once on the Samuel Glacier, the five kilometers of travel on the firm ice was relatively easy. The lack of snow cover made crevasses easy to see and avoid, and moraine material frozen in the ice provided good traction. There was, however, constant danger from boulders rolling down from the adjacent slopes.

Approach to the site from the southeast: Looking up the Samuel Glacier towards the Empty Valley branching off to the right in the distance.

Photo: A.P. Mackie

Looking up the Empty Valley from above the Samuel Glacier. The discovery site is just beyond the low ridge in middle distance.

Photo: A.P. Mackie

Once off the glacier, the party walked the gradual uphill slope of the Empty Valley on the final segment of their trek to the pass that leads to the middle branch of Fault Creek.

The members of the party and those who have visited the discovery site or travelled in the area have been or are equipped with modern equipment. One can only be humbled by the strength, endurance and knowledge that ancient travellers such as the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual must have had. While travel to the site via the Klehini-Samuel Glacier route is feasible today, it is nevertheless risky and not recommended. Furthermore the site where the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual lost his life has restricted access in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park and permission is required to visit it.

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Part 6: Connections

Connecting the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual to others, to his culture and to the region’s landscape have been the central themes throughout the project. Earlier chapters explored his connections to various places including the one where he lost his life. Through a variety of analyses, he has also been placed in time, thereby connecting him to historical events and changes. We know he lived during times when the relationships or links between the coast and the interior peoples were strong, with regular contact and exchange. We also know that crossing glacier landscapes was not an uncommon event during his times.

Finding relatives Earlier we described the DNA relationship of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual to aboriginal peoples of North America and nearby Asia, connecting him on a very large geographical scale. For the community, however, it was very important to connect to him on a person-to-person basis because of cultural obligations. The purpose of the Community DNA study therefore was to link him to living people. Two separate and independent human DNA studies accordingly were undertaken as part of the project.

At first glance, the outcomes of these two studies appear to tell quite contrasting stories concerning the genetic and biological affiliations of the Long Ago Person Found. While different, these stories are not conflicting ones.

The broader study described earlier in these highlights noted six different haplogroups (types) of mitochondrial DNA in Native American populations.

Group A occurs widely in the peoples whose ancestors spoke languages belonging to the Na Dene family of languages, to which Tlingit, Tagish and the Tutchone languages belong. If you are Tlingit, Tagish or Dän (Tutchone) and your mother was native and This diagram shows how inheritance of mtDNA her mother before her and so on, there is a good (red) and clan affiliation (red) pass through the female line (ovals). Image: K Mooder chance that you belong to Haplogroup A. Not surprisingly, the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual belonged to this haplogroup. Within this group the Long Ago Person Found appears to have strongest affinities with the Canadian Inuit and Chukchi, the Athapaskans (i.e., the Dän and others), and the Tlingit. Surprisingly, the genetic distance between the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual and the Tlingit was found to be larger than that between him and the Canadian Inuit, a conclusion that seems unusual.

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The Community DNA study focused on much closer genetic connections than the broader investigation, and the matter of ethnic labels such as Tutchone, Tlingit and broader groupings (haplogroups) was set aside. Individuals of aboriginal ancestry from the region around the discovery site, including southeast Alaska, northwest British Columbia and Yukon, participated in the Community DNA study. They provided samples of their mtDNA for sequencing. These sequences showed that the Long Ago Person Found had mtDNA identical or very similar (one base pair difference) to seventeen living study participants.

Were the matched individuals Tlingit or Dän, or did they belong to other cultural groups? We do not know the answer to this question, as study participants were not asked to provide a cultural label for themselves, because this was not the focus. The participants were recognized as individuals rather than as representatives of cultural groups such as Dän or Tlingit as in the Genbank data base used in the broad analysis.

The Community DNA study did look for clan relationships within the pool of matched individuals because of the cultural importance of these affiliations as alluded to earlier. On the basis of the mtDNA results the Community DNA study concluded that the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual was likely either a Wolf or an Eagle. For those who initiated the Community DNA study, this piece of information, rather than a simple label such as Tlingit or Dän, had great cultural meaning. You may recall that there are important obligations and protocols rooted in knowing the clan to which an individual belongs.

It is also important to be aware that although seventeen individuals were recognized as “living relatives”, this number represents only a small portion of the people who are close genetic relatives of the Long Ago Person Found.

DNA studies, whether concerned with ancient DNA or that of modern peoples, have a degree of controversy in many indigenous communities. There was abuse by past researchers, who obtained samples from indigenous individuals and used them for purposes other than for which they were intended, and without the consent of the donors. Issues regarding the ownership of ancient DNA are also complex. In recognition of such concerns, the samples obtained from the participants in the Community DNA study were destroyed upon study completion to protect the interests of the participants. Moreover, in order to maintain local control of the data, the sequences of the study participants were not deposited in any external data repository, such as the previously mentioned Genbank database. This means these sequences are not available to those pursuing other research questions, including the genetic history of cultural groups such as the Dän and Tlingit. The broad genetic analysis and especially the section reporting the “genetic distance” between different indigenous peoples, would likely have come to different conclusions had the data from community DNA study been available for comparison.

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Reviving ancient traditions

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Biological or genetic information provides one way of making direct connections. The Gopher Robe Project is about connections possible through use of similar objects shared across the span of time. The robe found with the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual reveals the story of the importance of gophers (arctic ground squirrels) in traditional Dän culture. From historic notes and consultation with community members we learned that items made of gopher fur were common household items, and that gopher robes/blankets were important items of exchange in earlier centuries, being traded from the interior to the coast. Not coincidentally we discovered that gophers are good to eat too!!

The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį robe not only helped the Champagne and Aishihik community to appreciate the beauty and special characteristics of this traditional art form, it also inspired the community to revive the practice of sewing gopher skins, with the goal of keeping the practice alive. Workshops were held to teach younger community members all the steps and stages of robe production, from harvesting of the gophers, to processing and tanning of the skins, to design, assembly and sewing of the robes/blankets. The activities demonstrated that making gopher robes required deep knowledge of what kind of gophers to catch and when, as well as how to prepare and handle the raw material. Skills were revived and traditions passed on, and many positive outcomes noted, Gopher skins laid out for sewing at workshop. including the pride of producing gopher Photo: CAFN - S Greer skin garments. A child’s robe made by the project is now being worn by youth of the local dance group. The revival of gopher garment making, perhaps more than any other aspect of the project, is a testament to the impact that a specific ancient artifact can have in contemporary times.

The remarkable spruce root hat from the glacier also generated interest in traditional objects. There is a long history of spruce root weaving in southeast Alaska, B.C. and Yukon. Coastal people used Sitka

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Teachings From Long Ago Person Found (Highlights)

spruce whereas inland, white spruce provided suitable roots. Spruce roots are excellent for weaving twine, rope and other materials because they do not stretch or deteriorate when wet. The practice of weaving baskets disappeared quickly among interior people with the coming of European goods. On the coast however, skilled Tlingit women made some of the best woven objects known. In addition to hats, baskets were made for cooking, carrying water, serving food and collecting and storing berries.

The Tlingit traditionally made three types of spruce hat. The zauk-kaht (root hat), was a simple affair for every-day use. The zauk-klen (big hat) was painted and worn by the wealthy. The tallest of all hats was the shah-dah-kookh (“above the head thing like a celery top�), the clan or crest hat worn for ceremonial occasions. Long Ago Person Found had with him a simple zauk-kaht.

Several weaving workshops rejuvenated the art of spruce weaving in Klukwan and Yukon communities. Participants learned how to gather spruce root and peel the bark. They split and sorted it into bundles and began to weave. They discovered that roots from sandy sites rather than rocky ones were straight and easier to weave. One of the finished hats was given to a clan headman at Klukwan.

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Tlingit Family with man wearing a traditional spruce hat Photo : Alaska State Library, Klondike Goldrush Collection

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Connecting cultures

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2011

Perhaps the most powerful connections were made through the actions of very different people from very different backgrounds working together to achieve a common goal. This complex project required respectful relationships among governments and cultural institutions. The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and the Government of British Columbia oversaw and co-managed the project. Several circumstances in place at the time of the discovery contributed to the project’s success. Despite some difficulties at the beginning, the parties agreed to have the remains brought in from the mountain glacier to protect them from scavengers. The recovery effort involved participants from several governments and organizations, with forensic controls being established to safeguard the scientific context of the find.

Small baskets made at spruce root weaving workshop. Photo: CAFN – F Oles After the remains of the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį individual were brought to Whitehorse, the parties negotiated a Management Agreement that essentially created the project that led to this publication.

The Management Agreement specified how the project would operate, what could and would be done with the human remains, and identified the responsibilities of the parties, including their obligations to each other. Once the project was underway and the human remains were transferred to the Royal BC Museum, other processes were initiated to both develop and then administer specific research activities. As the project continued, each party took the lead for those areas that they had responsibility.

They consulted with each other on sensitive matters such as release of information. The respect and acceptance of each other’s motivation for involvement in the project especially contributed to the project’s success.

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Group Photo of Tatshenshini Basin Dän/Tlingit taken at Shäwshe/Neskatahin, 1890s.

Photo: CAFN Heritage, photographer unknown

Learning brings us together Kets’ädän means “we are learning” in the language of the Dän. For CAFN Heritage staff member Diane Strand, whose personal family story is an example of the historic connections between the Dän (Tutchone) and Tlingit, the project was an incredible learning experience. The knowledge and insights gained affected both Ms. Strand and her community. The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations became involved in the project as a result of their duty and responsibility to this individual who died in their traditional territory. Once the project was underway, difficulties were encountered, owing to different opinions on what was the right course of action. Champagne and Aishihik as a government and as a people learned much as they faced these difficulties and differences. The respect shown by the scientists and the project partners helped those involved deal with these difficulties. Notwithstanding the challenges, the project had unforeseen benefits, as it reconnected different First Nations and Tribes in the region, and made them aware of their shared history and common experiences.

These highlights of the Long Ago Person Found Project only touch on its achievements. We have learned much about the life and times of a young man, an individual with strong connections to the coast, yet with relationships to the interior country as well. Like the people of his times he was intimately familiar with the land. We have retraced his last journey almost hour by hour and place by place on his way inland from the lower reaches of the Chilkat River. Fate intervened however and he never made it to his

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destination. For many generations he remained frozen in his icy resting place. Through this project, this lost family member has been connected to living cultures and peoples, and even some of his relatives.

The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį discovery is about more than science and history. The individual from long ago times helped make new connections, and helped build bridges not only between people and organizations but among the spiritual, secular and scientific worlds. As editors of the forthcoming compilation, and authors of these highlights, we deeply appreciate the connections that have been made and the insights gained. We hope that as you read the individual chapters you too may be inspired to embrace the many teachings from the Long Ago Person Found who lost his life while crossing a glacier so many years ago.

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Appendix i:

Table 1: List of Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį papers which have been summarized for these Highlights.

Author(s) Bill Hanlon

Richard Hebda Erik Blake

Al Mackie, Sheila Greer James H. Dickson, Petra J. Mudie, Alexander P. Mackie, Brian Coppins, Roxanne Hastings, Richard J. Hebda and Kendrick L. Marr Michael P. Richards, Sheila Greer, Owen Beattie, Alexander P. Mackie and John Southon Lawrence Joe (Ketäníä Tà)

Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Diane Strand, Lawrence Joe, Sheila Greer, Sarah Gaunt Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Sheila Greer, Sarah Gaunt Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Sarah Gaunt, Sheila Greer Jim Cosgrove, Owen Beattie, Kelly Sendall, Nick Panter Dan Straathof, Owen Beattie

Maria Victoria Monsalve, Elaine Humphrey, David C Walker, Mike Nimmo, Jacksy Zhao, Claudia Cheung, Paul Hazelton Bruce J. Leighton, Gail S. Anderson, John M. Webster, Niki Hobischak and Michael Petrik Treena Swanston, Monique Haakensen, Harry Deneer and Ernest Walker Maria Victoria Monsalve

Ivan M. Kempson and Ronald R. Martin

Chapter Title The discovery of Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį The natural setting of the discovery region: landscapes, ecosystems and species.

Glacial setting and site survey of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi discovery.

Fieldwork at the Site Vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and algae from the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi discovery site in NW BC

Radiocarbon dating of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi man and associated artifacts

The contemporary cultural landscape of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi discovery region.

Consultation with our neighbours and cultural ceremonies in honor of the Long Ago Person found

Ethnographic and ethnohistoric overview of the Tatshenshini-Alsek country Where might he have been headed to? The Tatshenshini River villages General observations of the conservation and monitoring of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi human remains during the analysis period A review, discussion and interpretation of the human remains from the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi discovery Analysis of microorganisms in bone and muscle tissues in Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi

The parasitology and entomology of Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi

Microbial DNA analysis of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi ancient individual tissues: the identification of Helicobacter pylori and Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi origins inferred through mitochondrial DNA analysis Mineralization of Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi hair samples: a confounding factor in interpretation of metal content 59

Maria Victoria Monsalve, Elaine Humphrey, Wayne Vogl, Mike Nimmo, Jacksy Zhao, Claudia Cheung, David C Walker Michael P. Richards, Sheila Greer, Lorna T. Corr, Owen Beattie, Alexander P. Mackie, Richard P. Evershed, Al von Finster, and John Southon Peter M. Troffe, Camilla F. Speller, Al von Finster, Dongya Y. Yang Kathryn Bernick Valery Monahan

Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Sheila Greer H. Kory Cooper, Kevin Telmer, Richard J. Hebda, Alexander P. Mackie Kate Helwig, Tara Grant, Jane Sirois, Michael Wayman, Gregory Young, Jennifer Poulin and Valery Monahan Kjerstin Mackie

Camilla F. Speller, Kjerstin Mackie, Alexander P. Mackie, and Dongya Y. Yang Richard J. Hebda, James H. Dickson and Petra J. Mudie Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Sheila Greer, Sarah Gaunt, Diane Strand, Sheila Joe-Quock and John Fingland, in collaboration with Ron Chambers, Moose Jackson, and the late John Adamson, Wilfred Charlie, and Jimmy G. Smith Ron Chambers (edited by Sheila Greer and Gordon Allison) Petra J. Mudie, James H. Dickson, Richard J. Hebda and F. C. Thomas Darcy Mathews, Sheila Greer, Richard Hebda, Alexander P. Mackie

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The use of cellular structure in ancient frozen human remains to predict DNA retrieval Stable isotope analysis to reconstruct the diet of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi man.

Identification of sockeye salmon from the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi site Technological and stylistic analysis of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi bastetry hat Conservation of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi woven hat and wooden artifacts Wooden artifacts from the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi site and surrounding area: an analytical catalogue The Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi copper bead

Examination and analysis of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi knife Analysis, documentation and conservation of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi robe, beaver skin bag, and undesignated fragments

Ancient DNA analysis of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi robe and sewn bag Forensic botany of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi ground squirrel robe Traditional stories of glacier travel

Living and travelling in glacier and mountain landscapes

Environmental SEM - a modern tool for unlocking ancient secrets about the last journey of the Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi The last days’ journey

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Sheila Greer, Karen Mooder and Diane Strand Alexander Mackie, Grant Hughes, Sheila Greer Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Frances Oles and Sheila Greer Sheila Greer

Diane Strand

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The Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi community DNA study and search for living relatives The Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi project - a successful collaboration Our gopher robe (Sal Ts'at Project) - bringing an old art form back to life

Spruce root weaving - hats and community connections Kets'adan, learning from the discovery

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