Ancient caves in Southeast Alaska to be explored to seek evidence of early human occupation

• News Home
• More from News of the North

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 5:35pm

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Whatsapp

Sealaska Heritage President Rosita Worl

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The Sealaska Heritage Institute will employ the use of artificial intelligence in working with researchers to further explore the root of the ancestry of Native people in Southeast Alaska.

The institute will team with a group of university academics and Sunfish, Incorporated, to explore ancient, submerged caves around Prince of Wales Island.   The team will explore the caves using robots this year and in 2023.

Institute President Rosita Worl said during an interview with News of the North, "Our people have always said that we have lived and owned Southeast Alaska since time immemorial.  That's what we say and this is what our oral traditions affirm. So now we also have the opportunity to look at scientific evidence."

Worl says the area around Prince of Wales has been of interest to scientists for years.  In 1996, a paleontologist exploring a cave there discovered human remains that proved to be those of a young Native man who lived more than 10,000 years ago.  At the time, they were the oldest ever found in Alaska and Canada.  She says that much of the terrain that is below sea level now was above ground and accessible to people about 17,000 years ago.

The project is funded  by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

 

 

 

More from News of the North

• Businesses can propose recreation services at the Tongass National Forest's Pack Creek Bear Viewing Area

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The USDA Forest Service is inviting interested businesses to proposals to provide guided recreation services at the Tongass National Forest’s Pack Creek Bear Viewing Area for the dates of Apr. 1 to Jul. 4, and Aug. 26 to Sep. 30, annually.

• Critical need continues for blood donors with blood types O Negative and O Positive

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Blood Bank of Alaska is in critical need of blood donors this week due to patient need.

• Treadwell Arena home to the 12U A state tournament this year

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The Juneau Capitals gave it their best shot. (Updated with pictures)

• Lower oil price, production outlook impacts revenue forecast

  Juneau, Alaska (AP) - Alaska lawmakers have nearly $680 million less in expected revenue for the upcoming budget year amid lower oil price and production outlooks, a report released Tuesday suggests.

• Alaska Gov. Dunleavy passes over tribal advocate for fishery council post, fueling calls for change

  Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - Criticism of Dunleavy’s nomination to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is a sign of the growing polarization and high stakes in Alaska fish politics amid historic crashes in salmon stocks

• Toolik station launches climate education program for underserved students

  Fairbanks, Alaska (KINY) - Twelve high school students will visit Alaska’s remote Arctic during the summer of 2023 to learn about the effects of climate change on the region.

• Biden creates national monuments in Nevada, Texas mountains

  WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is establishing national monuments on more than half a million acres in Nevada and Texas and creating a marine sanctuary in U.S. waters near the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawaii. The conservation measures are “protecting the heart and soul of our national pride,'' Biden said.

• Murkowski recognizes Alaska Education Board’s selection of tribes for Native Education Pilot Program

  Washington, D.C. (KINY) - U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today recognized the selection of five Alaska Tribes by the Alaska Board of Education and Early Development to begin negotiation on a demonstration State-Tribal Education Compact (STEC) in Alaska.

• Coast Guard Station Ketchikan boat crew medevacs man from vessel near Pennock Island, Alaska

  Kodiak, Alaska (KINY) - The Coast Guard medevaced a 30-year-old man from the towing vessel Pacific Titan, near Pennock Island, Alaska, Monday.

• Palmer jury deliberates 10 days, finds dad guilty of criminally negligent homicide, not murder, nor manslaughter in toddler’s death

  Palmer, Alaska (KINY) - A Palmer jury spent 10 days reviewing evidence before deciding that Clayton Phillip Allison, 39, was guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of his daughter, 15-month-old Jocelynn Renee Allison. The jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and manslaughter. It was the second jury to weigh the evidence in the 2008 case

• As pressure builds on Canada, state legislators and representatives urge B.C. to include Alaska Tribes of SEITC in Province’s mine permitting processes

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - In a joint letter addressed to British Columbia (B.C.) Premier, Alaska state legislators and representatives urge B.C. to consult with Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) and its member Tribes during the province’s processes for permitting new mines

• Lawsuit accuses Alaska of unconstitutionally mismanaging Yukon, Kuskokwim salmon fisheries

  Bethel, Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - In a Monday hearing, a state attorney sought to have the case thrown out of a Bethel courthouse