A complete discussion of what is known of the prehistory of the Alaska Region is not within the purview of this document. The region is so large 15 the size of the continental United States, and diverse ecologically, physiologically, and culturally that any synthesis must be skeletal in nature. Provided here is a general description of the broad units of the cultural chronology of the area. Today, mainland Alaska is a large projection that sticks out like a thumb from North America toward Siberia. Its interior flatlands, dissected by rivers and mountain chains, lead into the main body of North America and its rocky southern coast runs into the Pacific Northwest coast of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Ten thousand years ago, however, the Alaska mainland was, physically and ecologically, a part of Asia, from which it was severed by the rising seawater that formed the Bering Sea to the south and the Chukchi Sea to the north. Bering Strait is the connection between the two seas. Alaskas importance to American prehistory is precisely the result of its unique geographic position; not just for the early settlement of the continent but also as the land through which later waves of immigration passed.

Address: Native Village of Afognak, 115 Mill Bay Rd., Suite 201, Kodiak, AK 99615
Website: http://www.nps.gov/akso/akarc/early.htm