MIGRATION OF NATIVE PEOPLES
The migration of native peoples along the coast is somewhat controvertial.
Some suggest that the first inhabitants of the Northwest coast may have
been descendants of the Clovis culture, travelling up from the south. Carlson(1990)
believed that the first inhabitants may have been a premicroblade, biface-using
people moving down the coast from Alaska.
Clovis Culture Point
Fladmark(1975, 1979, 1983) raised the possibility that marine-adapted cultures with boats
may have moved through the south coastal areas of Beringia and onto the
Northwest coast, moving south until they found an unglaciated area to settle.
These coastal migration models have been disputed by some who believe that
the coastal route was impassable during the Late Wisconsinan due to a virtually
unbroken ice front spanning from the Gulf of Alaska to Vancouver Island.
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