Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land

by Walter R. Borneman

Changes in sea level occurred gradually over considerable time. Naturally, the “bridge” was also a gateway for land animals as well as a barrier between marine animals in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. As the plain became exposed, hunters followed game onto it. Whether these first people were “just passing through” or actually settled in Alaska is debatable, but because they were of a hunter-gatherer culture, it is likely that any passage southward was gradual. Evidence of human occupation of Alaska dates from about 11,000 years ago—probably long after these migrations started—and comes in the form of small stone hunting tools, called microblades. Again, how “permanent” this occupation may have been is debatable. When the ice sheets began to melt and the sea level rose, this was also a gradual process. Even after waters formed the Bering Strait, probably about 12,000 years ago, there is evidence that there were cultural exchanges between the two continents, and there may even have been continuing smaller migrations from west to east.