AFN - Alaska Fishing News
AS - Alaska Sportsman
AW - Alaska Weekly
CDA - Cordova Daily Alaskan
CL - Chitina Leader
CWT - Cordova Weekly Times
"North to the Future"
Source: Alaska State
Library – Historical Collection, Alaska Weekly-Alaska Sportsman Obituary
Index, Compiled by R. N. DeArmond
AFN - Alaska Fishing News
AS - Alaska Sportsman
AW - Alaska Weekly
CDA - Cordova Daily Alaskan
CL - Chitina Leader
CWT - Cordova Weekly Times
DAD - Daily Alaska Dispatch
FDT - Fairbanks Daily Times
FWT - Fairbanks Weekly Times
FST - Fairbanks Sunday Times
JE - Juneau Empire (and its predecessors)
KC - Ketchikan Chronicle
KWM - Ketchikan Weekly Miner
KDN - Ketchikan Daily News
MJ - Mining Journal
PF - Pacific Fisherman
WS - Wrangell Sentinel
YVN - Yukon Valley News
An obituary for the man whose bones are the oldest ever found in Alaska might read as follows:
He died on Prince of Wales Island around 9,200 years ago. He was in his early 20's. He was adept in using tools, many of which he crafted with imported stone. He ate as much seafood as a seal or a sea otter. He explored Alaska's coast, probably in a boat made of skins. He leaves behind parts of his backbone, his right hip, a jawbone, scattered teeth, and a few ribs. The cause of death is unknown, but a giant bear that lived on the island may have killed him.
Paleontologists Timothy Heaton and Fred Grady discovered the oldest human remains ever found in Alaska in '96. Tim Heaton, who works at University of South Dakota in Vermillion, was looking for mammal bones at the time. When he recognized the bones as human, he stopped digging. He contacted Forest Service Archeologist Terry Fifield, who called in Native representatives from local tribal governments, and the Craig Community and Klawock Cooperative Associations. Tribal leaders agreed that the digging could continue. Heaton and others, including interns from local Native tribes, found more of the bones. Researchers determined that all of the bones, the oldest human remains so far discovered in Alaska or Canada, were probably from the same man.
James Dixon, an archeologist with
University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research,
donated a section of his book, Bones, Boats, and Bison, to the ancient
man found in Alaska. Dixon writes that sea-level records for SE Alaska
show that the place he lived - Prince of Wales Island - was also an
island when the man was alive approximately 9,200 years ago. Near him
were pieces of obsidian - shiny black rock worked into spear points and
other tools. This rock did not come from Prince of Wales, but from other
areas in SE and British Columbia.
