Southwest Alaska islands designated historic landmark by Obama administration
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Wednesday announced designation of a historic landmark in Southwest Alaska's Walrus Islands.
The new designation doesn't change much about how the islands are managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, according to authorities with the National Parks Service and the state. But it does offer new potential future stream of federal funding.
The "Walrus Islands Archaeological District … is one of the few remaining places with evidence of human occupation of the Bering Sea continental shelf when sea levels were substantially lower than at present," the Interior Department said in the announcement.
"At least 6,000 years ago, the earliest inhabitants of Round Island, one of seven islands in the district, were marine-adapted and practiced more generalized settlement and subsistence patterns, including hunting walrus on the beaches, than previously recognized by Alaska researchers," the Interior Department said.
Read more: https://www.adn.com/politics/2017/01/11/alaska-islands-designated-historic-landmark-by-obama-administration/