In 1987, I had the good fortune to join in the excavation of a phenomenal archae- ological site on the western coast of Kodiak Island, in Alaska. The New Karluk site (a. k. a., "Karluk One") was perched on the edge of the small village of Karluk at the mouth of the river of the same name, once one of the most productive salmon rivers in the North Pacific. I had just completed my sophomore year of college, and under the direction of Richard Jordan,...