the prehistory of the aniakchak area is only beginning to come to light as a result of recent archaeological surveys funded by the national park service. present-day native residents consider themselves to be of aleut ancestry, but linguistic studies indicate that they are related to the similarly named alutiiq people of peninsula yup'ik ancestry. currently, there is no evidence to suggest when alutiiq-speaking people first arrived in the region. archaeological data reveal that the entire central alaska peninsula was occupied, abandoned, and re-colonized numerous times, perhaps in response to recurrent catastrophic volcanism and subsequent processes of ecological succession. nothing is known of the people who lived in the area prior to the 3,700 bp eruption of the aniakchak volcano. because there is ample evidence for human habitation in areas nearby, prior to the caldera-forming eruption, it is unlikely that the aniakchak region was uninhabited. however, the eruption fundamentally altered the landscape, and likely buried the pre-eruption evidence for human activity under many meters of volcanic debris. lands nearest the caldera were largely uninhabited for millennia: the pacific coast was re-colonized by approximately 2000 years ago while the meshik river drainage was re-colonized approximately 1700 years ago. the cultural affiliations of these colonists have not yet been determined, however it is likely that different people moved into the area at different times.