Robes and boots made of salmon skin, hooks and points made of bone, and salmon vertebrae were unearthed at village sites in the Russian Far East and prove the importance of salmon not only to the early indigenous peoples of North America but also to those of Asia.
Many anthropologists believe that North America was first explored by coastal travelers from Asia who followed the salmon from river to river, perhaps traveling by boat: baidarka, umiak, and kayak. An archeologist at Russia's Ushkii site unearthed religious salmon artifacts that were 12,000 years old.