I'd now spent nearly two weeks on the Merry Fortune, sailing north-northwest, more or less, toward our destination: Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. This was where The Captain and I would meet Mrs. The Captain, who was flying in from Victoria. This was the place the three of us would explore during the last week of my time on the boat.

Glacier Bay is the spiritual homeland of the area's four Tlingit clans:

the Eagle Clan Kaagwaantaan − Wolf Crest
the Eagle Clan Wooshkeetaan − Shark Crest
the Eagle Clan Chookaaneidi − Bear Paw Crest
the Raven Clan T'akdeintaan − Whale or Kittiwake Crest

We saw signs of their ancient habitation when we arrived in the park.

A Tlingit trail marker carved into a living spruce tree.

Unfortunately for the Tlingit, glaciers are an embodiment of the Nietzschean aphorism that "He who would be a creator must first be a destroyer, and break old values into little pieces." The same glaciers that created the tremendous natural beauty of Glacier Bay also drove its Tlingit inhabitants south across Icy Strait to Hoonah − as summarized on this plaque in the park.

Eventually, the US federal government and other bodies moved to protect the ecosystem that the retreat of the glaciers laid bare:

In 1925, President Coolidge declared the land around Glacier Bay a national monument.
In 1978, President Carter expanded the protected area to 3.3 million acres of mountains, glaciers, forests and waterways.
One year later, UNESCO designated Glacier Bay as part of a much larger World Heritage site, encompassing 25 million acres in the United States and Canada.

These designations have protected the park from the depredations of logging and mining interests. However, they have also largely prevented the Tlingit from hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering in their homeland. This is why the Tlingit have not returned to live in their homeland.

This state of affairs has long be a strain on the relationship between the Tlingit and the National Parks Service − despite the plaque's bland assertion that the Tlingit have "adapted" and "ultimately prospered". However, as we sailed to Hoonah and then into Glacier Bay, we would meet people working to ease these strains.