Tlinglits were working copper on their own, as were some people around the Great Lakes area, around the Carribean, and in the Andes. I have heard that in northern N America (current USA and Canada) the mining was primarily or solely in the Great Lakes Region. Tlinglit (etc.; the technology is not unique, AFAIK, to one tribe of the region) daggers tend to be midribbed, and fairly sophisticated in their detailing and finishing, and I've certainly seen iron/steel ones, and had presumed them to be 18th/19th C. Of course, as time and research go on it grows increasingly hard to deny pre-Columbus (etc.) contacts between peoples previously considered as isolated/seperated. "Vikings" in N America are cetainly no longer considered a romantic fiction, and much earlier European incursions are probably well indicated, for instance.
The Tlinglit body armour is remarkably similar to a medieval European armour known as a coat of plates. I'm not suggesting a direct relation; Tlinglits (etc.) are quite far from Europe; near (as pointed out) to Siberia, and these are far from the only two armours to fit in this category of resemblance; form following function, perhaps. Just an interesting comparison, is all.
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