catastrophe, oral tradition..
Interesting post - thanks! Many of the “backward” natives in the Indian Ocean tsunami also survived because of their stories - stories that were not known, or forgotten by the city-folks.
There is an Indian “legend” in Southeast Alaska that tells the story of the Ice king invading the land because the people did not send him a princess to marry. And the people were forced to flee to the south. Hundreds of years later a princess was found for him, and they were allowed to move back to their native territory. They think now that it records the glacial expansion into their valley and then retreat from hundreds of years ago.