ANDY: Holy mackerel. DENISE: Wow!
(laughter)
ANDY: Yeah, that’s a lot of ice.
DENISE: Well, now what was the thought about getting the boat in early?
(laughs)
ANDY: Well, that’s not too bad.
It’s really super low water.
Yeah, I mean, normally we’re packed in the ice all the way up to here.
Right?
DENISE: Yeah. That’s true.
ANDY: So, this will melt out fairly quick.
Breakup signals the time of our super busy time of year,
where we’re gardening, we’re fishing, we’re hunting.
DENISE: Breakup is also wakeup for the bear time.
ANDY: Yeah, I was kind of hoping we’d be able to slide a boat in
over this ice or something and
do some boating around on the Yukon.
Then if we want to get out and bear hunt,
we have a lot more access than just being stuck on
our little peninsula of land here, right?
DENISE: Right.
ANDY: The Yukon River is unpredictable.
You never know what it’s gonna do.
But we’re kind of hoping that maybe we can
just see what’s out there for wildlife.
I think we need to go scout for some bears.
DENISE: Sounds good.
ANDY: Let’s go stick this baby in the river!
DENISE: Ready or not, here we go.
ANDY: Good.
There’s a lot of ice coming down the river,
it’d be a little bit tricky navigating right now.
But I think it’s doable considering how much country
it’s gonna open up to us to go explore, hunt.
Look around for some bears and check out some eddies and
just go see what’s out there, you know?
DENISE: All right. Good? ANDY: Yeah. Hop in.
Let’s go see if we can find them.
DENISE: Yup.
JESSIE: Every small step is what got me to where I already am.
It’s the small steps that make the big things happen.
JESSIE: Chick, chick, chicks.
(chirping)
Come on. Chick, chick, chicks.
Hey, you guys got some water still.
You guys are looking better already.
You’re growing quick.
I’m working on getting a little bit of a farm setup going on here.
So my small step towards that is I’ve acquired 20 chicks,
and they are for meat.
These are, uh, Cornish-crossed chickens.
They’re bred to grow super-fast.
Eight weeks and they grow to maturity.
They’re three weeks old now, so another six, seven weeks and
these are gonna be some big, fat chickens.
Get these guys fed, then I’m gonna go and get their permanent coop built.
I have them in a little pen right now that I’ve raised puppies in.
And the chickens are pretty small and
they can get through some of these spots.
It’s not meant to be a chicken pen.
I need to build something that’s gonna be permanent for these guys.
I gotta, you know, get this done.
I’ve gotta get this done today.
They need space.
Good safe place, you know, to be able to grow up fast.
Okay, and one of the biggest deals is gonna be
how hard is this soil to work.
Not too bad.
That way I’m gonna have to be filling in some of these holes.
This is why I brought you down here, Neil.
You’re good to work.
Dig.
Got myself a new, uh, buddy here.
He’s gonna be my companion dog and go everywhere with me.
He’s a Jack Russell terrier and, uh, his name is Neil.
This gal I was dating, she ended up taking Rosie with her
when we split up.
And, uh, she’s living a good life.
But, you know, it kind of has been a bummer for me.
So I finally found another Jack Russell.
Nothing really replaces Rosie.
But just having a dog that’s like always with you,
a companion dog.
Just kind of makes like the life around here to stay,
it enriches it for me.
Yeah, so one of the big things I want to do is like,
cultivate this ground.
It’s not just about a place for my chickens.
It’s putting the chickens in the right place where
I’m gonna benefit from it in the future.
This whole little island area, now that the dogs aren’t here,
first thing is rake all these sticks up.
Then I’m gonna fill in all these holes in this area
where I’m gonna put the chickens.
And then I’m gonna build my pens here,
where all the scat from the chickens is gonna be fertilizing
this ground and making this ground richer.
And then as I continue to add more animals,
I’m gonna end up with more and more growing space here.
It’s really important to have a vision and a strategy,
over a long term and the short term.
So short term, get this chickens here.
Get this ground tuned up a little bit.
Long term, tons of potatoes growing right here.
AGNES: We have very good hunters here,
and what it takes is knowing your land,
knowing the waters, the weather.
And knowing that the animals are out there.
CHIP: Well hello, Carol.
I got these guys pretty well stocked up on everything.
We made sure the gas was clean.
We’ve got good water.
You got your GPS.
Everything you could possibly need.
NARRATOR: For the Hailstones, the spring breakup of ocean ice
is time for the family’s hunt for ugruk,
or bearded seals.
The annual event is a Inupiaq tradition that
only Natives can participate in.
CHIP: Yup, lots of animals in there too for you.
CAROL: Okay.
NARRATOR: This year, Chip and Agnes’s daughter, Carol,
will lead a hunting party with her boyfriend, Skyler.
And extended family members, Edward and Preston.
AGNES: Carol, you need this? Your hooded jacket?
Carolyn and her crew are heading out
and hopefully they’ll score an ugruk.
We depend on the oils and the, um,
fat to help us throughout the cold, dark winters.
The kids are still getting used of going on their own.
It’s kind of a dangerous hunt.
There’s guns involved, there’s water, there’s ice.
Tide changing, winds change directions really quickly around here.
Very important to be a good captain if you’re gonna take
people out on your boat.
Carol, is your life jacket too big?
You need a smaller one?
CAROL: Uh-huh.
These can tighten if I have to, like this.
AGNES: Carol has grown up down here pretty much all her life.
She knows what she’s doing.
For me, I always tell myself I don’t have to worry
’cause she knows better.
Be careful sweetheart, love you with all my heart.
CHIP: Good luck. SKYLER: See you guys later.
CHIP: Yup, good luck you guys. CAROL: Yeah.
CHIP: Have fun, whatever you do.
CAROL: Love you guys. AGNES: Love you guys.
CHIP: Love you. CAROL: Bye, Wade.
AGNES: Yeehay. Yeehay.
Good luck, guys!
CAROL: This is part of our culture.
Everyone goes out and goes ugruk hunting this time of the year.
Skyler will be driving.
Preston and Edward, they’ll probably be shooting for now.
And since I know this place really well, the coast,
I could tell them where to go or what to do.
I don’t think they’ve really been out there ugruk hunting
as much as I have.
CAROL: It’s good to see that these boys are learning too,
’cause there’s not much, um,
young people out there anymore hunting ugruk.
So right now, learning when I’m young and
showing these boys how is pretty good.
They’ll learn how to hunt for my sisters when they’re older,
and good learning process right now.
We’ll probably check out the ice,
follow the edge a bit and hopefully catch something.
RICKO: Your senses are going wild when
the springtime comes around here.
Your smell, your taste,
what you hear, the birds singing.
Springtime come along, the whole Earth wakes up again.
RICKO: The ice coming out.
I don’t want to see that.
I think we’ll be okay though.
That’s a showstopper.
See, you hit something like that,
you could wreck your boat.
So we’re traveling up to the family cabin,
we’re on the Huslia River.
Right now it’s breakup time, and we’re traveling the river
for the first time.
Really enjoy it this time of year,
but there’s also dangers to traveling this time of the year.
And all that ice is coming down the river still.
And you got to keep your guard up.
Dangers are always hidden everywhere out here in Alaska.
We’re gonna duck into this little slough and take a shortcut.
High water right now so we can take a lot of shortcuts, but...
It forks.
One’s called South Fork, one’s called North Fork.
Which one are we on?
SKYLER: Hold up.
North Fork, right?
RICKO: Yeah.
SKYLER: Remember how I said when I was little,
I said that I would never figure out where to go.
I’m actually remembering places now.
RICKO: That’s good.
Now you go on it enough times, you start to figure it out.
Man, you’ve been all over this country, haven’t you Sky?
SKYLER: Yeah. I remember now.
RICKO: You too, pretty soon.
Huh, Keenan?
(thuds)
Oh, ice.
Don’t want to hit none of that.
It’s real narrow, hard to get by them.
That’s some hard ice right there, too.
You don’t want to hit that.
It’s gonna get real twisty up here.
Oh, sharp turn here.
We might have to come off step.
Watching for ice, same time.
SKYLER: Aw. You’re crazy.
RICKO: Oh, we got it, we got a little opening right here.
Oh, we got an opening over here.
SKYLER: Oh. RICKO: You’re good.
Okay.
Okay, ice right there.
Can’t see over the bob, but I think we’re good right here.
Look over here.
SKYLER: There’s an ice right there.
RICKO: I know, go like this, and then turn.
Okay, now we’re gonna go left.
Oh, is that ice all the way across?
Ice jam. That’s an ice jam.
Uh-oh.
RICKO: I hate to turn around.
Unless we could break through this.
SKYLER: No. RICKO: Might be able to.
SKYLER: Heck no, you’re crazy.
RICKO: Sure. We we’ll get up on this end.
And push it out.
SKYLER: I have a big regret this is not gonna work.
RICKO: I got to break that ice loose.
KEENAN: You’re crazy. RICKO: I’m crazy?
KEENAN: Mm-hmm. RICKO: Okay, hold on.
This is part of the journey.
It’s what we get for trying to take a shortcut.
Okay, we got to get this ice moving, Sky.
Hold that boat.
(grunts)
We’re coming up this little North Fork slough here,
heading up to the family cabin and, um,
ended up running into an ice jam.
When you hit that thing, it’s like hitting concrete,
like floating concrete out there.
So, got to stay really vigilant this time of the year,
’cause I don’t want to get in no trouble with my kids in the boat.
Oh, that’s a big chunk coming down.
Okay, we’ll let this ice go by us.
We’ve got some chunks of ice about to hit the boat.
(thuds)
You okay, Keenan?
KEENAN: Come out there?
RICKO: You can stand right there.
You’re good. You got scared?
KEENAN: Huh? RICKO: You ain’t scared, huh?
KEENAN: Mm-hmm. I’m not scared of nothing.
RICKO: It’s good my kids got to witness something like that.
So it’s really important that I bring them out here.
Let them gain the knowledge that I gained when
I was out here ’cause this is knowledge of survival out here.
KEENAN: How did you move all that ice?
RICKO: Powerful, man.
Just kidding.
We’re lucky that we’re able to break this dam.
SKYLER: Yeah, that was pretty lucky.
RICKO: Yeah. Okay, let’s roll.
You can jump in.
Okay.
Yeah, a little more ice than I thought back here.
That’s why it’s dangerous this time of the year,
you’ve got to be careful when you travel.
We’re lucky.
DENISE: I think about what it would be like to be
completely free out there.
And with this new season,
it’s like a whole new world has just opened up.
DENISE: Oh, we’re coming up to some big old stuff here, Andy.
Look at that.
ANDY: Lot of Piña Coladas.
DENISE: Ooh.
You wouldn’t want one of those to drop off on us.
(laughs)
Wow, look at that.
We’re scouting for bears today.
And hopefully stalking and hunting for bears.
I can’t wait to get out and look at what the wildlife is doing.
Andy, do you see them? There’s two moose over there.
ANDY: Yeah.
DENISE: Oh, look at ’em.
Beautiful. That’s a young one, eh?
ANDY: Two of ’em. That’s a mom and a calf.
DENISE: Perfect. Beautiful sighting of spring.
A cow, moose and a yearling calf with her.
They are out enjoying those fresh spring buds.
It’s a sign of so much life here.
Oh, there he goes.
That was a good spotting...
ANDY: Yeah. DENISE: It’s a good sight.
ANDY: Next year’s dinner.
DENISE: And today’s beauty.
ANDY: Right there.
DENISE: I can’t tell.
Slow down so I can see.
I think it’s moving.
Oh, it might just be shrubs.
Oh, I think it is there, Andy!
Hang on now, I lost sight of it.
Let me just see, it looks like him.
Let me see if he moves.
Oh yeah, yeah. That’s definitely him.
ANDY: It’s gonna be a tough one to stalk him where he’s at right now.
Let’s just sit and watch him for a few minutes,
and just see what he does.
He, he might give us an indication of, you know,
what direction he’s gonna go in.
AGNES: We depend on that oil and that meat.
So it’s very important that they’re brave enough to go out
there to do the hunt, and also bring their kill home.
SKYLER: More seals right here.
CAROL: We’ve seen a lot of, um, young seals coming close to us.
But we’re not after the seals right now,
we’re trying to find an ugruk which is bigger than a seal,
it has a lot of blubber.
It’s what we need right now.
PRESTON: Oh that’s a big one out there, you see him?
On the other side of the ice.
SKYLER: Yeah. EDWARD: Yeah, that is one, bro.
EDWARD: Use your shotgun.
SKYLER: Woah, right there, right there!
Right there! Shotgun!
(gunshot)
CAROL: Go, go, go, go.
SKYLER: Harpoon! CAROL: Harpoon!
No blood?
Or is there blood?
SKYLER: Yup.
CAROL: I believe Preston’s having trouble shooting one
right now because he’s probably not used to
being in a boat that’s moving.
And they tried to shoot ugruk that were in the water.
Usually that’s like the last resort.
To shoot an ugruk on the ice is way much more easier.
JESSIE: The beautiful thing about living out here for me is
that I’m, I’m just working for myself, you know?
I’m working for my own vision, my own plan.
JESSIE: Okay, I’ve got everything I need here to get started.
I’m working on getting a permanent housing built for my chickens.
What I’m gonna be using for this chicken coop is, uh,
pallets that I’ve brought my dog food in here on.
This is a great way to use something that’s just
junking up the yard, you know.
All these pallets.
I’m not gonna let go of them or burn them because I know
they’re gonna be useful for something at some point,
but I’m also happy to see ’em go to use now,
because I hate junking the place up.
I’m not just trying to build a temporary pen here,
that’s gonna keep these chickens in for six weeks and,
you know, deteriorate and fall apart.
I envision this whole area eventually being a lot of
different pens with a lot of different animals and
a lot of little crops growing.
So, you know, what started as just a little bit of an idea is
now taking full swing into what’s gonna really be something.
If you ain’t growing food, you ain’t doing nothing.
That’s the way I look at it.
If you ain’t cultivating the soil for the future,
then you ain’t thinking about the future.
Like my forefathers, like my grandfather,
like his father.
You want food?
You grow food, you make food,
you cultivate the land, you know.
You work the land that God gave you.
Because that’s a fulfilling life.
That’s a healthy life.
And that’s what I’m trying to achieve out here, you know.
(kisses)
Neil. Let’s go buddy.
We’re gonna go cool down.
I’m gonna go take a nice bath in the river.
All right, this is one of my favorite little spots on
my land right here.
You know, the water’s cold,
I know it’s cold, but I’ve been using, you know, the river as therapy.
It’s really good for my leg,
my ankles, my joints.
Cold water is therapy.
It’s good to go shock your system.
Woo!
That’s the thing about living out here.
You know, like I’m on my own time schedule out here.
I’m my own boss, and I just take a walk down to the river
and go take a break, and take a swim and enjoy nature.
End of the day, you live at your own pace.
You do what you want to do every day when you wake up.
So if you’re doing something,
you better want it.
All right, that was awesome.
It was nice to get a good cool off.
I’m gonna get dressed and get back to work.
ANDY: The reason why a lot of people don’t make it up here is
they don’t learn the skills that it takes to thrive.
You can survive, but there’s a big difference
between thriving and surviving.
(gunshot)
ANDY: Well it kind of looks like he’s moving to the left.
We might be able to get the boat in down here and
just walk through the spruce this way, and then if anything,
we push him out, more out into the open.
DENISE: Yup, that makes sense.
ANDY: Let’s go over to the other side and
see if we can’t park the boat.
Denise and I stumbled upon a really nice bear up on a hillside.
They can move a lot of distance in a very short period of time.
So, you really have to watch them,
kind of get a feel for where they’re gonna go,
what their habit’s gonna be and then plan your stalk depending
on what you’ve observed.
Oh, we’ve got a bit of a hike ahead of us here.
Careful, you got to stalk out of sight and then you’ve got to
hope that they don’t move too much.
So, it’s a great big chess game right now.
DENISE: This is the first Crocus’ I’ve seen.
ANDY: Yeah. That’s why he’s on the hill.
That’s what he’s eating.
But I want to go up through the aspens,
and then we’ll pop up over that hill.
And then hopefully we’ll get an eyeball on him.
Ideally, I’d like to get about 75 yards from him for you.
DENISE: Yeah, the closer the better.
ANDY: If it’s gonna be much over 100 yards,
I don’t think you should take the shot.
So we’ll just see how close we can get.
DENISE: Last fall, a bear came out,
and I didn’t take a shot because it didn’t feel like a good shot.
And I keep replaying that bear hunt from last fall
in my mind over and over.
Could I have done it differently?
Could I have gotten off a good shot?
And since then, I’ve been practicing and rehearsing it.
So that I’m ready for the moments that matter.
Big.
It looked big.
ANDY: That’s him. DENISE: I wanna see.
ANDY: That’s a big bear.
We’re probably 200 yards right now.
Go up here.
DENISE: Okay.
ANDY: Maybe we’ll be able to come out and get a closer shot.
Why don’t you just keep an eye on him while I’m walking,
and then I’ll keep an eye on him while you’re walking, okay?
DENISE: Okay.
ANDY: So we don’t lose him if he starts to go somewhere.
(clicks)
DENISE: Okay.
(sighs)
ANDY: So, that bear was right there like 50 yards away.
He went around that hill right there.
So I’m thinking, if we go up this way and follow those rocks,
we’ll probably come out into a clearing where that bear is.
DENISE: Andy. (bleep).
ANDY: Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
Go right there.
Just take your time.
Squeeze off when you’re ready.
We used to train for this.
DENISE: Okay. Okay.
(gunshot)
DENISE: Here he comes.
Oh my God! Whoa!
Oh, look at him.
(gasps)
Oh, make sure he’s dead Andy,
make sure he’s dead.
ANDY: Yeah, you’re good, you’re good.
Nice job.
DENISE: Okay. ANDY: Good shot, hell of a shot.
(sighs)
DENISE: I was not expecting that,
that was a surprise bear behind us.
Oh my gosh.
ANDY: It’s an adrenaline rush isn’t it?
DENISE: Yeah especially when it wasn’t the bear we were stalking.
It’s the bear that was behind us right there.
It’s my first bear kill and
it’s just a flood of emotions
and oh that’s just a real relief,
the bear is dead.
Oh.
One shot and it’s over.
Oh wow.
ANDY: Nice bear.
Actually, that’s a pretty good size bear, Denise,
for around here in this country.
This guy probably weighs 250 pounds.
Look at the size of his paws.
DENISE: Wow, big guy. Aw. ANDY: Yeah that’s a big bear.
She’s been practicing.
DENISE: You’ve been teaching.
ANDY: She’s got herself a caribou now and
she’s gotten herself her first bear, big deal.
DENISE: Yeah.
ANDY: Now the big chore begins,
how the hell do we get him down to the boat?
This is a really cool thing for Denise and I to be able to share
together and to see her progression from
a year and a half ago, she had never even fired a rifle.
Seeing her grow and develop and seeing her gain those skills and
gain that confidence, I was really proud ’cause that’s how
she’s gonna be successful living out here.
Good, stop, that’s it.
DENISE: You can rehearse something a million times but
until it’s go-time you don’t know what you’re gonna do.
It’s good to know that when it matters,
I can take a shot and make it count.
JESSIE: I ain’t carving this land out,
this land’s carving me out.
JESSIE: All right Neil, time to get back to work.
Had a nice dip in the river, cooled down, feeling refreshed.
I don’t know about Neil.
He’s looking a little tired from the walk down there but
luckily I think I got this without him.
One thing for me is that I try to do everything and be
successful at it, so you know getting all 20 of these chicks
all the way through their lifespan to where
they’re getting put in my freezer is the goal.
Before I get too carried away with the top,
I’m gonna wanna get the chicken housing in there.
I got this, uh, puppy whelping box here.
So, it’s great to be able to be repurpose this,
this will give plenty of room for them,
even once they get bigger.
I’m gonna keep straw in there, so that they have nice bedding
to sleep in, out of the weather.
This is my next step in life is, uh,
cultivating this whole area here,
being somewhere that food can be grown and raised.
My vision’s everything for me, you know,
that’s what keeps me moving forward.
You know I, I set goals, I set plans and I stick to them,
you know, and that’s just the kind of person I am,
that’s the structure that works well for me.
I didn’t move out here to live a life where I’m reliant on
something else, you know.
I’m trying to build a life of self-reliance out here,
self-sufficiency and this is a big step.
Okay guys.
All right guys, welcome to the Dirty Bird Inn,
this is your nice, new home here.
All right. Hey, guys.
Yeah, this is so awesome.
I mean, this is just, uh, this makes Brushkana come
full circle for me.
This is the life I wanna be living,
raising food, everything I do in the summer should be,
you know, to make more food, make this land more sustainable
for me and, uh, it makes me really proud because
I feel like I’m living like my grandfather did.
He had a farm, he had chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats.
So that I know that he’s looking down upon me,
proud right now of the, you know,
man that I’ve become and being able to live the way that
I wanted to live, that’s the way that he wanted to live.
Every year being out here this place has changed me and
molded me into the person I wanna be, you know,
that’s what I came out here for,
let the land dictate who I become.
RICKO: I think it’s just in my heart to connect my kids with
nature because no matter what happens in society,
the woods will always take care of me,
and I want that for my kids too.
RICKO: Whole bunch of ravens, look at that.
Something is killed around there.
It’s almost like, um, their air support, you know,
like they have the ability to see from the sky and,
and we’re able to work off of them,
so there’s probably a dead moose in the water or something.
We’re going to the family cabin for the first time,
hoping we have a safe journey and
I hope we have food when we get there.
Springtime is the time of year when we’re able to get
in our boats and navigate these waterways and also,
it’s a time that we can get fresh meat to eat because right now,
a lot of the animals are fat from last winter
like geese or ducks.
Especially geese is good eating right now.
Those geese are coming from the barley,
corn fields of the southern states,
I know they bringing new flavor into our land.
Probably start to see a lot of geese up here.
So, you gotta be ready.
You know how to use that gun you’ve used it before.
SKYLER: Yeah.
RICKO: When I was a kid growing up out here,
to get food on the table you had to learn to hunt.
Skyler’s a good shooter.
He’s gonna be using the shotgun or a rifle if
he sees some big game and it’s a good chance for me to bring
the kids out and let them kind of soak up some of
the knowledge I have of living in the woods.
Keenan check out them swans.
KEENAN: Wow.
RICKO: Big birds.
Man, it’s good to look around right now.
Real good moose hunting around here,
lot of black bear and grizzly too.
I seen grizzly around here.
SKYLER: What’d you think it’s more chances with
a black bear or a grizzly bear?
RICKO: Probably a black bear, a grizzly run pretty fast,
sometime he catch, oh there’s geese right there.
Right there, get the gun,
get the shotgun, get the shotgun.
Big kick.
(gunshot)
RICKO: Keep shooting.
(gunshot)
Oh good shot!
(gunshot)
Good job.
SKYLER: I can’t hear anything right now.
RICKO: Oh you got it though, good job Sky.
You go grab it?
Keenan you wanna go out there and look at it?
(laughs)
Awesome.
Keenan check it out, try hold it Keenan,
feel how heavy it is.
KEENAN: Ah! Ew.
(laughs)
RICKO: It’s not ew.
Alaskan spring goose, we’ll pluck it and
we’ll cook it and we’ll eat it.
We’ll eat it at the family cabin,
we’re almost there.
What you supposed to say Sky?
SKYLER: Anaa Basee.
RICKO: Good job, good eating food right there.
When Skyler first started shooting,
I really honed in safety, safety,
safety and sometimes the animal would go by and he wasn’t ready,
because he was just scared to be in that moment.
And today, he shot and missed but he racked that
12 gauge again and got it with the second shot.
And that’s what I really like to see,
really proud of my boy.
I see that he’s ready to embrace that moment to
put meat on the table, to me,
that’s the sign of growing into a man right there.
Okay we’re here.
Okay time to pluck.
KEENAN: Can I pluck this right now?
RICKO: Yeah you wanna pluck it?
Here I, I’ll help you.
Just like that.
Try not to grab too much, just a little at a time.
KEENAN: Why? RICKO: So you don’t tear it.
See how it’s coming out?
KEENAN: Yeah.
RICKO: My mom and my dad, they taught me everything I know out here.
So, it’s important I teach my kids that you can survive
through anything if you’re strong-minded and
you have the will to work.
Okay. The fire’s burning.
It was the brightest times of life for me growing up out here,
so it’s really important I come out with my kids and
let them experience this.
They might not be coming from the world I came from,
but I want them to remember all those noise,
those sounds, and the flavors of spring time,
breakup season.
Okay you guys ready to eat?
KEENAN: Yup. RICKO: Okay.
I’m ready to eat too. Whew, it looks good.
Mm, mm, so good.
Yeah, you can hold it like that and eat it.
Good?
KEENAN: Mm-hmm.
RICKO: Not to sound corny or nothing,
but you know what’s great about being able to
catch something like this?
KEENAN: What?
RICKO: It brings us all together.
AGNES: Once the ice is gone and the tide and the wind blows it
away and there’s just no more ice up here in the Arctic,
that was our last chance and that was it.
EDWARD: Okay guys we’ll see you guys later.
CAROL: All right, later. We’ll be good.
CHIP: Be smart. CAROL: Yeah later.
CHIP: See you guys.
CAROL: So today we’re gonna go out ugruk hunting.
Preston’s not gonna follow us today Skyler could shoot
the right side, I could shoot the left side.
Seems like it’s gonna be a pretty good day out there,
they said the ice is still out there.
We’re just gonna go out there and try our best to get one.
CAROL: Oh yeah, ice under, ice right there.
(thudding)
EDWARD: Yeah.
(thudding)
CAROL: You have to be careful out there,
there’s a lot of things you have to worry about.
Number one is ice coming up from the bottom,
so just ramming ice and breaking your motor.
SKYLER: Turn it this way, other way,
other way, turn it other way!
CAROL: You have to be really careful ’cause the tide could go
in and out, the ice could shift and move,
you could get stuck out there ’cause you’re far away from home.
We don’t have a way to call the camp from here or
any family members and just have to take your time, go slow,
don’t try to rush and just try to do a good, clean hunt.
CAROL: Right on the edge.
(gunshot)
CAROL: Again.
(gunshots)
Yes! You got it babe.
You got it! Woo, yee, yee!
EDWARD: Oh yeah bro. CAROL: Yee, yee!
SKYLER: Oh yeah.
CAROL: Now we gotta try to get this thing in the boat.
SKYLER: The natives around here have been hunting ugruk for
thousands of years and it’s pretty cool when
you catch an animal like that.
That’ll feed all our family, my family, everybody.
We give it away too, to elders.
So, they teach us when we’re younger so we can keep it,
keep it going.
Pretty awesome.
(whistles)
CAROL: Head shot.
I’m proud of Skyler.
It’s cool seeing him learn, do new things.
It was all worth it, we’ll have energy and
stuff to last us through the winter.
Fresh river water.
We put fresh water into the seal’s mouth to let
them know that we got it out of respect and not anger.
We did it!
EDWARD: Right on guys.
CAROL: Now we just need to find our way out of here.
SKYLER: Yup, make our way home.
CAROL: Yup.
CAROL: Yep. We got an ugruk.
EDWARD: One, two, three.
(grunting)
One more, one, two, three.
IRIQTAQ: Wow.
AGNES: Oh that’s some blubber, wow.
For these younger generation hunters to
be brave enough to go out there and support us older generation,
is very important.
Skyler’s been with Carol.
To see them grow together and hunt together and build their own family,
it gives me great relief to know that my grandchildren,
even though they haven’t had any children yet, is gonna be okay.
DENISE: It takes a lot of work,
but we can work with the environment here in a way
that’s sustainable to everything around us.
ANDY: Yeah, start at the top and that’ll open it up on ’ya
and then you’ll be able to see what you’re doing better.
Just cut lightly there and it’ll come off pretty dang clean.
DENISE: Man, he’s big.
ANDY: Like, this is a really prime, spring hide, so.
DENISE: Beautiful, beautiful guy.
ANDY: It’s good.
DENISE: Yeah I’d like to make something out of it, I think.
ANDY: So, yeah well whether you make.
DENISE: I like to make something useful.
I respect these animals so truly and deeply.
How can I kill it?
I have to explain that to myself,
and I’m learning this.
With every kill, with every harvest,
my appreciation only grows.
There it is.
It looks like you’re coming in for surgery.
ANDY: Oh yeah.
DENISE: The longer I live here the more I really know
how hard it is to live here.
ANDY: You gotta start practicing here comes the bear!
DENISE: Whoa, oh no!
(gunshot)
ANDY: You just got mauled. DENISE: I’m dead.
Andy’s been coaching, he’s an excellent coach,
showing me the good ways and also taking a step back
and letting me fall.
Ah where’d he go?
Gone.
ANDY: Don’t wait for me to tell you what to do,
if you feel comfortable, just do it, okay?
DENISE: Yeah.
And after days of practicing, planning, and rehearsing,
it’s actually happening,
right now and I need to call the shots on my own.
(gunshot)
ANDY: Yeah!
DENISE: Oh wow. ANDY: Think we got a kill shot.
DENISE: To know that I can pull it together,
I can make that kill shot,
that’s reassuring to me in this environment.
You better know your skills; you better be able to pull it
to the table and make it count and that’s life here.
What a day, Andy, wow.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.