KALEB: We keep this up for a few more minutes and I think
we'll be starting to see fish.
Let's just hope we don't get stuck along the way.
This is Alaska.
This place is filled with resources.
There's everything you could want to go after.
And sometimes you have to be willing to travel a little bit.
Boy, this sure is a nice creek.
Isn't it, Gilbert?
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: It's looking promising.
Kind of been a long, bumpy ride.
Gilbert and I have travelled hundreds of miles today.
We're a long ways from home.
In search of the elusive silver salmon.
Oh, I just saw a fin.
GILBERT: Go get that fish.
Go get that fish!
Can I go catch it?
KALEB: Um, they're half-dead in the creek here.
GILBERT: Why?
KALEB: Because when salmon hit fresh water, they start
rotting from the inside out.
And they keep rotting until they spawn and then they die.
There's a dead one right there.
GILBERT: Yeah, I saw that.
KALEB: It's no longer good to eat.
Unless you're a bear or a seagull.
So let's keep going.
GILBERT: Okay.
KALEB: The salmon that we get at home, they are disgusting.
We're getting close, Gilbert.
I call them zombie fish.
GILBERT: Hey, fishy, fishy, fish.
KALEB: I'm hoping they're a lot better here than by the
time they make it to McCarthy.
GILBERT: Hey, fishy, fishy, fish.
KALEB: Let it fly.
And when it hits the water, it's game on.
It's one of my jobs as a father to make sure that when
my children are adults.
Come to papa little fishy.
They are able to go out into the world and provide for themselves.
This is a humpy.
I am uninterested in humpies.
All rotten.
But, this is new to me.
GILBERT: Whoa.
KALEB: I have not fished the ocean from the shore
ever in my life.
So this fish is gonna live to spawn another day.
In other words, he's gonna live to die.
Let's try this again.
Maybe there's silver in this stream somewhere.
I brought Gilbert with me so that him and I can learn together.
You got one?
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: Your tip's bouncing around.
Usually a good sign.
GILBERT: You come here, fishy.
I lost my fish.
Caught one?
KALEB: No.
Aw, sh. Nice!
Try tossing it downstream, not at me.
RJ: All right.
You ready, dad?
ROBERT: Rock and roll.
See the buoy.
RJ: Yep. Coming in starboard side.
ROBERT: My name's Robert Miller. I'm from Sitka, Alaska.
From the Koosk'eidí Clan, Tlingit Tribe.
My family's been here for probably 10,000 years.
We're good.
My son RJ and I've been hunting together since he was
seven years old.
RJ: Let's get rolling.
ROBERT: We're gonna head up to Appleton Cove, look for a deer.
How long was this soak?
It was just three days?
RJ: Three days, yeah. ROBERT: Damn.
That's gonna be good, I think. I hope it's good.
First, along the way we're gonna check the shrimp pots.
Doesn't look spectacular, but we got some dinner, bud.
RJ: Hey, there's a few in there.
ROBERT: All right. RJ: It's nice.
ROBERT: It's a good start.
Okay. Keep on going.
We use boats out of Sitka because if you have a boat,
you can access hundreds and hundreds of miles of beach and
coastline and different mountains and bays.
RJ: Ho, ho, oh, man.
ROBERT: We got a freaking giant octopus.
And harvest deer and get shrimp.
A healthy little haul.
I'm pretty happy.
RJ: Oh, yeah. That's gonna be nice.
ROBERT: It's gonna be delicious.
RJ: I was born and raised here.
I left when I graduated high school and within five years
just couldn't help but come back here.
Nice work.
ROBERT: It's actually a really good haul, man.
Hit the road, jack.
RJ: You know, there's something about this place
that just lures you in and you can't help but wanna come back.
Looking forward to anchoring up for the night and
get ready for the hike.
ROBERT: You better not kick my butt up that mountain.
RJ: I'll try to take my time.
ROBERT: Take care of your old man.
RJ: See when we get there.
JOHNNY: No matter the time of year, all along this path of life,
I'm gathering new experiences and new challenges.
And that's a big reason why I chose to live in Alaska.
Gonna try to head out...
and do a little bit of octopus fishing.
Octopus are in abundance out here.
They have a lot of protein.
So I'm gonna make some octopus pots.
Just a simple bucket.
One hole in the top, the entrance.
It doesn't have to be that big 'cause octopus can squeeze
into very small places.
The reason why I have holes in the bottom of the bucket is
because it'll be a lot easier to pull this up.
'Cause these things are gonna be 100, 200 feet deep.
But I don't want the octopus to escape out of the bottom.
So I'm gonna put down mesh wire.
You cannot legally trap them, so this is essentially just a lair.
A place for the octopus to kinda hunker down,
to hide, eat its meals.
You just gotta hope when you pull it up off the bottom of
the seafloor that it's still in there.
(laughing).
You gotta be kidding me, Java.
What do you think you're doing?
So the area I'm picking, it's about six and a half miles
from home and it's full of rocks, underwater little cliffs.
They like to sneak up on their food.
And the food that they eat also likes the same environment.
Now, they like the deep water.
So I got about 250 foot of line here.
Send that sucker down and hopefully bag a couple.
What the octopus is gonna do is just come across this and
make a home out of it.
And that's it.
I gotta build a second one.
I think I'm gonna space it out, but not too far.
I'm just try to space 'em out.
Send that down to the bottom.
Just a little, little hangout, for the octopus to go in.
Java, you wanna give it some luck or what?
Huh?
Come here.
Wanna give it luck?
You already chewed it up enough, didn't you?
You stay.
You don't go get that.
No, no, no.
You stay. You stay.
You can get that later, huh?
SONTA: This time a year you get moose crossing the river,
you get mink in the slough, grouse are still in the woods.
As long as you know how to trap and hunt, there'll be food.
CHEVIE: That was a nice little young cow moose that just crossed.
Probably standing just right up here.
Let's see if something comes out behind it.
Be in big, deep (bleep) if you shoot a cow.
But sometimes when there's a cow there'll be a bull close by.
This is a great opportunity to, uh, get a bunch of meat
for our family.
What I like to do if I can, if I got a good enough, close enough,
steady enough shot, is I like to shoot 'em in the neck.
Right behind the head, right here, is where I like to hit 'em.
And the thing I like about that is if you miss 'em,
you usually (bleep) miss 'em.
It's a clean miss.
It ain't stumbling around.
If you hit 'em, they go down.
Well, I don't hear anything.
It's okay. It's just a good habit.
Stop, wait, listen.
We're just gonna keep on moseying up this slough here.
Secret location somewhere outside of Shageluk.
This is the first year I've had to untie my own boat
in a long time.
Usually my first mate, my partner, my buddy,
Sonta's here with me.
I, she's home with a little baby right now.
But I miss her being out here with me.
We have a really good time.
This is where we really have fun together.
Dark spot.
(imitating moose call).
Once they're spooked, they usually won't come to a call.
But it's our only option right now to get him to come back
out of the brush.
You're not gonna chase a moose on foot and catch him.
You can see where it's bedded down in here.
(bleep) all over the place.
He's here.
I'm gonna wrap back around like this.
If he's in that cottonwood.
I'm gonna wait and see if I see him.
You can see right here, this is where our big bull moose
was kicking the (bleep) outta this tree.
He's busted this off.
There's moose hair stuck in here.
This is green leaves on here.
So I know it's fresh.
This is the tree line he was heading for.
Came right through here.
There he is.
♪ ♪
CHEVIE: I'm not gonna shoot.
That's a cow.
There must be a bull with it.
(imitating moose call).
Oh, oh, oh!
There's our moose right there.
(imitating moose call).
Not enough time to get a good shot.
You wanna make sure that you have a good shot.
Can't just start flinging lead all over the place
'cause you're excited.
We can't cross this.
That's all wet out there.
Knee-deep (bleep).
We're seeing moose, man.
It's all good.
I just gotta be on it.
Click, clack, boom.
JOHNNY: There's one.
I think that's one right there.
I always love being out in nature.
I think that my mind is the most free.
If I'm stuck indoors, I don't generally do well.
(Java whining).
What's wrong, girl?
You want to get that buoy, don't you?
Okay, go get it.
That's a big ass buoy, girl.
Good girl, Java. Good girl!
That's a good girl. Okay.
Good girl. Come on. Come on. Come on.
Hold on. Hold on.
Whatever it takes to keep her happy, I guess.
She always wants to be a part of everything.
Good girl.
All right, Java.
This is 250 foot of line.
There we go.
50 more feet.
There was an octopus in here.
It's full of shells.
No freaking way.
The top is very sticky and slimy.
You can see the ink too of the octopus all along the sides,
the black ring.
That's freaking awesome.
It's just, you gotta be able to come at the right time and
pull this up when they're in there.
Set these back down.
Let 'em do their thing a little bit longer.
All right, I'm gonna go check out this one down here.
Hopefully, I got some good luck.
You wanna go get the buoy?
You ready?
Go get it. Go get it.
There's nothing even in this one.
There's no shells, no nothing.
I might move it, a little shallower.
(Java whining).
Java, hush, would you?
Never seen a dog so upset that a buoy's floating away from 'em.
BRITTANY: Anywhere you live you always have to decide,
is your focus your children, or is your focus the things that
have to get done?
But in our lifestyle, we get to bring the kids along for
the things that need to get done.
KALEB: So, so far in this spot I've caught weeds.
I've caught water in my boots.
And I've flung my hook around like an absolute moron.
But I haven't caught any fish.
And I see a dead one floating around right in front of me.
This is not my specialty.
And just like that, I catch the bottom.
So, yesterday, Gilbert, we caught a lot of humpies.
But we're not really after humpies 'cause they're kinda gross.
GILBERT: I see silver jumping.
KALEB: But, hey, we're at a new spot today.
My hope is...
oh, oh, I got one.
Gilbert, I got a fish.
GILBERT: Man.
KALEB: He's jumping all over the place.
Oh, and he's coming in. I gotta get him.
Nice silver.
I was starting to think that...
Oh, no, don't you dare go back in the water.
The ocean had bested me.
But here we go.
Time to get the pole back in the water.
Oh, hey, there's, woo-hoo, woo-hoo, that's a good one!
Gilbert!
GILBERT: What you got?
KALEB: Pull 'em in slow.
We don't wanna lose our fish.
Aw! He got loose!
Well, Gilbert, I think it's about time to go.
We did manage to pull some food out of the ocean,
which is exciting.
But the tide's coming in.
GILBERT: What's that mean?
KALEB: It means this is all gonna be full of water in a
few minutes.
Let's get back to camp and let's cook up our fish.
For me, life is about adventure.
Life is about getting out.
C'mon, Gil!
The education.
The, uh, thrill of seeing a new valley.
And learning what is out there.
Whoa!
GILBERT: What? What?
KALEB: Gilbert, get up to me.
♪ ♪
KALEB: Apparently, I'm not the only one interested in
catching some fish.
I mean, I'm just standing, I'm 60 feet away and
he just doesn't even care.
Oh, he just saw me.
He's gone.
He's headed off through the brush.
Behaving like a good bear.
That's a good reason why I carry this pistol.
This pistol is for threats like those.
Because a bear is gonna be territorial over his food source.
This is just something I have to be aware of, is the
ever-present threat of bigger, stronger, meaner wildlife than
me when I'm out with Gilbert in the woods.
All right, Gilbert, let's keep going.
Bear's gone.
No need to worry now.
RJ: I grew up always following my dad.
He taught me a lot of what I know, if not all of what
I know about deer hunting.
And today we are going up the mountain in a different style.
I am now taking the lead.
You'd think that you'd take a bunch of weight off by
leaving a whole camp behind, but this thing seems
heavier and heavier every time you put it on.
Something pop outta the brush?
ROBERT: Deer.
RJ: What's that?
ROBERT: Look to that big clump of trees.
Can't really tell what they are.
RJ: It's a fallen tree.
ROBERT: Well, let's follow this ridgeline up behind us
and see where it takes us up there.
It looks pretty easy.
RJ: Yeah. ROBERT: Relatively speaking.
Thanks, bud.
RJ: All right.
Hopefully we see something.
Sun's not out, so deer should be out in the open.
ROBERT: We got about 700 feet in elevation to go.
RJ: Deer (bleep).
You see all the cabbage is chewed up.
This is good sign of a buck around.
I bet you as soon as we get up there we see a ton of deer.
ROBERT: Nice deer bed here.
So they're definitely in the area.
I'll find 'em.
JOHNNY: All I have out here to rely on is myself.
That's all I really want to rely on because I'm bound to learn a lot more.
C'mon, Java.
And handoff.
Good girl. Shake.
You make it awfully messy, man.
No shells.
No nothing.
Toss it back in. Hope for the best.
I still got another one to check.
No octopus.
Oh, well.
Send this one back out.
So while those octopus buckets are soaking, I'm gonna make
use of my time and jig around on the bottom.
You know, you never really know what you're gonna catch.
Uh, but it is a possibility to catch octopus.
It's common to catch them as by-catch.
Why not try do a little jigging?
That sun is, uh, with the different changes of the
weather, I think the sun and the shade and the clouds,
these fluctuate a lot.
I gotta put some more air in these.
But not usually this much.
Feeling little, a little, little doughy.
I think I'm gonna head to shore real quick.
'Cause this side of the boat's not really taking air.
And, um, I just want to make sure I don't have a hole.
'Cause I'm about six miles away.
A little bit more than six miles.
I shouldn't be out here.
It's, this thing's leaking.
JOHNNY: Man! (bleep)!
You can see the back of my boat here is just dragging ass.
Everything just wants to tilt over, I'm getting water in my boat.
All right, come on, you can go out.
Go on.
It's very unsafe to be traveling around out here
in this right now.
Let it drain out real quick.
I'm trying to just listen to see if I can hear air seeping.
I think I found it.
It sounds like the hole is underneath this black part.
I bet you this is from Java.
You know, she's using her, her paws and her claws to try to
get into the boat, and we've done it 100 times, but I think
it was maybe the straw that broke the camel's back.
It, it was never like that.
Past the middle of the day, so I gotta see what I got
and see if I can fix this.
You gotta be kidding me.
I'm stranded on this beach with a hole on my boat.
SONTA: For people in Shageluk, we're out on the land
gathering resources, animals, materials
throughout the whole year.
Subsistence is a way of life for native people here.
CHEVIE: So, I'm imitating a bull moose rakin' its horns kinda.
The best thing to use for this is a shoulder blade.
No shoulder blade in my back pocket right now.
I got stuff in my boat, but you could always just use a
stick or a paddle, or any (bleep) thing.
I don't see any moose out here right now, but that means
absolutely nothing.
There's bull moose in here for sure.
It's just, where are they at?
Keep on movin'.
(imitating moose call).
Keep on callin' to come back.
Do it again.
I put a lot of miles on my boat, I looked at a lot of flats,
I covered a lot of country, and stuff's not movin'.
If stuff's not just standin' up, might have to change the
style of hunting that you're doin'.
It's the way it is.
I'm gonna go climb up on that tree fort and see what I could
see out there on the flats.
♪ ♪
Okay, there's good to the story and there's bad to the story.
The good part is, I could see a moose from the kids' tree fort,
which is totally badass.
The bad is, it's about a mile and a half away from me.
That's a long ways to bring a moose in.
All right, this uh, tree house is payin' big dividends.
The kids love it and I got to see a moose from there.
I'm gonna jump in my mote and see if I can get on it.
It takes a long time to figure out the land, but once you
know the country it doesn't change.
That's the cool thing, is once you get that map imprinted in your head,
you really could start playing the game.
I think we're in the right area.
I think I was lookin' at these trees right here.
He was straight out from there.
Oh there he is, right there. He's lookin' right at us.
He's way the (bleep) over there.
He's probably about 650 yards right now.
He's laying down right now.
You can't shoot an animal when they're laying down, you won't
hit him in the vitals, you gotta wait for him to stand up.
There's our moose.
There's two bulls.
There's one in the brush and there's one walkin' away with
one, so I've gotta be very careful of what the (bleep)
Going on here.
It's not the best shot.
I think they're winded on us,
I don't think they're gonna come.
They're both behind that tree.
I came in a little bit too hot.
ROBERT: In my Tlingit culture, 10,000 years of lineage,
if you don't hunt and gather, you're gonna die,
so we gotta prepare for that best you can.
While we're getting higher,
I think we're start see some real nice buck rub.
So, we know there's some nice bucks up here.
We got about three hours left to hunt once we get up here so
we can get to the beach in time, so we're crossin' our fingers
and we're gonna see what can happen.
RJ's up ahead of me.
He's young and half billy goat, and I'm old and just
a little bit billy goat.
RJ: You can tell that the deer's been using these little ways,
little walkways for a long time.
It's just, just looks like a gravel trail,
something you'd see in a park.
It's almost like the forest service came up here and dug it out.
Probably out feeding all night last night.
Pretty clear and calm.
We got a little doe over here.
Hopefully the next one is a buck, get some dinner on the table.
ROBERT: 427 yards.
Staring right at me.
It's just layin' down in its bed over there.
It's a doe, not legal till the September 15th.
RJ's up on the ridge.
RJ: I saw a little tail flicker.
It's a buck.
♪ ♪
(gunshot).
ROBERT: RJ just got one.
Did you hear the shot?
My son just shot a deer on top of the hill.
RJ: Didn't hit him.
Felt like a good shot.
There's another one back in the brush that's staring at us.
There's two bucks there, so if I can get a better view.
Now I might try for the other one too.
Don't move.
ROBERT: Here we go.
The only other person up the hill is my son, so
I'm crossin' my fingers I can go up there and enjoy the
celebration with him.
RJ: He's starin' right at me.
The bunch of trees that I'm pointing at, the very tip of
the right tree, it's back behind that.
(gunshot).
Hit him.
Got him that time.
All right.
I saw that one.
ROBERT: I don't know much, I know enough.
Trying to teach RJ the same thing.
Whoo.
RJ: Oh, my God.
ROBERT: People always talk about how scared they are of
the bears and stuff.
You just can't be scared of 'em, you gotta respect them and.
RJ: Little three by three.
ROBERT: Can't be scared of the rain, you gotta respect it.
You let either of them stop you, you'll just never be out
here enjoying yourself.
RJ: Eatin' dinner tonight.
ROBERT: Holy cow, RJ.
RJ: Yeah. It's a good one.
ROBERT: How far was it?
RJ: It's probably about 140.
ROBERT: Give me a hug.
(laughing).
RJ: Ugh.
JOHNNY: Anytime you're in a situation that you can't
really predict, that's what's going to test you
to problem solve and to figure it out.
And it's living more of a wild life.
All right, that might be enough right there.
So, that's the spruce pitch.
I'm gonna use this as my glue.
I don't know that this is gonna work, you know,
I have no idea.
I've never been in this predicament, but you know,
you can't just sit, you gotta try.
Come on, Java.
I don't have my repair kit so I just kinda have to improvise.
Here goes nothin'.
This'll be my patch.
I got these bibs, kind of a similar material as the dinghy.
So, I think I'm just gonna have to sacrifice,
melt this pitch, and get on with fixing this boat.
All right.
I can't win today.
I think I got my lighter wet when I was doing the whole
dance with the boat and the motor.
Nothin'. There's no spark.
I have a hole on my boat, a tide that's gonna comin' in,
a lighter that doesn't work,
but I got fuel.
That's one part of the equation.
The only thing missin' is spark, but I know there's a
spark in this engine every time I pull start it.
Guarantee I get a fire going.
I know it can happen.
I know it can work, because I remember when I was like eight years old
I had a mini bike and I was messing around with
the spark plug and there was a gas leak and
the mini bike caught on fire.
All right.
Ow, (bleep).
Shocked me.
See if this'll work.
There it is.
Yeah!
That's what I'm talking about.
Yes! Fire!
Aw, yeah!
Look at that.
Oh, and you can see it boilin'.
A little ash in there, but that's all right.
Let's go make a patch.
That's funny 'cause the boat's not even fixed, you know.
But it's like a, a relief to continue trying to fix the boat.
It's hardening really, really, really fast.
God.
I think it's gonna work pretty good.
That's it right there, that's what I'm after.
I just need to let that dry and come back, fill it up with
air, and see if it holds up.
SONTA: Historically there have been starvation times, and
we've heard stories about our people surviving that.
We're looking for this moose to meet our needs throughout the year.
CHEVIE: One healthy lookin' cow moose in a great location.
Where is its boyfriend?
(imitating moose call).
Where's your partner there, honey?
In the woods in front of you?
Or are you waitin' for him?
Bull.
I hear a bull.
Just gonna stay right.
(imitating moose call).
Sonta and I played cat and mouse with a nice
bull moose here one year.
We stood right here, and it would come out of the brush,
and it'd look at us then go back in,
and it'd come back out, then go back in.
I don't think this one's gonna come out of the woods.
Is what it is.
Win some, you lose some.
I got some real good memories out here doing this.
I want to make some more.
Learnin' every time.
The cool thing about the land is it never changes,
so you always have all these different memories that you
make on it, then you come back to it.
I may not kill a moose today, but you can come here and think about,
"oh yeah, I had a good time with my wife, or kids".
♪ ♪
(gunshot).
CHEVIE: Okay, let's get up there and make sure this thing's down.
I put in a lot of time here.
Been on several moose I could've shot, but it just
wasn't quite ethical.
If I was an (bleep) and didn't have respect for these animals
it wouldn't give me this opportunity to have such a
nice shot at a, at a beautiful animal.
'Kay, the work begins.
GILBERT: Daddy.
KALEB: You wanna learn how to fillet a fish?
GILBERT: Yeah.
KALEB: All right, you're filetin'?
Go right down the backbone.
I want Gilbert to take from this trip...
Good job.
A confidence in knowing that he can go anywhere,
and he can learn how to get food from that area.
Keep goin'. Look at your fillet.
GILBERT: Look at this. And mine fillet done!
KALEB: Good job!
We don't even have to cut the ribs off yours.
GILBERT: Wow.
KALEB: This thing's ready to cook.
Gilbert might not have the same knowledge that I have
because he's seven, but he will take home
little bits and pieces that he'll remember as an adult.
JOHNNY: Put some air in this, see what happens.
Faced a lot of unfortunate events.
I kept my mind, I kept positive, and I applied
anything that I've gained in the past to this present moment.
Come on, load up.
Come on.
Come on, load up.
And that's what pulled me out of it.
It's startin' to get kind of, a little choppy out there.
It's definitely not the last time I'm gonna encounter
a problem like this.
The patch is holdin' up, but I don't wanna stay out here
longer than I have to and learn the hard way that it
doesn't want to hold up.
But I'll tell you, I'd rather have problems like this
than the problems I'd encounter when I was living in the city.
RJ: When I moved back, God I thought I'd missed him.
I couldn't believe it, got really nervous.
ROBERT: Did you get a buck fever, bud?
RJ: Oh, yeah.
I had to sit there for like a minute.
ROBERT: Nice.
That's a nice big heart.
Heart of gold.
All we gotta do is get it five miles to the boat.
RJ: Aren't you glad you're not packing the deer out?
CHEVIE: We measure our riches in a totally different way.
You got this kind of meat, freezer's full, boy it's hard to beat.
I might keep a little bit of this hide, Sonta sews with it.
It's a, another resource that we use from this animal.
I know I reap the benefits of her sewing, I got a nice hats
and gloves and stuff like that keeps me warm all winter.
It's a nice fat moose.
Some people want to spit out all the fat, they don't' like
the fat but they never lived off of it probably.
KALEB: Is this one ready?
Oh, yeah.
Want some?
GILBERT: Yep.
KALEB: This is an amazing place, and I hope one day we
can return and try to catch the silver salmon again.
RJ: There's so few places on the planet that you can really
just get out and do this.
There you go.
Check this out.
ROBERT: Holy cow, you found the bullet?
RJ: Yeah.
ROBERT: It's emotional to think about how we can be here
in a land of plenty.
JOHNNY: It's a long trip man, going through this crap.
ROBERT: Couldn't really ask for much more than that in life.
CHEVIE: It's the reason why we live here.
For the quality of life.
JOHNNY: That was a pounding out there, but Java and I made
it back and that's all that really matters at this point.
CHEVIE: We're not out here trying to find ourselves to
figure out who we are going to be.
RJ: Piece of cake.
CHEVIE: Questioning society or questioning what the world is.
Whoo.
JOHNNY: Java.
CHEVIE: How you treat the land is how it treats you.
We start not too big.
SONTA: Not too small. EMRY: Not too small.
CHEVIE: Hmm? Just right.
EMRY: It's just right.
CHEVIE: I look at myself as an equal with animals and
it's a blessing to be able to know
I'm where I need to be,
where I'm meant to be, and I enjoy it.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.