NALU "DANIELLE" APASSINGOK:
-See anything? -CHRIS APASSINGOK: I see, uh, two boats.
Small window to go harvest some, uh, seals and walrus right now.
DANIELLE: Bunch of ice. (sighs)
I see one way over there. Kinda to the left of Gambell.
You see him?
DANIEL:
CHRIS: Ay!
♪ ♪
Just go on the ice... All right.
Ay!
Young bearded seal.
Starting butcher it now.
My name is Daniel Apassingok.
I am Siberian Yup'ik.
I live in Gambell, Alaska, St. Lawrence Island.
It's, uh, middle of the Bering Sea,
two hundred miles away from mainland Alaska.
About 38 miles from Russia.
Hard winter this year.
We only landed one whale in the village.
It's not gonna feed everybody throughout the summer.
We're still tryna harvest more food
throughout the spring now.
We just got one seal, you know, uh.
We need to get more game and, uh, more food.
Fresh.
I try to teach my boy subsistence hunting out here.
DANIELLE: Yum.
I haven't had any fresh seal in months.
(laughs)
DANIEL APASSINGOK: The special thing about today is
my daughter's here, Danielle.
DANIELLE (off screen): I wanna help.
DANIEL: Go ahead, uh, start cutting where I was at.
DANIELLE: Right here?
I'm 22. I lived here for 18 years.
DANIEL: Keep cutting, all the way to the--
DANIELLE: Growing up, all the cultural stuff, I wasn't
really into it.
DANIEL: Uh, have your knife
angled little bit like that... Yeah.
DANIELLE: I used to never
want to be a part of this place.
And then I left for a few years, and I was like...
"I know who I want to be."
Just feels like home.
DANIEL: Now you gotta face your knife--
-(speaking native language) -DANIELLE: Downward?
DANIEL: In.
CHRIS: And then you cut right there.
DANIEL: Women didn't really hunt all that often,
but, uh, you know, my daughter wants to go out, too.
I guess time changes with everything.
Good job, uh...
That was a good shot.
We're not done yet. We're still goin' out.
Right now is a very important time
to catch any kind of game:
the walrus, seals.
All the people out here
depend on the subsistence food that we bring in.
Walrus is gonna leave us behind.
DANIELLE: We're gonna get one.
I feel it in my bone.
JODY POTTS-JOSEPH: There's no greater joy
than having my kids out on the land
doing things that our people have done for millennia.
Shiyaazh, get up.
It's time.
Feels good?
Really excited to be taking Denali
out on his first moose hunt.
Before we leave, it's really important
that we go out in the right frame of mind.
Right attitude in honoring the land and the animals.
You gotta put good energy out there, son.
You have to do this in a good way.
Just pray to yourself... creator to bless you.
♪ ♪
My name is Jody Potts-Joseph.
I'm Han Gwich'in from Eagle Village, Alaska,
now living in the Middle Yukon in Koyukon country
with my husband and our son.
Han Gwich'in people have a matriarchal society.
We have generations of strong, badass women.
I always remind my kids that they're indigenous to this land.
They are walking in the footsteps of our ancestors
and that they're here with us.
We're gonna hang out here. Lotta moose tracks.
You can see they are just going back and forth.
Think a lotta times, like, in this really bad, windy weather,
the moose just stay
kinda tucked in the trees and out of the storm.
JAMEY JOSEPH: I'm just makin' a little spot to...
to sit, stay outta the wind, if the wind picks up.
Kind of, uh, mask our movement, if we can just...
sit here and watch,
just to kinda hunker down in here.
JODY: Just hoping that we're blessed with some meat.
It's definitely a lot harder this year,
and I would say the pressure's on.
Moose meat is really center to our food source
and our food security.
We really need this meat,
so hoping that we can make it happen.
Keep our eyes open. We're in a good spot.
It's a good day to be indigenous.
JOHN PINGAYAK: I live on the tundra...
and I am the master of this land.
PATRICK MATCHIAN, JR.: Yeah.
Hopefully, we come back with something.
JOHN: Ptarmigans or a moose or a rabbit.
TERESA PINGAYAK:
Be safe. It's a beautiful day to be out today,
so enjoy the day.
JOHN:
The love of my life is Teresa.
TERESA:
We have nine beautiful daughters,
and last time I counted, we have 23 grandchildren
and six great-grandchildren.
JOHN:
♪ ♪
(PATRICK, JOHN "SONNA BOY" PINGAYAK III):
(gunshots)
PATRICK: Missed 'em.
JOHN: We're tryna get a few ptarmigans...
but they're kinda spooked out.
And they keep flying, uh, when we can't get close to them.
SONNA BOY: Yes.
JOHN:
♪ ♪
PATRICK:
SONNA BOY:
JOHN:
(gunshot)
PATRICK: Wow, that's a lotta ptarmigans.
JOHN:
PATRICK:
-SONNA BOY: Yeah. -PATRICK: Probably, like, 75 ptarmigans.
-SONNA BOY: Or more. -PATRICK: Maybe more, yeah.
STEVEN "TIG" STRASSBURG: There's no "me," there's no "I" out here.
I come from a community.
♪ ♪
TIG: Woo!
See the bigger track, the wolverine track.
Definitely wanna try for this wolverine.
Today we're gonna learn, you boys, a thing or two.
My name is Steven Strassburg. My friends call me "Tig."
Oh, ho-ho-ho!
They used to call me "Tiger."
Momma said I used to growl,
and, you know, bite people's fingers and whatnot.
Was just a wild little kid.
I live in Allakaket, Alaska.
My honey and I, we got seven kids.
That's a lotta mouths to feed.
But out here, living in the woods, we eat good.
I am Koyukon Athabaskan.
We're the first people on this land.
We are a strong people.
-TERRANCE STRASSBURG: Dad? -TIG: Huh?
TERRANCE: Do wolverine have really good biting?
TIG: You know they are, they're a powerful animal.
In our old ways, the ways our elders taught us,
the wolverine is the chief of all the animals.
He's the big boss.
TERRANCE: Oh!
TIG: (laughs) To a wolverine,
that smell is good, it's delicious.
Evan tried before. We hadn't had any luck.
His brother had caughten a wolverine before,
but, you know, catchin' that first wolverine
is gonna be a tough one.
This where I want him to put his foot.
Head on down the trail, set some snares, boys.
My boy catchin' his first wolverine,
you gotta be persistent.
Can't just expect to catch him in that one trap.
We gotta try... everything in our repertoire.
Try and hide 'em up a little bit.
And that's it. Now we got a trail snare.
Let's go get the next one.
Living this lifestyle myself, is making sure that
our tradition and our culture's gonna thrive and survive.
I just keep teaching 'em, teaching 'em, teaching 'em.
It's gonna come second-hand to them,
and when they have children, they're gonna pass this down,
as I did to them.
All right, boys, that look as good as can be.
And let that sit and soak.
EVAN:
TIG: Come on, drop us your lucky pack... Dotson'sa.
All these ravens got a good luck sack on its back.
Helps me out once in a while.
Let's go see if we can fill up the rest of the day
with some ptarmigan or grouse or rabbit.
There's a whole mess of stuff I gotta teach you boys.
We try to harvest our best foods
that we have in our country.
States, they got chicken.
We got chicken. They're just a little smaller and they're white.
A ptarmigan!
TERRANCE (off screen): They're everywhere over there, Dad.
TIG: Oh yeah, see a bunch of them.
See, they're pretty camouflaged.
If you didn't know what you're lookin' for,
you're not gonna see them.
-Which one of you boys wanna take a shot? -TERRANCE: Me.
-It's right there. -TIG (off screen): Oh.
He just dropped down.
Come on, Terrance.
See, they don't sit down and wait for you forever--
TERRANCE: I know, Dad.
-TERRANCE: I hit 'em. -TIG (off screen): You got it.
EVAN STRASSBURG (off screen): Daddy, next time, can I shoot?
TIG (off screen): All right, I believe it's your turn.
You see 'em right there? Go 'head, pull it on 'em.
Aim good, boy.
EVAN:
TIG:
You missed 'em.
TERRANCE (off screen): He went back down.
Evan didn't miss.
-TIG: Oh, you got him. -EVAN: Oh yeah, look at that.
He's right in the neck.
♪ ♪
-TERRANCE: Dad, I found one! -TIG (off screen): You got one?!
TERRANCE: Yeah!
EVAN: There's one right here!
TIG: All right.
-Woo! Way to go, boys! -EVAN: Look!
TIG:
EVAN:
TERRANCE:
Enaa baasee' mean, means "thank you" in Denaakk'e.
We say it because it's given its life for us.
TIG: You know, my Daddy always told me,
"If you kill 'em, you clean 'em."
No better time to pluck 'em right now when they're warm.
Hard work pays off.
EVAN: So, that's what we're gonna do with this ptarmigan?
TIG (off screen): Mm-hm.
A few days ago... my children, they lost
one of their great-great-grandmothers.
After the funeral, we have that main potlatch
where we bring all our best foods.
TERRANCE: We don't celebrate death, we honor death.
We honor the people that pass away.
TIG: She meant a lot to us, she meant a lot to our family.
So now we got a little somethin' to offer, too, ya know?
That's what we do, that's how we honor our elders, you know?
I'm pretty sure their great-great-grandmother
is up there keepin' an eye on them,
makin' sure these kids are doin' good.
Boys did good, proud of you guys.
JOHN: Out here, I have to be positive in everything I do.
It's not an easy work. Your spirit has to open up.
♪ ♪
PATRICK:
JOHN:
SONNA BOY:
PATRICK:
SONNA BOY:
JODY: As a mother...
I feel like I've done my job
grounding my kids in their culture.
♪ ♪
JAMEY: You wanna run around the island real quick?
DENALI BLACK: Yeah.
JAMEY: The snow is very deep, so...
around the corner up here
to where those moose are hangin' out,
there's a lotta good willows they're munchin' on there
where we've been spottin' 'em.
JODY: Across, on the other side of where we're at,
on the other side of the island,
is where I keep seeing moose,
and they're just going back and forth
between the mainland, like, on the South Bank,
and then this island.
There's just tracks back and forth, back and forth.
JAMEY: So, just hang out here, keep an eye,
and then send Denali over where the other ones
-were hangin' out. -JODY: Yep. Sound good?
DENALI: Yeah.
JAMEY:
JODY: Good luck, babe.
Denali is a good hunter,
so I know that he can handle it.
Kinda can't imagine if we didn't get a moose,
but we're at the mercy of the land
and creator and elements.
See you, son! Be safe!
DENALI:
♪ ♪
See a bunch of these willows that are, like, broken halfway,
but I don't see no tracks around them or anything.
I'm just gonna chill here for a little bit...
see if anything pops up.
JODY: For me, with raising my kids,
I just tried to expose them to as much as possible.
The modern world and opportunities,
but at the same time, really tried to ground them
in our traditional way of life, and our values and culture.
So, if they wanted to live the subsistence way of life,
they had the tools and skills to do that.
♪ ♪
DENALI:
♪ ♪
Really stuck.
JODY: Is, is he stuck?
He's waving.
JAMEY (off screen): He's probably stuck right there.
JODY: Go help him.
Make me nervous.
Snow machines are just, like, so much maintenance
and so much work.
JAMEY: One, two, th-- Here we go.
-DENALI: You good? -JAMEY: Hold on.
Now I'm stuck. There you go.
Hard to see in this snow... whiteout,
and we... went over a ledge right here.
You give it a tug and I'll push.
Tug from right here.
JODY: Snow machines can get you
somewhere really far really fast.
If you're out really far from somewhere safe
and it breaks, you're just in a world of hurt.
JAMEY: There ya go.
JODY: Is he moving? Oh, he is.
What happened?
DENALI (off screen): Really stuck.
-JODY: Really? -JAMEY: That's some deep snow.
JODY (off screen): Did you see any moose or any moose sign?
DENALI: Just a bunch of broken willow, but there's no--
JODY (off screen): You don't see any fresh tracks
-or anything? -DENALI: No tracks or nothin'.
JODY: Oh man.
JAMEY: Definitely gotta do some service on the machines tonight.
Pretty iced up.
The trail will be established if we come back out tomorrow.
-JODY: Yeah. -JAMEY: Long as the wind
don't blow it over again,
but it'd be best to get back while it's still light.
JODY: All right.
JAMEY: Better to be safe than sorry.
JODY: Give it another stab tomorrow, huh?
JAMEY: Yep.
JODY: It's not easy doin' a moose hunt in the winter.
It's not easy at all.
You know, it's the Alaska life.
DANIEL: Challenges of being a hunter and a provider is
having to learn to survive and live off the land.
♪ ♪
DANIELLE (off screen): Lots of ice pack there, alright.
DANIEL: Bound to, uh, run into somethin' in the water.
DANIELLE: We'll see something.
DANIEL: Well, we landed five whales last year,
and, uh, this year we only, uh, landed one.
It's been, uh, one of my slowest seasons.
One whale doesn't, uh,
gonna feed everybody throughout summer.
Collecting food from the sea, that's our main diet.
It's kinda hard to buy, uh, store-bought food.
It's very expensive, and it's not always available.
DANIELLE: It's a blessing to come out and subsistence hunt.
DANIEL: Yeah, not everybody could do this.
Hope to keep it going down a, a whole generation.
Pass it down.
DANIELLE: I feel like our culture is slowly dying.
Everything is changing, and everybody's changing.
I wanna be one of those people to bring back our tradition,
especially subsistence hunting.
It's important to keep it alive.
I don't know who we'd be
without what our ancestors taught us.
Call it with your baby walrus call.
-(Chris does walrus call) -(Danielle/Chris laughing)
DANIEL:
CHRIS: We've gotta get as much as we can,
and, uh, fill up our freezers with food.
Got to feed the village.
♪ ♪
DANIELLE: It's hard for things to come to the villages.
There's not a lotta big cargo jets
flying around here. (laughs)
We keep going north, you think there'll be some?
DANIEL:
Subsistence hunting, we've gotta do it to survive.
If we don't harvest any of these marine mammals that we're hunting,
you know, people go hungry out here.
DANIELLE: Hey, what's that?
DANIEL: Walrus in the water.
DANIELLE: Right there. Right there.
DANIEL:
DANIELLE: Go. Go. Go.
DANIEL: Walrus!
♪ ♪
-Just right there, real close. -(gunshot)
CHRIS:
DANIEL:
CHRIS: Got a seal and a walrus.
Feels like a blessing coming home with food and all that game.
DANIEL: Pretty much everybody in the village, uh,
get a few meals out of this.
DANIELLE: I'm just super grateful that I have the opportunity
to do these types of things with them,
especially being a female hunter.
DANIEL:
(birds cawing)
TIG: Livin' the life we do
intertwines us with our culture.
We're always out here doin' somethin' in the woods.
It's just part of us.
♪ ♪
Man, look at this, boys.
Can see footprints.
Well, he took part of the bait.
The wolverine's such a powerful animal.
They're not a easy animal to catch.
This ain't everything we got. We got some more up ahead.
-Feelin' lucky today? -TERRANCE/EVAN: Yeah.
TIG: So, let's go look at some more, huh?
There is no word in our Athabaskan culture
that means "give up."
It does not exist in our culture.
If we were gonna give up, you know,
our people probably wouldn't ever been around here
'cause this is tough country.
EVAN: Whoa.
♪ ♪
TIG: This is the snare you set, Evan.
All right, Evan, right here...
You're live. Watch where you're pointing.
(gunshot)
EVAN:
TIG (off screen): Got the chief, Evan.
EVAN: How could you tell it's a chief?
TIG: 'Cause the doyonh's the chief of the animals.
-EVAN: Oh. -TIG: It's always been that way.
Good shootin', boy.
-TERRANCE: Good job, Evan. -TIG: Yep.
And, Terry, you got your first one a few years ago.
Now, Evan, you got your first one.
We've lost a lotta loved ones these past couple years.
There's gonna be a lot of potlatches comin' up,
and these potlatches take a lotta fur.
That's, that's our culture, our tradition.
We can't get a potlatch done without these furs.
I always carry some moose fat with me whenever I'm trappin'.
You gotta give him his last meal.
We gotta put some fat in his mouth.
-That's how we take care of them good. -EVAN: Okay.
I am able to give a wolverine to the potlatch,
and it feels really good
'cause I'm only 12 and I got a doyonh.
TIG: Get under the tongue, over the tongue,
close his mouth down on it.
The chief is calm.
EVAN: It's a chief.
Huh.
TIG: Go ahead and pick that guy up, Evan.
-Woo. -EVAN: Big guy.
TIG: Yeah! Now our next step is goin' home and takin' care
of this nice doyonh as best as we can.
JOHN:
♪ ♪
We're gonna go look for some more ptarmigans.
PATRICK: They flew over this way.
You're all loaded up.
-All right, Sonna Boy? -SONNA BOY: Yeah.
PATRICK: Let's do this.
JOHN: I depend on my subsistence way of life out here.
Wintertime, the food sources are gonna be scarce.
We have to train our young people to survive out here.
(gunshot)
PATRICK:
(gunshot)
Missed 'em!
JOHN:
Right?
PATRICK: We'll get 'em next time, eh?
♪ ♪
JOHN:
♪ ♪
PATRICK:
♪ ♪
(gunshot)
♪ ♪
PATRICK:
JOHN:
SONNA BOY:
JOHN:
(SONNA BOY, JOHN):
SONNA BOY: Every trip is something new to learn.
I'm just really proud to be a student under my Aata.
JOHN:
TIG: The children is our future.
And that's what we gotta protect out here.
Feed 'em right, raise 'em right,
and that's protectin' our future right there.
♪ ♪
I start out real clean, right along the skin...
takin' care of it the best you can,
and that's the ultimate respect.
EVAN: I'd be really happy and, like, excited to see, like,
my wolverine on someone's parka passed down from a potlatch.
TIG: Mm-hm. It's a proud moment.
His spirit is with us.
And my oldest son, he's had a wolverine potlatch before.
And Evan now, it's his turn.
Put-- Right here. Put your knee up.
And once we catch that animal,
and there's a lotta processing to it.
-See this layer of meat on here? -EVAN (off screen): Mm-hm.
TIG: And that's where I take my time.
This a powerful animal.
It's got a powerful spirit in it.
We gotta do our best job.
-EVAN: Can I try? -TIG: Oh, yeah. Get in there.
Grab your paintbrush, boy.
Slow and steady.
My knife, that's my paintbrush.
This, this is a whole artwork of its own, you know?
Skinning it, and doing the best job that you can,
that's showing this animal the ultimate respect.
All right, in that potlatch, you gotta shake it strong.
EVAN: That's, like, the animal's last dance with you.
TIG: You little boys, you guys did good today, man.
-I'm proud of you boys. -EVAN: Thank you.
TIG: You guys are turning more and more into men every day,
and I can see it.
One of these days you're gonna wake up
and have mustache and beard.
Whoa! You guys are growin' up faster than I thought.
JODY: When you're hunting... it requires a lotta patience.
You're really at the mercy of when the animal decides
to give itself to you.
♪ ♪
(whistles) Ha! There you go. Ha! Good dogs!
So, we got a message the other night
that the elders needed Denali's help up in the village.
So, Jamey and I are out hunting alone today.
I'm goin' by dog team 'cause I prefer it.
Jamey went up ahead in the snow machine.
Good dogs.
Ooh.
JAMEY (off screen): Whoa.
-JODY: Do you see any fresh tracks? -JAMEY: Huh? Uh, no.
-But see this island here? -JODY (off screen): Yeah.
JAMEY: Looks like a good one, plus we can walk ahead
-over to where Denali was yesterday. -JODY: Yeah.
JAMEY: Do you want me to see if I can flush a moose to you
-while you wait up there? -JODY: Yeah, that works.
JAMEY: All right. I'mma break out my snowshoes.
JODY: Jamey and I are gonna try the old ways.
We're gonna put on snowshoes.
I'm gonna go down the trail
Denali broke with his snow machine yesterday.
Jamey's gonna walk through that island
and try to flush a moose out to me.
-(dogs barking) -JAMEY: Okay, babe.
JODY: Love you!
We will put in a good effort...
we have a good plan,
and... hopefully, a moose will give itself to us.
I'm just glassin' through my scope.
I don't see any fresh tracks.
JAMEY: Do you see there's a lotta good sign in here?
Moose tracks all over where they've been eatin'
all the broken willows.
Jody's on that end,
so I'm gonna go this way since the wind is comin' this way.
I'm just gonna walk across that way, so they catch my scent.
Dogs are makin' all kinds of noise.
Maybe if there's anything in here,
it'll run across, maybe run by her.
-JODY: Moose sign over there. -(dogs barking)
♪ ♪
Oh, (bleep)! There they are! Look!
JODY: Cow and a calf.
I can't shoot.
Never take a cow.
We need cows for producing more moose.
Kinda scoped around.
No sign of a bull.
♪ ♪
Yeah.
JAMEY:
JODY: He scared off that cow and calf right here.
And across.
JAMEY:
JODY: Yeah. I was like, "Hey, it worked."
Just like the old ways, huh?
JAMEY:
JODY: I know, huh?
JAMEY:
JODY: Yep, time to go.
TIG: Right now, we're gonna put the spirit back into the wild,
and let it run free.
And it came from the woods.
I wanna bring him back to his own country.
That's gonna ensure you guys luck.
There's a lotta things that we do in order to
keep our superstitions, that's our hutllaanee.
And see, you know, it's kinda like the fetal position,
how she was born.
Put her back like that.
The way she came into this world,
I'm sendin' her outta this world.
Her spirit's gonna go on.
That's what our culture's all about
is comin' out and teachin' our kids what we know,
and passin' on our traditions, and... keepin' it goin'.
BOTH:
TIG: See her spirit goin' up in that smoke right there.
♪ ♪
JOHN:
TERESA PINGAYAK: Your Dad and Aata
and Sonna Boy came back.
What did they get?
Oh, it's a fox.
Who got it?
You did?
-SONNA BOY: Yeah. -TERESA: Mmm.
I wanna show you what we can make out of that skin.
Okay.
Look at that... Sonna Boy.
This is the hat you can make.
The most warmest hat you can ever own.
Take good care of the skin...
and then we can make really beautiful, warm things with it.
JOHN: Sonna Boy, he's gonna be with me, rest of my life.
All my tools that I have... he's gonna use 'em.
SONNA BOY: My generation, they're gonna look to me
just the way I look to my Aata for knowledge.
JOHN: I'm proud of you, Sonna Boy.
♪ ♪
JODY: We didn't come home with a moose,
so it makes it a lot harder,
but we'll definitely be out
probably trying to get other small game.
You may put in the work,
you may have the right intentions.
Nothing is ever guaranteed,
but you may be blessed in other ways.
It's not very common and it's not traditional
for women to be hunters in our culture.
I started hunting a lot, um, as a female
'cause I was a single parent for all those years,
and my kids needed to eat.
I had to do all these things, cut my own firewood,
and do things that, traditionally,
a man in the household would do.
I didn't have a husband to hunt for me until now.
(laughs) But still, I do most of the hunting, right?
-JAMEY: Mm. -JODY: Or the good shots, eh?
(laughing)
Just kidding!
I take pride in the fact that I can take care of my family.
It just kinda helped me discover more of who I am
and what I'm capable of,
to never give up.
Of course, as a mom, I hope that, you know,
that's something my kids carry forward
to their children and grandchildren.
-JAMEY: Thank you, babe. -JODY: Mm-hm.
DANIELLE:
DANIEL:
You know, it's hard at times
to introduce my children to our tradition.
They have their own unique ways of, uh, accepting it.
DANIELLE: It's tradition to pop those eyeballs.
DANIEL: My father, uh, told me one time
there's a saying that if you don't pop the eyeballs
of the animal that you catch...
you'll go blind. (chuckles)
DANIELLE: And we do it.
We pop the eyeballs just for safe.
What we can't take, the animals eat.
DANIEL: I'm, uh, excited that Danielle wants to learn.
It's a blessing. It's always beautiful
to see something like this happen.
You know, my daughter, uh,
having family time with us, very enjoyable.
Can't get any better than this.
DANIELLE: I made a lotta memories
with my brother and my dad today.
I felt whole.
I was connected to my ancestors.
Memories I will cherish forever. (chuckles)
JODY: As native people in Alaska,
we're, kind of, at a place of cultural revolution,
where we are now taking pride and not shame
that we are meant to take by colonization,
pride in who we are, our way of life, our values.
TIG: If I quit that, and I didn't teach my kids any of that,
all that culture and tradition would die at me.
JOHN: We need to bring that warrior spirit back,
and go forward to the uncertainty of the future.
DANIEL: All done. That was a quick job.
Hopefully, uh, you know,
they follow along in your footsteps down the line.
DANIELLE: Time to go home.
Captioned by Point.360