KALEB: I'm heading out to check one of my favorite
spring bear hunting spots.
It's been my tradition since I was 16 to get out every spring
and hunt for bears.
They're an important source of food in our family.
And usually, this time of year the moose is all gone.
And we need to fill our freezer up.
So, I, I do that with bear.
I've got about a quarter-mile walk to the edge of the river
and then about a 300 foot drop down to the river bottom.
Then we'll be in bear country.
I gotta keep things quiet, stealthy.
All right.
Ready to go.
It's May, and this is the latest I've ever seen snow.
I'm hoping the bears will be out.
There's moose tracks.
Good sign. It means things are out and moving.
After the long cold winter, everything's hungry and
they're traveling in search of food.
My hope is the bears are doing the same thing.
I found some bear tracks here.
This looks like maybe yesterday.
Big old grizzly.
A massive bear print, it completely swallows
my hand whole.
He was running.
Holy Toledo.
Yeah, so bears are out, let's go find 'em.
This is time to quiet things down and keep my wits about me
'cause I'm in bear country now.
(theme music plays)
Wowie, it's steep.
SONTA: There's not that many Innoko River people
in this world.
So, I have a lot of pressure to keep this knowledge alive.
And you're not gonna be able to pass it on to your own
children unless they're living this lifestyle with you.
CHEVIE: Nice to be back out on the river again.
We're just gonna have to keep our eye out for all this drift
and trash that's floating down.
This year it's the highest that it's been in a long time
and our remote cabin almost flooded.
SONTA: It is a bit of a concern for being able to see
where the fish are really at 'cause when it starts flooding
like this, I mean, the eddies change and the fish have more
area to go into, ya know?
So, we really have to try to get the fish where we can.
This whitefish run is the first fish run of the whole
season and you best be out on the bank with your dip net
ready to go because once they go by you, they're gone.
CHEVIE: All right. Let's go find this first eddy.
SONTA: Right in here probably, huh?
Look at that.
Looks good in there.
CHEVIE: Yeah, I think this is the spot.
SONTA: Yeah.
Tie onto that same one like that.
We've been living off of moose meat and beaver meat and
other things all winter, so...
CHEVIE: Come, baby.
SONTA: It's a change of our diet that we really
look forward to.
RYDER: How do you do it?
SONTA: Straight down.
See how heavy that current is?
Let's see how deep this water is.
For me, whitefish dipping is a pure addiction.
Do it against the boat in front.
The current's going this way.
RYDER: Right here? SONTA: Yeah.
You have your net in the water and you're waiting for that
first bump.
You're waiting for some little sway of your net that you can
feel through the pole.
(kids chatter)
SONTA: Oh.
Oh, I felt a bump too.
Dang it.
I'm always hoping for getting as many fish as we can,
40 to 60 fish.
I want to have enough to put away in the smokehouse and
put away enough to freeze.
But we're noticing that the current is just so strong and
it's looking like fish aren't at this eddy.
So, if we don't get any hits down here, we're gonna have to
go pretty far upriver, huh?
CHEVIE: Yep.
JOHNNY: So, my goal when harvesting an animal is trying
to utilize as much as I can.
I use the meat. I use the organs.
I use the bones. I use the hides.
I just use what nature provides me.
This is a caribou hide from a spring caribou.
The hide is dried and it's ready to be tanned.
But I'm not gonna start by tanning.
I'm actually gonna be removing his hair and turning it into buckskin.
Normally I leave the hair on because I like the insulating
properties of the hide, ya know, especially up in the Arctic.
But I want to try something different and actually make
leather 'cause there's so many more things I can do
with leather without the hair on.
So should come out to be a nice supple leather or it's
just gonna rot and be a complete fail.
So, we'll see what happens.
Go down to the creek and grab some water.
C'mon, girl. That's a good girl.
The goal of this lifestyle for me is always just doing
new things and trying different things.
I don't wanna be stagnant just doing the same stuff over and over.
I want to challenge my mind.
Grow.
So, I think what I'm gonna do is get the water in now.
This is the ash here from the woodstove.
A lot of old time homesteaders consider this like a
quick makeshift form of making lye.
It helps get the hair off the hide
and that's all I care about.
Just really wanna work the water into it.
It's already starting to absorb it and soften up,
I can already see.
You just gotta be patient and let it soak and while this
sucker is soaking, I'm gonna make that bone tool.
It's important for me to use all the parts of a caribou.
I take a lot of pride in that.
So, I'm gonna get a leg bone from this caribou here and
turn it into a fleshing, hair removal tool.
Indigenous people used it to flesh and scrape their hides.
Metal tools are great,
but I just like having that connection.
Just holding something more natural like this.
It just kinda goes hand in hand.
It's not always about just being primitive, it's about
being in tune with your tools and your projects.
You can see it's starting to get sharp right here.
By chiseling off this edge, it's starting to make a point there.
I don't want to put holes in the hide, so this isn't
supposed to be like razor sharp.
But it's sharp enough to get the hair follicles out.
Yeah, it's pretty sharp.
It's actually kind of even peeling the log a little bit.
So, it's just amazing how, actually how sharp
you can get the bone.
I think this is gonna work.
SAMANTHA: This last winter wreaked havoc on the farm.
And that's really concerning.
Because we have a lot of mouths to feed.
So, it's essential for us to be able to produce all of
our own food.
NATHAN: The snow did a lot of damage.
SAMANTHA: It did so much damage.
NATHAN: I think it seems like most of the side frame is good.
But to put a new roof on we have to get a whole 'nother
frame going across and this wood is just trashed.
SAMANTHA: It's done, yeah.
NATHAN: We have a greenhouse that collapsed because of the
snow load over the winter.
Now it's a huge makeover basically.
I think all these poles are good.
SAMANTHA: Maybe.
NATHAN: I mean, the plants that we want to put in there
require a long growing season
and we're already a little bit late.
So, we gotta get this greenhouse done.
It's kinda up in the air if the corn and tomatoes will
even finish, but we might as well try.
I mean, we're at the last minute right now.
It's looking rough.
SAMANTHA: Just start grabbing stuff, kiddo.
ADRIAN: I have no clue what to grab.
NATHAN: Just grab what ya can and if it looks like crap,
throw it in the looks like crap pile, if it looks good
throw it in the looks good pile.
Well, the crazy thing is I remember coming out here in
the middle of winter and I was standing with my feet
right about right there.
I mean, my head was above the roof.
SAMANTHA: That's crazy, isn't it?
We know fairly well what we're doing with gardening
in the lower 48.
Up here we're sub-arctic temperatures.
Woo! That was a thrill.
In Alaska, a green house is one of the most valuable
things you can have if you plan on growing a good source
of sustainable food.
NATHAN: Now that it's cleared, I've actually been able to
assess how much damage there actually was and it's more
than I, than I thought there was.
Luckily, I think it's still fixable.
Wanna hook this up?
Start burning this trash grass.
Adrian, I put a fire extinguisher right in the
front of the greenhouse there if you just wanna grab that
and just kinda hang on to it.
Just stand by with the hose.
There we go.
SAMANTHA: Well, it's not like a flamethrower and it doesn't
just like catch everything on fire.
Although it is moving quite quickly towards the propane tank.
It's toasty.
KALEB: I always look forward to this time of the year when
the bears come out of their caves,
and out into the open
where they can be hunted because there's nothing else
that can be hunted this time of year.
I'm down into the prime bear hunting area.
All these slopes up here have greenery on 'em,
and that's what draws the bears into this area.
It's like the all you can eat salad buffet for the bears.
They'll be grazing on these slopes for hours like the cows do.
But they're still wild.
They still have to be hunted,
and I gotta be smarter than my prey.
I'm gonna sit here for a little bit and watch for bears.
Come here, bears. Come to me.
♪ ♪
Oh, I see a bear.
KALEB: The difference between grizzlies and black bears is
grizzlies have a big hump on their back, right above their
shoulder blades.
Black bears don't.
They have a really smooth profile.
So, I'm trying to see,
is this a grizzly or is this a black bear cinnamon face,
because they can be easily mistaken for each other.
I already got a grizzly within the last regulatory year,
so I'm only allowed one.
So, if this is a grizzly, I cannot shoot it.
But if I can determine that, that's a cinnamon face bear,
then I'll go after it.
Yeah, there's a very, very pronounced hump above his
shoulder blade.
So, I'm thinking this is a grizzly.
Seeing a grizzly up there is not super positive.
They're higher up on the food chain than the black bears are.
And having a grizzly in my hunting area can keep the
black bears pushed back.
So, seeing a grizzly up there is not an encouraging sign.
(clucking)
SAMANTHA: Up here in Alaska, there's not a lot that is more
important than learning how to sustain yourself.
NATHAN: Hold it like that.
Hold the trigger. Whoa.
SAMANTHA: And to pass down that knowledge.
NATHAN: Good job.
SAMANTHA: From generation to generation.
NATHAN: Oh, stop. You gotta hold it straight.
SAMANTHA: Because sustainability up here is
what's going to save lives.
NATHAN: Explosion.
Okay.
You wanna try today, Adrian?
SAMANTHA: Oh, yeah. You do it.
NATHAN: See if the kids wanna give it a shot.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: So, all you do is pull that trigger and then it goes.
ADRIAN: Okay.
NATHAN: Try to keep it straight.
It's probably one of our most important tasks is to pass on
our skills to our children
to teach them how to provide for yourself.
SAMANTHA: That's pretty cool.
NATHAN: So actually, you wanna just try throwing the post in
and see what we got sitting above the soil.
So it's great to see the kids help get this greenhouse done.
Yeah, that should be good.
And once the poles and the soil,
we'll start throwing the walls on.
From there, we're gonna start building the roof trusses.
SAMANTHA: Okay. That's enough.
I think it looks really good.
NATHAN: Good enough to get the plants in the ground.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
Because we're already, we're, we're getting to about a week
late, so time is of the essence.
NATHAN: And then taking a look at the soil, it's definitely
not gonna grow anything as it is.
It needs amendments added to it, and then you can see,
I mean, it's...
SAMANTHA: It's, it's sand like it's, it's actually sand
in most places, so...
NATHAN: So, let's get started. SAMANTHA: Let's start.
NATHAN: Let's start with the lime.
Sprinkle generously.
This will help sweeten the soil and raise the pH a bit.
Someone can read all they want, but at the end of the day,
the one thing that's gonna help you the most is
just getting out and doing it, and just experimenting.
SAMANTHA: Before we moved up here, our garden in Oregon
was just amazing.
Up here, that's gonna be a lot harder than in lower 48,
but I'm determined to make it work.
NATHAN: I think we plan to be here for a long time, so using
manure and whatnot, it's a natural, you know, organic way
to fertilize the garden, you know, and we got all this here
from our animals, we might as well use it.
This will fix the problem for now and then we can always add.
It never hurts to add on top.
Let it break down.
I think we gotta a good start here, a well-balanced meal
for the plants.
This much setup will only have to be done once, pretty much,
and the years to come, it'll just get easier and easier,
'cause once you start that living soil and begin that
process, we won't be doing this again.
SONTA: You know, we do this every year with the kids,
but every year there's some new skill that they're gaining on,
that they're learning, that they're improving upon,
and create more memories around this activity.
CHEVIE: We're looking for a better option
to place our family to be able to be on the bank
and also catch fish.
SONTA: This is a pretty good fishing spot right here kids,
you see how it's kind of narrow in the river?
EMERY: Yeah.
SONTA: There's more likely to be fish in this spot because
it's kind of a bottleneck,
so this might be a pretty good spot.
I think fishing in this lifestyle's generational knowledge.
What I practice is all that I've learned growing up.
And so, I want my kids to have those same experiences and
they themselves teach their kids.
CHEVIE: Hi.
SONTA: So helpful.
So, so helpful.
Oh, that's good depth.
Not too deep, not too shallow, not too swift.
CHEVIE: Liking it better?
SONTA: Yeah. CHEVIE: Good.
SONTA: Spring whitefish is definitely a staple for every
Innoko River person right now.
I like fish, roasted fish, half dried fish, fully dried fish,
any kind of fish, so you really gotta catch enough
to have it many different ways.
So, we're hoping that we're not at the tail end too much
of this run.
You just gotta hit him just right.
I mean, if you're on him, you can get a ton in one night,
but right now it's pretty slow.
Ooh.
CHEVIE: Pull something up.
SONTA: Pulling it, pulling it, pulling it.
Oh!
CHEVIE: There is a fish. SONTA: Little fish.
CHEVIE: Yay. SONTA: Yay.
CHEVIE: Say, "Yay," Chevelle.
Yay.
SONTA: Long time coming.
CHEVIE: Yay. SONTA: The net works.
EMERY: Finally.
SONTA: They're here.
I gotta put it back in as quickly as possible.
EMERY: Where's the fish, ah, fishy.
SONTA: It's just a good feeling to get that first catch.
You know, when you first feel that bump on your frame,
on your net, um, you know, you know there's one in there.
You know, you're in a spot where you can catch.
Any day's a good day to get fish.
But definitely there's nothing like that first one of the year.
And that's what we just had.
So, where there's one, there's sure to be others.
SYDNEY: Mom, can I try doing the fishnet?
SONTA: Yep. Come on over.
And remember what you're feeling for Sydney is just any
sort of little bump or something that's changed.
SYDNEY: How will I pull this up?
SONTA: I'll help you. I'll be right here.
CHEVIE: Pull 'em in bean, pull 'em in.
JOHNNY: This is all trial and error.
And I'm learning things by just doing it.
And if you're always worried about failing, you're not
gonna get anywhere in life.
Yeah. It's just nice using this bone tool.
Cause I'm not worried about putting holes in this hide.
If I pull on it in some areas, you can see the stubble.
You see some right there.
All I gotta do is just pass over it again
and it pulls it right off.
That's working well.
I just don't have to worry about, again, putting a
hole in the hide.
Cause that's just the worst part.
I've actually never made buckskin before.
It's just a old hide, you know.
It's kind of a gamble trying to make buckskin out of it,
but it looks pretty good.
It's all scraped down, it's hairless,
significantly lighter, trim off the edges later.
For now, I just gotta go on to the next step.
Which is gonna be a saltwater soak.
This is my salt water.
This is where I'm gonna soak the hide.
Let's get busy.
Hides are just like meat. They can rot, they can spoil.
They can go bad.
So, I wanna make sure that I don't waste this hide.
So basically, that's it.
Saltwater's gonna pickle it and kind of stop that like rot
process cause it's soaking in that ash water.
There are a couple loons right here.
(mimicking bird call)
You see those loons, look at you.
She wants to go get those loons.
And all I have to do now is just a little wring out
and then uh, start tanning it.
That'll do.
You ready?
Let's roll. Come on.
Probably make it up the hill faster than me. Huh?
KALEB: When I'm hunting spring bears, there's a lot of danger
and I need to be instantly ready to take a shot.
Well, I saw that grizzly earlier
and he eventually meandered off.
But the problem is he left his scent behind, and I think
that's spooking out the black bears.
I've been sitting here for a while and I haven't seen
anything, so I'm gonna mosey on back to camp.
Hunt my way back.
I'm not expecting to see a lot because the wind is moving the
direction I'm going,
but I still gotta keep my eyes looking.
Oh, wait.
Actually...
there's a bear 100 feet above my tent, jet black,
so I'm back in the full-blown hunting mode here.
Shell and barrel, full safety.
It's time to go for a stalk.
Let's go get a black bear.
I'm gonna go way wide and then try and get up wind and
pop over in there.
We'll see how this works.
This is tough.
I'm in a quandary 'cause the wind's going this way.
The bear's right there.
That puts me in a bad space as a hunter, because they
rely on their nose.
He can see me, he'll tolerate me.
If they smell me, game over.
At 184 yards I wanna get to that stump right there.
I'm gonna wait for him to step out.
♪ ♪
My heart's pounding right now.
He's behind the brush.
I can't take a shot right now.
(gunshot)
♪ ♪
KALEB: He's dead.
He's down.
There's the, there's the death moans right there.
(moaning)
160 yard shot.
One shot right through the boiler room as ethical and
clean and quick of a death as I could ever hope for.
Bear's heavy.
All right. Time to get to work.
Nice young boar.
This thing's probably three years old.
He's got perfect teeth.
Most older bears, their teeth are all busted off and
their jaw's just in sorry shape.
But this guy, I mean, his teeth are absolutely perfect.
Not a thing wrong with him.
Oh, really nice young boar.
He'll be really good eating.
I'll lose the coat.
Spring Bear is just premium.
Good meat is something that I've been eating since
I was a little kid.
I'm gonna prop this guy's belly open so I can get as
much airflow through here as possible, so he gets nice and
cool tonight.
Yeah.
Nice young boar.
Good and healthy.
This is premium spring black bear meat.
This'll kind of tide us over till fall time when we can
hunt moose.
Yeah, good eating.
Thanks, Bear.
That was an epic day.
SONTA: You know our people have lived off this river for
many, many, many generations.
So, we're just doing an activity that we've been
doing for forever.
Oh, Chevie's pulling something up.
You felt something hit your frame?
CHEVIE: For sure that time.
SONTA: Oh, must have just bounced right off the side.
CHEVIE: I'll put it right back in the exact same spot.
SONTA: That's where it was.
CHEVIE: There is fish here.
I kind of hate to leave a spot where you at least
catching something.
SONTA: You know, if they're there, I don't want to leave either.
CHEVIE: Hey, look at that.
SONTA: Whoa, you got a little guy.
CHEVIE: I didn't even know it was in there.
I couldn't even feel it hit.
That's your baby fish, Emy.
EMERY: Yay. SONTA: That's your meal, Emery.
That's just your size.
CHEVIE: Grab it, baby. EMERY: No.
(laughing)
Now the fishy has a friend.
CHEVIE: That's a really small whitefish, so you know,
it's the, kind of the end of the run.
SONTA: The most ideal dipping situation is when the run is
so strong, you put your net in and you just pull it
right back out.
EMERY: Uh-hmm.
SONTA: But obviously we're not in the thick of it right now.
This is the tail end of it and we're probably gonna have to
go upriver just to catch them up a little bit.
CHEVIE: Oh, look, I got you guys a treat.
Ryder come, this is better than fish right now.
RYDER: What's that, dad?
CHEVIE: For the kids, it's all the adventure and the time of
being out as a family and doing it together.
EMERY: It's so smooth, Ryder.
Look how smooth it is.
CHEVIE: Go ahead. Put it on your face.
Every year's different, and timing is key.
All these things they're learning about from firsthand experience.
Not being told the story, but by being there and
being a part of it.
So, we caught two fish, we know that there's fish here.
But it would be nice to be somewhere where we're catching
a fish about every five minutes or something like
that, even if they are small.
So, I think if we want to get into big fish.
we're going to have to run upriver.
Hi, hi. You got a big smile.
Oh, yeah, hi, hi.
Every eddy on the way up the river, we're checking it.
I'm tying and untying the boat.
We're fishing from the boat out on the river,
we're fishing from the boat on the bank.
We're trying everything that we know how to do to find
these fish and it's just not working out.
We're about 20 miles, 23 miles above Shageluk and uh...
in another eddy, trying another spot here.
This is a really good swift eddy.
We could catch fish here,
it's going to be a really good situation.
When the getting's good, every time you put your net
into the water, you're getting a bump.
♪ ♪
CHEVIE: I swear I got a couple good bumps.
I don't know if that's fish hitting my net or you hitting my net.
RYDER: You feel something hitting your net?
CHEVIE: Yeah. RYDER: Do you feel it again?
CHEVIE: It's like finding a needle in a haystack,
trying to find fish in this big deep river right now.
But we, we have an idea where to look.
We just gotta keep on looking.
SONTA: Maybe.
Or we can just call it what it is, getting skunked out here.
The water is so high.
(crying)
CHEVIE: All right, baby's crying, kids are ready to go.
Let's head to the house and enjoy those two fish
that we did get.
JOHNNY: You can choose to buy things in a store.
You can choose to make things.
And the more I learn to make things, you know, the better
I feel about my possessions.
You think this hide's dry enough yet?
It's a bit hard to dry with this rain, huh?
JOHNNY: I'm gonna do a superhero cape.
Man, look at this thing.
You see where it's kind of like beige?
And right about in here you can see it's dark and it's pretty hard,
when you pull on it, see it turn white like that?
And that's the fibers breaking and it's a lot softer
versus how it was before I pulled on it.
That's a really good sign.
That means that this thing was tanned successfully.
I'll be honest, I kind of didn't think it was going to.
But just pulling on it is not enough.
And one way I find that's very successful is to just rub it
on a post.
This was on an animal that I had shot in the fall and then
in the winter I frost flushed it.
And then now we're at summer, close to fall again,
and I'm making buckskin out of it.
And like, how far along this thing has come,
it's just incredible.
Let's see, let's check it out.
Oh, yeah, you can see the fibers are breaking up here.
My God, it feels like suede.
That is incredible!
This is, this is a game changer.
You know, I mean, I harvest what, six caribou a year?
This is really cool.
One day maybe I'll just be wearing buckskin head to toe.
I'd be cool with that.
Yeah, I've never had these feelings of satisfaction like
working any other job I've had and, you know,
that's why I'm out here.
My job is, you know, living off the land as much as I can.
So, I think I know what I'm going to make.
I just like things to speak to me and tell me what to make,
and this thing is just kind of screaming vest for some reason.
27 right there.
Sewing is a important trade to know when you're trying to be
this self-reliant, as I am.
You know, it would be a dream to sew all my own stuff.
You know, because I don't, I don't buy clothing anymore.
The clothing I have is just what I have from when I was
living in the city.
And when it, you know, dilapidates, who knows what
I'll be wearing next?
Hopefully this.
Looking pretty good.
It's a nice tight stitch.
It's going to hold up. It's durable.
And I'm just going to keep working on down here,
it's just time to get busy and get at it!
SAMANTHA: This isn't just for me and my husband.
We're building these things now to pass down
to our children and their future children.
We want to be able to leave them with fertile ground
and structures that work.
(clucking)
Oh, wow.
This is going to be a big job.
Oh.
What is going on here?
NATHAN: I think maybe we should stretch out this first part
over the front on each side in case a breeze picks up
and we can kind of just sandwich it in with a board
temporarily or something.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: Just to keep it from pulling around, so we have the
first portion spread out.
SAMANTHA: That's what I was thinking about doing.
I've gotta tie my skirt up first.
Putting up greenhouse plastic, it's my favorite part.
The wind is trying to blow away our tarp, and this is
already urgent enough.
We have to get this done and on like immediately.
NATHAN: Storm's blowing in.
SAMANTHA: And it's coming in pretty quick.
NATHAN: Yeah.
SAMANTHA: I'm kind of panicking right now.
I'm completely overwhelmed.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
What do I do?
NATHAN: Come help.
SAMANTHA: I don't know what to do.
NATHAN: Pull.
SAMANTHA: Okay.
This is crazy.
Ugh.
♪ ♪
NATHAN: It's hitting us.
(bleating)
Meanwhile the goat is just laughing at us.
SAMANTHA: I know.
NATHAN: Just hand me a piece of wood, six inches to a foot please.
SAMANTHA: Okay.
Okay, here's...
NATHAN: We're going to have a seam here to deal with,
but it is what it is.
Okay, now you can pull on the other end and try to get it
tight enough for me.
SAMANTHA: I have to do it with a ladder.
NATHAN: All right.
SAMANTHA: I'm okay with the rain.
It's the wind I don't like.
Oh.
NATHAN: I'm gonna have to try to get up here somehow.
SAMANTHA: Oh.
Oh, lord be with you.
I brought you a ladder.
Well, fine.
NATHAN: Okay, the plastic is on.
Looks like crap, but it is on nonetheless.
SAMANTHA: Phenomenal.
JOHNNY: Now the more trades that I can accumulate out here,
the more successful I'm gonna be, the more
self-reliant I'm gonna be.
That's the ultimate goal for me living out here, and
I think it's the ultimately goal for most Alaskans
living out in the wild.
So I got this couple caribou antlers there and I'm going to
saw off some discs and those would be the buttons and we'll
call this buttoned up.
You know, you talk about like remembering an animal,
and that's why I keep antlers.
I don't keep those for trophies.
I keep them because I'm always gonna remember the animal,
whether the antler's whole or it's just a little disc like
this for a button.
This animal lives on in my life.
They're not trophies, they're parts, they're pieces
that I continue using.
And I'm just kind of paying respect to that animal that
helped me live.
KALEB: Ellie, do you know what time it is?
ELOVIE: It's sausage time!
KALEB: All right, that sounds good to me.
ELOVIE: Me too.
KALEB: I think hunting is a rite of passage around here,
and I've been hunting since I was a little kid.
You know what I'm gonna do once I get done grinding this bowl?
I'm gonna make up a patty and cook it and taste it
and see how it is.
And my hope is that in a few years I can take the kids on
these bear hunts.
ELOVIE: That's pretty.
NATHAN: Just put it all kind of in the middle right here.
We'll figure out, what's gonna go where.
I'm feeling pretty great that the greenhouse is finished.
So, corn, celery, dill and tomatoes.
SAMANTHA: Okay.
NATHAN: I think that sounds good.
All of which are pretty long seasoned vegetables.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
NATHAN: That kind of brings a little bit more urgency to this.
So, we just want to get it done.
We want to get the plants in the ground in hopes of being
able to harvest something later this summer.
SONTA: At least we got something.
CHEVIE: I know.
SONTA: It's like I'm just happy with at least two,
because that's all you need just to have the taste of
whitefish in the spring.
CHEVIE: Yeah.
Yeah, we'd like to get 40 or 50 fish and hit the run right on
and be perfect but life's not always like that.
Sometimes you get a small paycheck.
SONTA: Oh, I heard it just sizzle when you turned it over.
CHEVIE: Oh.
SONTA: Just that sound, you know?
CHEVIE: Oh. SONTA: Pshhhhh.
JOHNNY: Yeah, it doesn't look store bought.
Thank God it doesn't.
Any piece of store-bought clothing that I've put on,
will never make me feel the way this will make me feel.
Because I have a, a connection to this.
There we go, that's it right there.
Feels nice, feels good, man, this is cool.
This will feel better than anything I've ever bought in the store.
Yeah, I like it.
What do you think Java?
You impressed or you unimpressed?
Which one are you? Are you impressed?
You just want me to make you one now, don't you?
ELOVIE: Can I smell?
KALEB: Oh, it smells so good.
ELOVIE: Uh-hmm.
SONTA: Every meal tastes better over the fire.
CHEVIE: Always.
SONTA: And this is really a tradition to have
whitefish this way.
When you're in college or when you're away from home,
you'll come back to the Innoko River,
and this will be one of the things that you crave.
EMERY: Hey, give me.
SONTA: You'll crave that spring whitefish.
Chevie and I always are talking to our kids about why
it is we live this lifestyle and why they're unique,
having grown up in this lifestyle, and we want them to
celebrate who they are and understand that this is
what makes them Deg Hit'an Athabaskan, just like me.
And what makes them from this land.
NATHAN: Watch, okay?
I stick my hands, and my fingers kind of around the plant.
Turn it upside down to support it and push on the bottom and
it comes out like that.
SAMANTHA: There you go.
Use both hands to turn it over.
I'm so proud of my little gardeners.
NATHAN: It's looking good so far.
SAMANTHA: Yeah, plenty of room.
NATHAN: We can readjust as we're planting.
SAMANTHA: There's something so special about having that
intimate relationship with your food.
SONTA: Hmm.
CHEVIE: First whitefish.
KALEB: Oh, that's good. ELOVIE: Ahh.
KALEB: What do you think?
ELOVIE: Hmm. KALEB: Amazing huh?
SAMANTHA: And I think that's especially important for kids
to know exactly where their food comes from and
what goes into growing it.
I think there is something just spectacular about that.
(chatter)
SONTA: Hmm, uh-hmm.
Whether you catch one fish or two fish or 60, it's all about
the memories and the good times we had together.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.