[grinding]
JOHNNY: Ooh, yeah, that's sharp.
A safe axe is a sharp axe.
You ready?
Knowing how to make stuff is important when you live this
far away from society.
JOHNNY: There's one hunting tool that I think all hunters
should know how to use and I think that's a bow and arrow.
And I'm gonna make a bow and arrow from what I have laying
around my camp.
This log right here I'm gonna turn into the riser,
which is the handle part.
Gotta cut it down a little bit 'cause it's
way too big and cumbersome.
So, this will be essentially a takedown recurve bow.
I've never made a bow before.
But if something was to happen where I lost a gun or
I ran out of ammunition, when times call for it,
you gotta know how to make hunting tools because out here
there's nothing but me to fend for myself.
I hope this log works.
I can see that the grain's pretty twisted.
It's almost a 30-degree twist.
That's not necessarily what I'm looking for,
but I'm gonna take some more bark off and
see what's going on with it.
It's important to see what you can make with your
hands from what's around you from the land.
That's what this experience is all about, being resourceful.
Let's check this guy out.
It doesn't look too bad.
I think it's gonna work.
Went from a log to now, a piece of lumber.
And now I gotta take it from a piece of lumber
to a bow riser, which will have a handle here.
And then I can finish making the bow and arrow.
What the hell are you doing?
Getting cozy?
CHEVIE: Out here we live a subsistence lifestyle.
Trapping, hunting, it's not about money.
It's what the land provides.
CHEVIE: And that's where you get your riches from.
Let's load up and see if we can catch some blackfish.
It's such a nice day.
There's only one fish that you could fish with a trap
in the winter months and that's the blackfish.
And as the sun starts getting higher in the
skies the blackfish holes start opening up.
We need to get out there and catch our supply of
blackfish for the year.
So, we have to share that food with elders and the community.
Sydney, grab me that ice pick.
I'll check this ice first and make sure
it's safe, all right?
Sometimes the ice is rotten around blackfish holes, right?
SYDNEY: Yeah.
CHEVIE: My name's Chevie Roach.
I grew up in Tok, Alaska,
90 miles from the Canadian border.
I first came to Shageluk when I was about 20 years old.
Not only is it a really harsh environment,
but it's a really giving environment too,
but you have to know when to get it.
Those old guys say if you can hit it twice then
you can walk on it.
You kids can come over here but just don't go
past right here, okay?
SYDNEY: Okay.
CHEVIE: Why don't you guys grab a trap.
We built two fish traps, a traditional fish trap
and a new more Western style steel fish trap.
Now you guys, go on your knees,
go in front of me.
Now listen, what we've learned about this ice, right?
Go on your knees.
SYDNEY: Uh-hmm. CHEVIE: Kay, get closer.
Now you guys are old enough, you gotta respect where you're
at but you also gotta be confident, okay?
Go ahead and push it in a little bit.
SONTA: Oh, it's moving down.
Nice.
SYDNEY: Yeah.
CHEVIE: Let's get this one in the water.
SONTA: There's not many people in our communities,
our surrounding communities that continue to make
traditional fish traps.
Okay, guys, this is really exciting,
this is the first time we've had a fish trap like this
traditionally made for blackfish in many
years from our area,
so I'm really excited you guys are here to see this
and we'll see what we catch.
I'm Sonta Hamilton Roach.
I'm Deg Hit'an Athabaskan.
My husband and I have three kids and one on the way.
I grew up in Shageluk.
Living out here, it's a responsibility to who I am as
a Deg Hit'an person.
It's a responsibility to our kids.
Let's put it in.
But it's also a responsibility that our ancestors gave us.
Woo-hoo you're under the ice, that's good.
We'll see what we catch.
CHEVIE: See if we get lucky.
All right, let's just let those traps sit and
do what they do.
They're gonna produce for us while we're at home
sleeping in our beds, that's pretty cool.
That's what traps do.
SONTA: Cool, this is exciting guys.
ALEX: Since I moved here to Deadman Lake.
The cold is the most dangerous thing I'm facing.
Mother Nature always pushes me.
The lessons she gives me always make me better, you know.
Okay, so this one might be rotten, but, uh...
Oh, it might be good.
ALEX: Okay, that's pretty good.
Cutting dry wood with an axe is a little bit slower.
I may use a saw to finish here.
Since I moved here, I've been in the emergency zone with
firewood the whole time.
It's been pretty extreme; the coldest winter I've had
here in Alaska.
If I'm gonna survive next winter, like,
I have to get this wood now otherwise I'm
just not gonna have wood.
So, what I gotta do is cut down trees,
go ahead and split them up and then they need to
dry all summer.
There we go.
By the time that next winter comes around...
Whoa!
That will be the best quality firewood you can
get in Alaska.
But now is the time I just gotta work.
[chopping]
The first time I did any work I was 16 years old.
My dad made me mow the lawn and it was like the most
challenging thing of my life.
With a gas-powered push mower,
it was so hard for me 'cause all I did before that
was play video games.
Oof!
So, I want this real big one here.
It's got a split in the middle because it's growing
into two trees.
I think this tree kinda grew too big for his own britches.
I think he's in great pain so I'm gonna put him
out of his misery.
Pretty much any way I try to make that tree fall,
it's gonna hang up on another one.
So, I'm cutting down some other trees first.
I got this one out of the way.
Now I can get that one,
pull it towards the one I just cut down.
I gotta make sure I'm not gonna hit any other
ones with it too.
So, it's kinda like I'm doing a puzzle here.
Playing Mother Nature's video game.
And that's kind of the big boss I'm working towards.
That could be half my winter firewood right there.
I think it's about to go.
Perfect.
Now big boss tree should be able to come clean right
to me here.
It's got a nice clear fall path.
I'm set up to cut that big tree down.
It's just been kinda tough.
Do I wanna live the same way next winter as
I did this winter?
Nah, I wanna do a little bit better.
Nature always compels me to do that.
It's cracking a little bit.
Oh, it's going.
Oof!
Well, that's, that's probably the biggest birch tree
I've ever cut down.
This was the fun part, now I got a mountain of
work ahead of me.
CHRIS: Everything's just kinda held together with
luck and hard work.
Hope for the best.
If only there was a book written on how to build
[bleep] without [bleep].
'Cause that's what we do out here.
JESSI: I love the bathhouse, but last night with that wind.
It was kinda like "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" meets
like, Treehouse of Horrors.
CHRIS: Yeah. No kidding.
JESSI: I was like going with the trees and creaking and I
was just sure that whole thing was gonna end up in the river.
It's, I think it's time to rebuild the bathhouse.
CHRIS: Yeah, this is what worries me the most.
Just look underneath.
You can see all the band-aids I scabbed in there.
JESSI: That's what's holding this thing up.
As soon as that ice thaws out and spring comes and it rains,
that's all gonna wash away.
This thing here, look at this space.
That's far past band-aiding.
We've been band-aiding this thing for five or six years.
CHRIS: I've been worrying about this bathhouse for over
a year now.
Every time I'm in this bathhouse I feel
like that's it.
We just gotta tear it down before someone gets hurt.
Well, let's start taking it apart and see where we end up.
JESSI: Where things fall down. CHRIS: What was I doing here?
JESSI: When Chris and I built this bathhouse we
were so stoked.
Start taking this apart.
It became like a real spa, a real treat to have.
It was a total turning point for Chris and I
out at the Cosna.
Showering outside at 40 below,
it's just not an option.
You've got to have an area that you can keep
warm to bathe out here.
Yeah. Kay.
But it's way past repair.
CHRIS: Come pick up right there.
JESSI: Both of us? In the bathhouse?
CHRIS: Yeah, just push up like right there and see if
I can get this out.
There it goes.
JESSI: Woo! Here we go.
Okay.
CHRIS: I'll hand it to you out here.
Okay.
JESSI: Nice. One full window.
Definitely reusing these.
A lot of the stuff that we use out here I would've thought were
absolute trash, but there's no wasting anything out here.
The meaning of trash is totally different.
It's just all inventory.
All right, it's free.
We're gonna reuse all the glass 'cause that is a
precious commodity all the way out here.
CHRIS: That thing got stuck on this piece of wood.
Yeah.
JESSI: Ooh, load bearing.
I have a feeling that's gonna come toppling down.
CHRIS: It might. Hammer. Please.
JESSI: Got you.
Careful, love. Okay.
Almost come down.
Right and...
CHRIS: Like that. JESSI: Very nice.
CHRIS: Oh, hi, Toze.
All right.
JESSI: Let's try to take off and be as easy as we can on
what's remaining on the floor.
CHRIS: Okay.
JESSI: Like to use as much as we can from the old bathhouse
just 'cause I loved it so much.
You know, everything out here has got its own character.
Having our bathhouse made with all of these reused materials,
these are all wonderful gifts from the past.
CHRIS: Ooh! Look at this, Jess.
Go ahead and pull this out.
JESSI: Ooh.
CHRIS: With like two fingers.
That was nothing.
JESSI: Aw, that was nothing.
Look at that.
CHRIS: We were moments away from going down.
JESSI: Yeah, I mean, that's pretty bad.
Next step will be building a new bathhouse, right?
JOHNNY: This isn't town life where everything's
set up for you.
Everything out here wants you to fail.
It's natural selection.
You just gotta find your way.
You gotta navigate through it all and figure out your place.
JOHNNY: I have the block of wood that I manufactured from
a log and now it's time to carve this into the
handle of the bow, better known as a riser.
It's kind of a long process of just shaping, manipulating,
sawing, chipping,
but eventually it will take, take its shape and
take its form.
This is the riser of the bow that I'm making,
and I just got done carving out the handle which
is right here.
I got a little window that I can see so when I pull the
string back, I can see what I'm shooting at.
The next thing I gotta do here is strap some limbs on it.
That's where these come in.
I'm gonna use these old, useless cross-country skis
that were given to me.
I knew I could make something with them out here.
This is how old these are, they're made in Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia is not even a country.
These skis you know, they could be sitting in a landfill
just rotting but there's no use in that.
So, to take them and repurpose them and give them new life?
To me these are Alaskan attributes.
Just having the skills and the knowledge to make hunting
tools I think is important to have in my back pocket should
something go wrong.
I think it's done.
Oh yeah.
It's pretty sweet.
Yup, I'm gonna wrap this up for today and tomorrow I'm
gonna come back out, put a string across here,
make a couple of arrows and fling some of 'em.
Hopefully it will shoot good.
Java are you gonna help me carry these tools inside?
Don't give me those eyes.
What's wrong with you?
SONTA: Here in Shageluk, we're a very remote community.
It's the last Deg Hit'an village on the Innoko River.
The only way to access Shageluk is really by air,
by boat, or by snow machine in the winter.
CHEVIE: I think we made the right call not
bringing the kids.
SONTA: How is it?
CHEVIE: It's a little soft, but just wanna make sure it
doesn't open up by that hole there.
It's really warm.
SONTA: It definitely is really soft compared to just
yesterday even.
CHEVIE: Yup. Come on.
Fish trap.
I know there's a lot of people waiting for some blackfish.
So, people been asking, so we gotta keep on fishing,
I guess.
To survive out here in the winter months we have to catch blackfish,
and as a hunter and gatherer it's part of
your responsibility to give to those that don't
hunt or gather.
The more you give the more you'll get back.
You want me to shovel that out or are you, are you.
SONTA: Yeah, maybe.
CHEVIE: Okay.
SOTNA: I'm just a little leery about going so close.
CHEVIE: All right.
SONTA: You don't want your pregnant wife down,
getting all soaking wet.
CHEVIE: Yeah. No.
Okay.
SONTA: Let's see.
Not a thing!
CHEVIE: Not a damn thing. Maybe this is a bad spot.
SONTA: Let's go check yours out now...
CHEVIE: Let's see what happens.
SONTA: Just to see what happens with yours.
Exciting, let's see.
A lot of elders are waiting to see what we got.
SONTA: Action Jackson? CHEVIE: I don't think so.
SONTA: Oh, really?
You got some of them beetles again.
CHEVIE: Totally skunked,
I don't see one little blackfish...
SONTA: You're skunked on both sides today.
Them beetles are moving around though.
CHEVIE: You could eat those, too, in a pinch.
SONTA: Yeah, throw 'em in the deep fryer.
CHEVIE: Couldn't convince me to eat 'em.
SONTA: I would.
CHEVIE: Yeah, my ass. SONTA: I would!
CHEVIE: Let's find another place to fish.
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: We've caught fish here in the past,
we found this place again.
We're gonna try to get everybody enough blackfish.
What's going on with that trap?
SONTA: It looks pretty loose. CHEVIE: It is, yeah.
SONTA: Yeah. Need to tighten it up.
I wonder if we could just, if this rope will be any good for
a temporary fix to just close it up a bit.
Subsistence is a way of life for native people here.
It might be kind of difficult, you know the weather
conditions are bad and it's not comfortable.
But after a while you see that your hard work pays off.
CHEVIE: I think that's pretty good, don't you?
SONTA: Yeah.
CHEVIE: Blackfish tomorrow. SONTA: Blackfish nation.
ALEX: You know sometimes life here is so hard that you just
want to move somewhere else.
But uh, it's definitely never boring.
You know 'cause I can't say I,
I've never had a boring winter here.
Gotta be careful.
Uh, one missed swing with an axe you cut your leg.
And, uh, if I cut my leg bad even a,
even a helicopter might not be enough to save me, so.
ALEX: Now is the real work.
What I gotta do today is process all these trees.
This is a big one.
Okay I think the rest of this we'll just cut off with a saw.
So, the sawing is really monotonous.
A bow saw takes about ten times as long as a chainsaw.
If I did it that way, yeah,
I would get the work done faster but it doesn't create
a need for me to change myself.
By using the manual tools,
I had to learn to be more patient.
Let my body go on auto pilot.
Just let the arm just go and go and go.
Okay, last one here.
Because the work has to get done.
Biggest one.
It's gonna take a while.
Let me see if I can wedge that,
it might just a little bit left and then I can
just break it.
I have to have the firewood, otherwise I'm going to die.
So, I'll find a way to become more patient.
[laughs]
It's a lot more working cutting through this than I'm used to,
but I know it's going to pay off because that's the
best wood you can get here in Alaska is this birch, so.
[sighs]
All right, so just grab all these pieces,
load them on my sled, I can set up a chopping block
station over here and just to get this tree done.
Saw out the next one, split it so they can dry out.
It's thousands and thousands of pounds that I have to move,
you know just one sled load at a time.
If I want to get better wood I gotta do more work.
There's, like, no freebies.
Son of a [bleep].
I gotta make sure that I give myself the best chance
possible for this wood to dry out and be ready for next year.
Whew, all right splitting time.
All-righty.
That's a pretty good start right there.
So, this is, this, this was the big boss tree.
Now it's all firewood.
That's one tree down, I got three to go.
JESSI: Learning stuff out here just by trial and error
is so much more rewarding.
Than learning something in a classroom.
Because this is nature's classroom,
and she's the best teacher there is.
I'm glad you're doing this and I'm not.
JESSI: I'm right here if you need anything.
Whew! Great! Wow, look at that.
CHRIS: Any other ones or is that it?
JESSI: I think that's it.
CHRIS: Okay.
CHRIS: All right. Get to work?
JESSI: Yeah, let's get the roof up.
I wanna get this thing done.
Everything that we have out here is reused or recycled.
Or will be reused and recycled in one way or the other.
I mean, this tin is older than the house is.
CHRIS: Kay, slide it a little bit.
That's some real [bleep].
JESSI: It was probably sent to the Cos Jacket
sometime between 1920 and 1950.
And then, it was repurposed multiple times and it found
its way 50 miles up the Cosna, right here at our homestead.
CHRIS: There it is.
JESSI: Great.
Where'd you learn to cut tin like that, love?
CHRIS: Believe it or not when I was an apprentice
at the state.
JESSI: Good ol' Alaska.
CHRIS: There we go.
How's that fit?
JESSI: Great. CHRIS: Looks great.
JESSI: Okay, so we just need to figure out how to nail that in.
CHRIS: Oh, this isn't sketch at all.
JESSI: Yeah...
Most amount of sketch.
CHRIS: Wow this is a [bleep] spot, huh?
I don't think it's going anywhere.
I don't think it can go anywhere.
Oh, yeah, perfect.
JESSI: Legit?
CHRIS: Eh, I wouldn't use those words.
Kay, go ahead and take the ladder out.
Much better.
JESSI: Ooh.
CHRIS: What's wrong?
JESSI: Just the spot that your, you know, foot's on.
CHRIS: I'm trying to put, get down, too.
JESSI: Okay, great.
Just don't put all of your weight on that top branch.
CHRIS: I'm not.
Watch out!
Kay, well, unfortunately I think I have to get up on this
roof which I'm not super stoked about.
JESSI: Not much holding you up, love.
CHRIS: No [bleep].
Hey, Jess, how's everything look down there?
Is everything moving? I can't see anything,
and I don't like being on this.
But it looks pretty solid?
JESSI: It's looking pretty stout, I think.
CHRIS: Okay, gonna kinda come out on it.
Oh, my God I'm terrified of heights.
[groans].
CHRIS: Okay.
Do you wanna hand me that piece up?
Or, put it in place there, whatever.
Okay.
The name of the game here, displace my weight.
I'm gonna lay down on this, but I want you to come out in
case I die, I don't kill you as well.
JESSI: In case I die you don't come with me.
CHRIS: Yeah.
Tell me if you see anything start to move,
but I'm pretty displaced here.
Awesome.
Got it. Nice.
I'm just gonna chuck my hammer down, watch your head.
JESSI: Where are you?
Okay.
CHRIS: I'm up on top of the roof.
JOHNNY: I take on challenges out here 'cause it keeps my mind occupied,
it keeps my mind safe.
You can't be holed up in your cabin with a book and
a warm fire...
It's unrealistic.
Java, come on.
All right, so the next part for the bow and arrow project
is the arrows.
The fletchings are the feathers,
those are from some ducks that I harvested
earlier in the year.
Wanna cut these down to size.
I'm using willow sticks because they grow straight and
they're lightweight.
I'm gonna skin these arrows and get all the little buds
and stuff that might cause drag when they're flying
through the air, and just try to make them a little bit more
cylindrical and straight.
I think it'd be, you know, a dream come true if I could
make a bow that I could actually hunt with.
I think that'd be amazing.
You know the first deer that I'd ever harvested
was with a bow and arrow.
I'm removing the, the bark off of these,
and the more I remove it the thinner they get.
I'm thinking they're gonna be too thin.
Fool me once, fool me twice.
I'm gonna pivot.
I'm gonna remove these from the table.
I've got some stuff laying around the cabin that could
potentially work so I'm gonna have a peek.
These are both pretty straight.
Cool.
So, when I made hunter skis earlier in the winter,
they were pretty wide, and I cut a chunk off,
and that's what this is.
And I'm gonna start kind of shaping it down,
hopefully getting more of an arrow-like shape,
more cylindrical.
When I was a little kid,
I used to make bows with just a stick.
I would find a curved stick and I would tie rubber bands
for the string.
And try to shoot little sticks, you know,
ten feet or something like that.
I did it all the time as a little kid,
and here I am doing it as an adult.
How cool is that?
Yeah, I think it's gonna fly.
Arrows are complete.
Make some good target practice arrows.
I really want to shoot 'em.
Yeah, I'm excited to shoot these.
I'm excited to try these out.
ALEX: Like if I'm in the city for a little bit.
And then I come back out here, the first thing I notice is
that I'm almost never sitting here.
Pretty much everything I do is exercise.
The wood won't dry at all if it's getting wet all year long, you know?
So, my wood's protected.
Uh, now I'm just gonna grab my axe,
and I'm gonna go get some spruce poles.
So, I've done all this hard work to prepare for next winter.
Now I can focus on my next task.
So, I'm gonna try and make a homemade teepee.
If I'm gonna be, you know, more like a subsistence hunter
what I need to do is be able to travel a lot.
I'm gonna need lots of camps down at different places that
I travel to.
There's one.
So, I might have a fish camp.
I might have a moose hunting camp.
Uh, in order to travel well I want to make sure
I got a good portable shelter to take with me.
[sighs]
Gonna need a couple tools.
Grab my tarp, grab some cord,
and then I'll get this kinda tripod made.
I've never made a teepee,
and so it's good to test it out here at camp
first before I go out into the field with it.
Well, this won't be good enough,
but I'm just gonna kinda, just wanna kinda play with it
and see how it's gonna work.
The whole thing is it should it's something that should be able to,
I can carry it on sleds easily, you know.
Even with this really simple lashing right there I can
probably go ahead and put the canvas on it,
just to kind of get a sense of the size.
I don't wanna be a masochist down here.
I like to work hard.
I like to throw myself into the elements,
but I wanna overcome them and find ways to
be comfortable in them.
So, that's the whole point of doing these preparations.
That's really tiny.
That's like an outhouse.
It's way too small.
Obviously, the teepee's been around forever.
I don't think a teepee's a bad idea,
but just given the materials I have
I don't think it makes sense.
Now I got over 100 pounds of stuff.
And it's not gonna make sense for what I'm actually trying
to accomplish.
So, I'm gonna have to compromise a little bit.
So, I'm just gonna grab a few more tools and, uh,
and then test it out.
CHEVIE: Out here you're just a drop in the bucket compared to
all the natural resources that provide for us.
That allow us to be able to do the things that
we love to do,
because everything we love to do is right
out our front door.
SONTA: This is definitely more the time to do
some blackfish trapping.
Because things are melting and so it's a really good time to
access the good fishing spots.
I'm always interested in being able to put food on the table
in some way and blackfish is a very awesome resource.
We'll see what we get today everybody.
CHEVIE: What do you see? SONTA: Well, I don't know. CHEVIE: How does your net look?
SONTA: Good! At least it survived, I'm happy about that.
Should we check it out?
Oh!
SYDNEY: And nothing.
SONTA: Nothing at all.
So, we probably just have to go a little deeper,
so we should check yours first and see if deeper is better.
CHEVIE: Yeah, we'll see, hopefully I got something.
SYDNEY: Let's see what yours will have.
SONTA: Feel heavy?
CHEVIE: All right, there we go.
SYDNEY: Yes!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
SONTA: Oh, good! Wow! That's what we're looking for.
CHEVIE: That's what we're looking for, right there.
It was a huge success.
All right, it looks like we probably got
50 fish or so, I bet.
And at the end of it, it's always a win.
There's not a failure when you try new productive things;
especially with our kids involved.
SONTA: Sydney, what do you think about fishing
in the wintertime?
SYDNEY: I think it's awesome.
SONTA: Ready to go see grandpa and bring him some fish?
SYDNEY: Yeah!
JESSI: Everywhere you look around the Cosna,
you're surrounded by all of this beauty,
and all of these lines that kind of move around and twist
and turn just like the river itself.
CHRIS: Got this random beam in here to deal with.
Just gonna kinda trace around it a little bit to kind of.
JESSI: Are we gonna put a hole through our wall?
Eh, I'm feeling pretty good about it.
CHRIS: All right.
JESSI: Let's just remember this mess that you did.
This hole.
CHRIS: It's not my fault that beam's out there.
JESSI: Oh my.
Even though we're just building a bathhouse,
this is just how things go.
CHRIS: Where'd you go? JESSI: I'm right here.
You know, we don't know what we're doing.
We're doing kinda trial-and-error out here.
I don't know what else to say, I mean,
maybe it just would be too plain without that hole coming out through the side.
CHRIS: Okay.
JESSI: Okay.
Here I am, worried that we're gonna be too city.
[chuckles]
CHRIS: Beautiful chaos.
JESSI: Check out what I brought home from the
hardware store, love.
CHRIS: Damn, that's a triple-pane, man.
JESSI: Oh, okay.
CHRIS: That's like what goes in a cabin, man.
That's like a, that's a really nice window.
JESSI: It's a really nice bathhouse.
CHRIS: It's not that nice.
JESSI: Oh.
CHRIS: I like that funky thing.
That came out of the old bathhouse.
Put it in here.
That looks like the perfect size.
This one'll mount up.
JESSI: Um, if we can get that, that would be cool.
CHRIS: I can get that in.
JESSI: Awesome.
The bathhouse is coming together.
It has its little eccentricities and just these
little things about it.
Nothing's straight.
CHRIS: What do you think?
JESSI: It's wonderfully eclectic.
CHRIS: Are you using big words because you know I don't know
what it means?
JESSI: Oh, no, I know what those words mean, love.
CHRIS: I don't.
JESSI: Eclectic?
Nothing is perfectly level.
Everything is angled in, kind of, the wrong way,
but that's not what the Cosna has ever been.
We are moments away.
This is perfect.
This will be really great for when it gets cold,
and we need to get a roaring fire in here and have a bathhouse.
JOHNNY: Alaska ignites a lot within my soul.
It gives me an opportunity to live a life free of a lot of
stuff that's weighed me down in my past.
JOHNNY: The string I'm using for this bow is
just micro-paracord.
I don't know if it's gonna work but there's only one way
to find out.
It's what I have laying around the cabin,
and that's what this bow-build is all about.
And the bow's done. It's complete.
Oh, yeah.
So, I'm ready to grab my arrows, grab my target,
head down to the lake and start flinging some arrows
at that target.
I take on challenges out here 'cause it keeps my mind busy.
You know, it keeps my mind safe.
'Cause that's how you have to live out here.
The lifestyle is getting out there.
It's just about challenging yourself,
seeing what rejects you and what doesn't.
I'm just setting up the target.
It's pretty windy out here right now,
probably not the best day to be using a bow and arrow for
the first time but I'm pretty excited to try it out,
so I'm just gonna go with it.
Try this bad boy out.
It's been a lot of work making this thing.
I spent endless hours carving out this handle,
cutting up these old skis, and I'm ready to start
shooting some arrows.
I hope it's gonna shoot good.
♪ ♪
JOHNNY: All right, it's not a bullseye, but that's a target hit.
I'll take it.
Let's try another one.
Woo-hoo!
It's a cool feeling to string up that arrow,
pull it back,
and just kinda feel that arrow sliding along my finger.
It's awesome.
It's really cool, a really good feeling to know that I
can construct a bow from just what I have laying
around my camp.
You ready? Come on. Let's go.
SONTA: A really important part that we do in our culture
is giving that food away.
We bring that to elders in the community and their
grandparents who are really thankful for it.
GRANDPA HAMILTON: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the fish.
Some were way bigger?
SONTA: Oh, wow.
RYDER: Okay, I'm cold.
GRANDPA HAMILTON: Looks good, thank you, thank you.
SYDNEY: Welcome.
SONTA: It's really great to see the kids interact with
their grandpa and see the joy on their grandpa's face
when they brought it to him.
And so that generational exchange is always really
exciting to see.
Say goodnight, Grandpa.
SYDNEY: Goodnight, Grandpa.
GRANDPA HAMILTON: Okay, goodnight. Thank you.
SONTA: Thank you.
Are you guys excited to try some blackfish?
KID: Yes. SYDNEY: Yeah.
SONTA: This is really a delicacy that those elders
love to have.
So, let's see what happens, huh?
CHEVIE: It's always cool to know where your food came from
and how you got it.
Instead of pulling it out of a plastic wrapper.
The steel trap ended up catching a lot more fish,
but we learned a lot more about that traditional trap
than we did the steel trap so.
SONTA: Yeah, for sure.
CHEVIE: We're gonna be able to, uh,
make it better the next time.
SONTA: Looking good. They're ready to eat.
Self-sufficiency and hard work is one of the values of
Athabascan people and to see that knowledge passed down,
it's really important.
CHEVIE: I expect all of that blackfish to be gone,
just like that hot chocolate.
SONTA: Out here, building, hunting,
nothing is really seen as a failure but an opportunity to improve.
JESSI: Check it out. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Yeah. Totally doable.
All right, ready?
CHRIS: Uh-hmm. JESSI: From here. CHRIS: Yep.
JESSI: Over to here, right?
CHRIS: Yep. I'll get it cut out.
Our first time we had this was like utilitarian.
We needed it done.
We needed to have a shower, but now having a bathhouse is
almost like our symbol of our livelihood out here.
It's pretty cool.
It's like a jack-o-lantern.
JESSI: It is.
CHRIS: That you worked on one side,
and I worked on the other.
JESSI: I think it's looking great.
CHRIS: When I was a young man,
I wanted to have a really good job,
a wife, and kids, do the normal American thing.
That seemed really important to me,
and the more time I spend with Jessi and the more time
we spend out at the Cosna, I'm starting to realize that
there's a lot more to life, and that's just living.
JESSI: Christopher.
ALEX: That's what it's all about.
Just living.
So, I got a few kinda things here.
In order to do a proper teepee,
I'll need some materials that I just don't have here.
These heavy tarps aren't gonna work.
So, I was just hit with an inspiration,
I'll do an A-frame.
So, I think I can do this with just one tarp,
and then just a few ropes.
The big thing about Alaska is you're always getting
ready for the future.
I mean that's why I admire the indigenous people
who lived here before European settlers.
I don't think there's any other people in the world who
had to think so far ahead in time, you know?
A lot of times, if we're talking about being prepared,
you know, it just means,
"Oh I gotta prepare for that meeting next week or
something like that, right?"
But here you, you have to think, you know,
an entire year in advance sometimes and if you don't...
you can actually get yourself into a dire
almost unescapable situation.
ALEX: And, uh, it's just something I'll have to keep at,
you know, from year-to-year.
So that's a simple shelter, but what I like about it is
all you gotta do is take this tarp and this rope and,
and that's it.
You know, there's no guarantees.
Oh, yeah.
But, you know, if I wanted things where
there's a guaranteed outcome,
I'd just stay home and play video games, right?
Captioned by Cotter Media Group