♪ ♪
TIG: We're kind of halfway through
our moose hunting season.
We don't have a lot of time left,
but I've neglected all the teaching of my daughters
for so many years trying to teach my two sons,
but my daughters, they know it's their time to step up.
♪ ♪
Alright, you girls ready?
HAZEL: Yeah.
♪ ♪
TIG: I don't go to church.
I go out into the woods.
♪ ♪
Being within four walls
doesn't make me no closer to God or our ancestors
as I would be out here in the woods.
♪ ♪
When we are out here as Native people,
we don't leave a very big mark on the land.
(gunshot)
We're not trying to control nature,
we're not trying to change anything, you know.
We're just trying to live in sync with nature out here.
♪ ♪
When we're dead and gone, you can barely tell
that we were there before, and that's how we want to keep it.
♪ ♪
There's the big lump.
Big, fat belly.
This guy got real big horns.
We're gonna be moose hunting.
My little girls, they're gonna be the gunners for me this year.
And you shoot him right there, right behind the ear.
If not, you shoot him right here, right in the heart.
No.
These girls, they're, they're really toughening up this year.
I'm gonna start showing my daughters
how to help out feeding the family.
Put your pinky in there.
Feel any bullet? HAZEL: Yep.
TIG: Clear it.
Alright, there's no bullet in there.
You believe me?
You're not supposed to believe me, you got to check yourself.
♪ ♪
(click)
(gunshot)
LOUISE: Whoa!
Holy cow!
TIG: You shot him in the nose.
(Hazel laughs)
That's pretty close.
The moose is gonna be 50 times bigger than that target, so.
That's pretty darn close. That's a good shot.
HAZEL: It did hurt my arm. It made my arm, like, sore.
LOUISE: Growing up, I was always told, don't touch a gun,
don't play with it, it's not to play with.
You're not allowed to step over it.
Nothing, it's all hutlaanee, and so...
(gunshot)
...Steven showed me how to properly use a gun
and gave me one,
and I've been using it ever since.
I'm glad the girls get to experience that, too.
♪ ♪
(imitating moose call)
(bellowing)
♪ ♪
(bellowing)
♪ ♪
TIG: It's a big lake.
I guarantee you there's moose around here.
♪ ♪
JODY: It's always been important for me to come home
to my indigenous lands.
This place, the Yukon, the mountains,
my ancestors always bring me back here.
Back downriver.
♪ ♪
Babe, so the eddy is right...
JODY: Yeah.
Our family just moved to my ancestral lands,
to Eagle Village, Alaska.
And we're headed out to set this net
in the eddy my grandpa used his whole life.
♪ ♪
So, I'm just gonna tie off
to a bunch of those willows down here, huh?
They're solid.
In the summer, we are normally busy
processing salmon that we catch.
It's always a lot of fish, but times have changed.
We do have a whitefish net,
which is legal to fish with right now.
Just hoping that we're able to get a few whitefish,
you know, have some fresh food.
A lot of people on the Yukon River right now
are just heartbroken.
We don't have our normal purpose.
Babe, see, there's already a driftwood.
JAMEY: Let's get that log out right there, look, see it?
JODY: Yep, it's coming right for.
I'm about to catch that log.
♪ ♪
There, problem solved.
Our net looks good, it's set really nicely.
Let's see if we can catch some luck.
JAMEY: Think positive.
(laughs)
Think positive, alright?
MARVIN: When you're out in the water, you see the wildlife.
You can hear the birds.
You start looking forward to subsisting
and all the good things that come with it.
♪ ♪
We'll find something good today, I hope.
LINDA: Yeah, we should.
I'm always looking for the big one.
MARVIN: It's there, we're gonna get one.
LINDA: Yes.
MARVIN: Today we're gonna go halibut jig.
Summer's upon us, and we got three months
to catch as much fish as we can.
Nice, calm water.
Taking my sister Linda, her daughter Marcella,
and Jazmine, who is Marcella's daughter.
MARCELLA: Three generations of fisherwomen.
MARVIN: You guys excited?
LINDA: Oh, I'm really excited.
This is what I do every summer is go out halibut fishing.
(chuckles)
When I started halibut fishing, I got addicted really quick.
My oldest son, he can tell you
how miserable I made his summers.
(laughs)
I'm still waiting for the 150-pounder at least.
I'm still waiting for that size.
MARCELLA: Coming up on the buoy.
MARVIN: I feel very excited and happy to be doing things
together with the family.
We're secured.
I'll get you guys set up.
You can fish this one piece of bait all day.
LINDA: Take it down to the bottom bait,
and then pull it back up a couple feet.
My brother Marvin,
he is energetic and outgoing.
MARVIN: Well, there you go.
You got one in the water.
LINDA: My mom babied him.
That was her only son,
so he was not our favorite, our favorite sibling.
(laughs)
This is the spot.
MARVIN: Yeah, this is fun.
If we catch one, it's more fun.
It's all a matter of patience.
Nothing exciting yet?
LINDA: Don't feel nothing yet.
MARVIN: Don't feel nothing yet, either.
Just a waiting game here for halibut to come
and whatever we get down there,
there's plenty of good bait down there
for whatever critters in the bottom to want to gnaw.
(laughs)
The reward is great come wintertime when you want fish,
you got it in your freezer, and it's priceless.
Come on, fishy fishy.
(women laugh)
TIG: Everything that I've been taught,
I want to be able to pass it down to my children.
I'm just a stepping stone for culture and tradition.
I don't want none of this to ever end on me.
♪ ♪
Hazel, come grab this extra ammo for your pocket.
LOUISE: You're gonna be carrying a gun.
TIG: Right here, Hazel.
This is the first year
that Hazel's having to pack around a rifle.
Come on, my girls.
The girls, I've seen a lot of change in them.
They're taking this more serious.
They're learning to be a lot more quiet, you know,
we need dead silence when we're sitting there
trying to listen for these mooses.
Dosennaughten Lake.
If you guys hear a moose, you're just gonna barely hear it.
This is the time of the year moose make all their babies.
(bellowing)
TIG: Perfect, perfect. Good job.
I'll show you a bull moose now.
(grunting)
Try, Sophie.
(grunting)
TIG: A little bull.
Little itty bitty horns, that's all you got.
You don't want to be a big bull.
(grunting)
♪ ♪
(grunting)
SOPHIE: Dad, I'll... TIG: Shh, shh, shh.
♪ ♪
(distant moose call)
♪ ♪
(imitates cow moose call)
♪ ♪
(imitates bull moose call)
♪ ♪
HAZEL: My dad checked the wind,
and it was blowing towards the moose.
It probably caught the scent, uh, he said it ran away.
TIG: You guys get a little excitement
hearing the moose, huh?
HAZEL: Yeah.
TIG: You girls get excited?
SOPHIE: Yeah. HAZEL: Yeah.
TIG: We'll try again, this is just day one of a long season.
DANIEL: It's a joy to see your kids and family members
try to follow along in our footsteps.
The only way to keep our generations going, I guess.
♪ ♪
DANIELLE: Oh, wow, they have the real word on there.
DANIEL: Uh-huh.
DANIELLE: Qavalghak.
Where's your favorite hunting spot?
DANIEL: My favorite hunting spot used to be way over here.
I'm gonna take my daughter out hunting today.
Can't believe that my daughter's interested in hunting.
Not too many women hunt in the village.
We can go to our camp first, check it out, see how it is.
DANIELLE: If I go hunting by myself, what do I need to do?
DANIEL: You got to have a seal hook, knife.
Check shot your rifle, too.
DANIELLE: Don't you guys put the whole seal on the Honda?
DANIEL: Mm-hmm.
Sometimes you can cut it up if it's too big.
DANIELLE: But I don't know how to butcher yet.
Not many people take out their daughters.
My dad sees me as an equal and is willing to teach me
how to hunt and provide for the family.
Should I clean this, too?
DANIEL: If you want. You got to lift it a little bit.
Yeah, right there, and pull it out.
It's gonna be a little bit stiff.
DANIELLE: Because it's rusty.
DANIEL: Eskimo camouflage.
As long as you keep the barrel clean and your action clean,
you'll have a real good rifle.
One of these days, yeah, you know,
she might be our provider.
DANIELLE: Front?
DANIEL: Go ahead and strap it up.
Go ahead and tie down that old rig rope.
DANIELLE: I would really like to catch my first seal on land
with my dad.
I think that would be really awesome.
(Daniel grunts)
Can I drive?
DANIEL: Huh?
DANIELLE: Can I drive?
DANIEL: Really?
(Danielle laughs)
I guess you can.
(Danielle chuckles)
♪ ♪
(engine starts)
♪ ♪
I've been bringing out my boys
out hunting all the time, you know.
I have a real good bond with them out there.
You know, my daughter's now going out hunting with us.
Makes me happy inside
that she wants to experience the same thing.
DANIELLE: Aye.
My dad, he loves teaching and he loves to hunt,
and he still dresses me up like an Oompa Loompa out there.
(laughs)
Hopefully, I can catch one with him out there.
Come on, seals!
(Daniel laughs)
JODY: There's so many people up and down the Yukon River
grieving the loss of the salmon.
It's like grieving the loss of our relatives.
♪ ♪
JAMEY: A lot more drift again.
JODY: Holy (bleep).
We just got a lot of driftwood.
So, hopefully there'll be a fish in here somewhere.
I wonder if I toss this over there, should I try it?
JAMEY: Uh, go ahead, try it.
JODY: It's heavy, but.
We'll see where it goes, probably right back into my net.
Actually, I don't know if I've ever
tipped in a canoe on accident.
JAMEY: Not yet.
JODY: Not yet. (laughs)
JAMEY: No fish.
JODY: No fish.
Oof.
There's that stump.
JODY: Yeah.
We've got a lot of drift,
including one piece of huge, heavy drift
that it's so heavy I just feel like
we're gonna flip the canoe.
JAMEY: I mean, I could pick the anchor,
drag it all the way to shore and yank it out like that,
but we'll probably end up tearing the net.
JODY: Yeah.
JAMEY: We're just gonna have to get Ben and his boat.
That's just too much weight.
JODY: Hi, Unc!
BEN: Hey!
JODY: Uncle Ben and Denali, we found them.
Uncle Ben is an elder here in Eagle.
So we're gonna go get that stump out with this boat.
Working together as a family is really important,
especially when it comes time to getting things done.
♪ ♪
The water's not normally this high this time of year,
I think that's climate change.
This is like springtime high.
Need your help, Denali.
JAMEY: See if you can grab the log,
or just undo it if you can. Pick the whole thing up.
Just try to get it off and let it spin out.
Oh, yeah.
JODY: No, no, let's get it in.
Holy (bleep).
JAMEY: Babe, you're standing on the net.
JODY: What do I do with the log?
JAMEY: Just drop it, I guess.
♪ ♪
JODY: Well, it's not tangled, so, hopefully more fish.
Check it tomorrow.
♪ ♪
JAMEY: Holy moly, look at all this drift.
A beaver dam here.
JODY: Take me over there, mister.
♪ ♪
Oh, I got a fish!
JAMEY: Hey, I caught a root.
JODY: Cool, we got a whitefish. Look, babe.
♪ ♪
That's it.
It's a beautiful day. Got one fish.
JAMEY: Hey, we got one, look at that.
A live one. We got a live one.
JODY: I hope it's caught well.
Oh, yeah, it is.
♪ ♪
So, two fish now.
JAMEY: One for you and one for me.
JODY: Pot of rice and garden greens.
It'll be a meal fit for a Han-Athabaskan.
MARVIN: Watching and learning carries quite a bit out here.
The elders have knowledge,
but we have to be wide open to learning.
♪ ♪
Anything?
LINDA: Nah.
MARVIN: Not even a cod?
LINDA: Mm-mm. Not even a bullhead.
Our goal is to get fish. (chuckles)
We need fish in the freezer,
and that lasts all winter long.
♪ ♪
MARVIN: Pretty quiet?
LINDA: Yep. Let's go try move now.
MARVIN: We got a perfect, we got the incoming tide.
LINDA: Yep.
MARVIN: Fish are moving.
We used to get some very big halibut,
and 320-some-pounders...
Well, they're down there waiting for us.
We got hope.
(women chuckle)
(motor starts)
♪ ♪
You guys ready?
MARCELLA: Yeah, we are ready.
LINDA: Okay.
♪ ♪
MARVIN: I don't see halibut around very much anymore.
♪ ♪
You know, the average size I see is maybe 25 to 40 pounds.
Back when I was still young, we had some very big halibut,
you know, there was no problem catching them.
JAZMINE: Holy cow, it's kind of deep over here.
MARVIN: It is.
Yeah, it is deeper here.
A handline is, uh, you know, just a spool of mending twine,
and we use that because, uh, you got more control
because of the less movement of the fishing pole,
and 'cause it's quicker and easier to pull up
and you're not fighting so much.
LINDA: Oh, jeez. MARVIN: That's the sign.
LINDA: Yeah, there you go.
Oh, oh. Careful. Yeah.
MARVIN: Something exciting, I hope.
♪ ♪
MARCELLA: There it is.
MARVIN: Some people eat it, but we don't.
You don't go out and take what you don't need.
Come on, fishy fishy.
To be successful, fishing requires a lot of patience.
You know, sometimes it takes a little longer,
but it's gonna come.
♪ ♪
Yeah!
MARCELLA: It's a fighter.
MARVIN: Woo!
Is it winding in?
LINDA: Mm-hmm. MARVIN: Okay.
You see it? LINDA: Yeah. Oh.
MARVIN: Just keep tension on it all the time,
otherwise it'll come right out.
Got a good grip on it?
LINDA: Oh, my goodness.
MARVIN: Oh, it's a halibut. Hold it, hold it right there.
LINDA: Oh, careful.
MARCELLA: Get away, Jazz.
(Linda sighs)
MARVIN: Yeah.
That's what we set up to do.
LINDA: I love the adrenaline rush
when you feel that halibut pulling on your line.
I haven't pulled one up on a pole,
pole like this in a long time.
Oh, my gosh, you just get all excited.
That put up a good fight.
MARVIN: Well, we know your pole works.
LINDA: Yup. (laughs)
MARVIN: Linda, my sister, she's always a happy person.
Oh, I got one, I got one.
LINDA: Oh, good.
MARVIN: And to be a part of doing what she loves to do
helps me find happiness that is still out there.
Yeah!
We got one right there!
MARCELLA: Good one, Marv.
MARVIN: You respect what you get and eat and try not to waste it
because of how hard it is to get.
Yeah! I think we can just close up our operation here.
MARCELLA: Wee-hoo. MARVIN: Yeah.
JODY: There's all kinds of things that the land provides.
We have to be ready for whatever the land decides to offer you.
♪ ♪
We're looking for poles we could use for our wall tent.
JAMEY: We have a whole selection right here.
You just go through and usually pick out seven or eight poles.
JODY: Babe, look.
What? No?
JAMEY: No.
JODY: In order to get re-established here in Eagle,
we're setting up a wall tent on our family's land.
So here we are at the wood pile at the point of this island.
The upriver point of an island
usually has big piles of driftwood.
Whoa, ah, ah.
Ah, no. Whoa!
These poles in the drift pile are already pretty smooth.
No branches, but also they're dead and dry,
so we don't have to worry about sap getting all over our tent.
It's looking pretty good.
JAMEY: Now I got to make a raft.
My god.
Well, we'll see.
JODY: I grew up right on the banks of the Yukon River.
It was just a small, little, humble log cabin.
It was just the best childhood ever.
JAMEY: Okay.
And we're, and we're ready.
JODY: So, in 2009, there was a massive flood on the Yukon River
during spring breakup.
The flood and ice took all of our beautiful trees,
all of our buildings, our house,
and everything that we had built up over the years.
Here, I'll bring the canoe out.
Setting up this wall tent is really important,
so we can get started on re-establishing ourselves
on our family's land.
JAMEY: Yeah, yeah, it's floating.
JODY: Feels really good to have Jamey here
on my traditional lands with me.
I'm just super happy and thankful.
The fam is here.
Hi, Q. Hi, Poops.
You guys, these are the poles we cut today.
I guess let's just unload, so we can...
Oh!
You guys, I grew up swimming in that creek,
but it's so icy cold 'cause it's all snowmelt.
I would just like jump in and then immediately jump back out
and try to get warm.
(dogs barking)
Welcome home.
(barking)
JAMEY: Get to work.
(squawk)
TIG: I like hearing ravens around when I'm hunting.
Lets me know that the game is out there.
(Tig and Sophie speaking Denaakk'e language)
That's how you pray to the raven.
Great-great-grandma Alda taught me.
I told her, Grandma, I have bad luck,
I can't get moose.
She told me, "Pray to the raven then."
And so I prayed to the raven, and I got a moose after that.
(imitating moose call)
LOUISE: I feel really good about my girls' future.
10, 15 years from now, they're gonna have their own families,
and they're gonna be bringing their kids out and showing them
different lands, landmarks, hills, and creek.
♪ ♪
(bellowing)
(grunting)
♪ ♪
(imitates moose call)
♪ ♪
(scraping)
♪ ♪
(grunts)
♪ ♪
(grunting)
(scraping)
♪ ♪
(bellowing)
♪ ♪
(grunting)
♪ ♪
TIG: Trying, I'm trying, I'm trying
to get this bull to walk towards us.
It's not an everyday opportunity out here to shoot a moose.
It'll feed a lot of people.
Most of times when I call out moose like this,
they'll come directly to the call.
So, I'm not sure if he seen us.
Maybe he spotted us up here on this little hill.
TIG: He must keep his cow in that back lake back there.
He's just pushing us away maybe.
Don't even want to fight.
TIG: Yeah, 'cause he's coming in close
but doesn't want to fight.
Just like he's protecting his cow.
You definitely need a lot of patience
to be successful in this country.
You think we should come back to this lake?
SOPHIE: Yeah. HAZEL: Yeah.
TIG: Seems pretty promising.
Oh, yeah.
JODY: Things change, but you always have home
to come back to.
This river will always be here.
These mountains will always be here.
♪ ♪
JAMEY: You guys can let that back down towards me
so I can tie it.
About right there, huh?
JODY: Looking like it's gonna be a good home
on the banks of the Yukon River.
Alright. Come here, Poopers.
Feel like we have a good start here.
JAMEY: Push it up.
Looks good.
JODY: Yeah.
I had a really good childhood here.
We had a really nice, comfortable home.
You know, we fished every summer
and had our smokehouse right on the river here.
It was always full of fish.
Nuh!
Little nuisances.
JAMEY: That's it.
Prettiest I ever saw.
♪ ♪
Jody has a lot of fond childhood memories of this area.
JODY: We have a lot of work to do.
This is just the beginning of Jamey and I
getting re-established here on our family's native land.
♪ ♪
DANIEL: As a family, we always have love no matter what.
Home is where the heart is.
♪ ♪
Slow waves.
Real nice day like this.
DANIELLE: Where's your binoc?
DANIELLE: My family has always been providers,
and I think it's important for me to keep it going.
DANIEL: Hey, longneck coming.
DANIELLE: Do I shoot it?
DANIELLE: Now what do I do?
DANIEL: Just put it on safe.
That button.
(click)
My daughter, when she was young,
she didn't have any real interest in hunting at all.
Next time we see a bird, if it's a young one, try to whack it.
DANIELLE: Whack it?
DANIEL: Kill it.
Pzzzt!
DANIEL: Experiencing something that's new to her,
it's making the family closer.
Have you shot at a seal with me before?
DANIELLE: Nuh-uh.
DANIEL: Not yet? Only Bodie?
DANIELLE: Yup.
Oh, oh.
DANIELLE: Should I shoot it?
DANIEL: Uh-huh.
(gunshot)
Agghh!
DANIEL: Almost!
I'm gonna call you Almost.
DANIELLE: Oy. Is that a Honda?
DANIEL: Hmm.
♪ ♪
(Danielle speaking Akuzipik language)
♪ ♪
[inaudible]
DANIELLE: My brother showed up
with some pretty bad news.
One of his closest friends passed away, so...
(sighs)
♪ ♪
(Daniel sighs)
DANIEL: Chris was pretty close to his friend there.
♪ ♪
Being a close-knit community in a small village,
you know, it affects everybody.
♪ ♪
Hunt is over.
As a family member,
as a community leader,
and he was a father, you know, that's shocking.
♪ ♪
You hear something like that happen,
you know, everything goes to a halt.
You go home and be with family members.
♪ ♪
DANIELLE: My brother needs my dad more than anything.
'Cause that's his best friend.
♪ ♪
TIG: We just have a strong connection to nature out here.
It's part of who we are, part of who we've been,
and I'm hoping it's part of who we'll always be.
♪ ♪
(bellowing)
Sound like really pretty mooses.
♪ ♪
LOUISE: Oh, right there!
TIG: Oh, yeah!
(Tig making moose call)
♪ ♪
(imitates moose call)
♪ ♪
(imitates moose call)
♪ ♪
(bellowing)
TIG: Couple years ago, me and your mother,
we shot a moose out here, and it was in the water.
It ended up taking two days to work on it,
and a lot of that meat had gone bad while I was working on it,
trying to get it out of this lake and out of the water.
And that's just a valuable lesson
for you girls right there.
Would have been an easy shot for you,
but I just don't want to ever
have to waste meat like that again.
Did your little heart take off going?
SOPHIE: I was excited.
TIG: Your smile's from ear to ear.
HAZEL: I want to grow up and be a hunter,
helping out my community, my family.
♪ ♪
DANIELLE: Yesterday was pretty unexpected.
I just need to clear my mind, get away from the village
and give myself time to think and to heal.
I forgot my binoculars.
I'm hunting alone without my dad.
My dad has to be with my brother right now.
When there's waves like this,
the seals bounce up and down in the water.
And you have to aim at the right angle.
♪ ♪
I'm still learning a lot of things that...
my dad still needs to teach me.
And I'm kind of clueless.
It'd be better with him here.
Growing up too fast and doing things on my own.
When I'm out there with my dad, I just, I feel...
content, more myself.
I see birds in the water.
Maybe the seals ran away.
We're gonna call it for today.
I'm pretty sure my dad would call it a day as well.
♪ ♪
Growing up, I came to the beach a lot.
Growing up was hard.
♪ ♪
When I was about 16,
I came out to my parents,
and my dad was there for me when I was at my lowest.
Our relationship grew stronger,
and we just got closer and closer over the years.
He's one of my favorite people.
And I am super thankful for him.
♪ ♪
(knife sharpening)
MARVIN: Mm-hmm.
Oh, yeah.
There's quite a bit of meals on this right here.
Look at how thick it is. Over an inch thick of meat.
♪ ♪
(wind whistling)
♪ ♪
LINDA: I'm looking for salmonberries.
What we're usually after are about this big in diameter.
MARCELLA: This big!
LINDA: That's a nice one there.
JAZMINE: Here, Mom.
MARVIN: To see what Marcella does with her family,
how united they are, that is very big for me.
MARCELLA: We are going to make some jelly.
MARVIN: What they instill on their kids
how we got to live out here,
eventually, their kids will be a big part of this to pass it on.
MARCELLA: This is liquid gold.
MARVIN: It's very meaningful for the people here in the village.
♪ ♪
QUANNAH: This is a dull knife.
JODY: Mm-hmm.
We have indigenous species like the salmon
that return to their birthplace to continue that salmon cycle
that's so important to the cycle of life.
In my future house, I hope that the view will be
a lot like the view that I saw from our house
when I grew up looking out over the Yukon River
with mountains and trees on top.
I just want to have a home there for our family,
the next generation, and also for our grandchildren.
Future grandchildren, there we go. (chuckles)
♪ ♪
LOUISE: My girls love these long hikes with their dad.
It's showing them that they can do a lot more
than they think they can.
♪ ♪
We're really strong people.
We're showing our kids, just keep moving forward.
You have to keep trying.
Life goes on.
(engine rumbling)
You just have to live life the best you can, I guess.
♪ ♪
Take care of those you love.
Appreciate everything you have while you have it.
Captioned by Side Door Media Services