♪ ♪
TERESA: Woo-hoo, let's go.
♪ ♪
Time to go out and hunt for seal.
♪ ♪
We're going to be in two boats.
My daughters are gonna use the smaller boat.
♪ ♪
John and I have nine daughters.
We all help each other.
Somedays are good for you,
and others, another family member takes over.
Nothing's too tough for this family.
♪ ♪
About this time we really need the seal meat and seal oil,
because that's what we store away for the winter.
Out here, this is my home, and this makes me happy.
Getting seals is a family affair.
LIANA: Whoa!
Right there!
TERESA: They must have seen something.
She has her gun.
♪ ♪
They've seen a seal.
♪ ♪
Oh, let's hope they catch one.
♪ ♪
LIANA: Oh, you see?
PANITA: Think it was just right up there, but it went under.
LIANA: Okay, I'm going.
♪ ♪
TERESA: Come on, girls.
♪ ♪
PANITA: Yep.
TERESA: Once they pop up and they go underwater,
they stay underwater a long time.
PANITA: Is that it over there? Is that it?
LIANA: Yeah.
♪ ♪
TERESA: My two daughters,
they're veterans at hunting seals.
Panita is the fourth daughter.
And Liana is the fifth daughter.
PANITA: Yeah. LIANA: Okay.
There was nine of us girls,
and we were known for having nothing but sisters.
People would ask us, what number are you?
So, I was known as number five in my Pingayak family. Five.
♪ ♪
PANITA: Hasn't come up in a while.
♪ ♪
LIANA: Thinking it's probably going in with the tide.
♪ ♪
TERESA: What was it?
LIANA: Probably a maklagaq.
TERESA: Really?
Maklagaq, a young bearded seal.
LIANA: Did you guys see it?
JOHN: No.
TERESA: Oh, no.
♪ ♪
It's getting darker.
Liana, we can start again tomorrow.
LIANA: Okay.
TERESA: Start again in the morning.
PANITA: Hopefully we'll find it again.
♪ ♪
TIG: This country has always been a tough country.
If you didn't know how to come out here and get the food,
where to get it in the fall,
then you definitely wouldn't survive a winter out here.
♪ ♪
You girls ready? You think we'll catch any fish?
HAZEL: Uh-huh.
TIG: I hope so.
♪ ♪
Got about a week left till we'll start having ice in the river.
So, we just got a small window of opportunity
to try and catch a little bit of fish.
TIG: Yeah.
Today I'm gonna take Louise and three of the little girls out
to set a net.
This is kind of our last chance
to go out and set a net with the boat.
After this we get to set a net under the ice,
but right now it's nice and easy.
We don't have to chop any ice out to get the net set,
and we can just drive our boat down, check the net, no problem.
The water's real high right now, girls,
it's supposed to be rock bottom.
It's supposed to be crystal clear, it's still muddy.
Kind of a funny fall.
We didn't have any rain all summer,
then all of a sudden, we had a super wet fall.
Can't rely on the seasons and the weather
to be normal every year.
We're learning how to deal with changes like this.
Hazel. HAZEL: Huh?
TIG: Come up and help mama.
Watch how she does this.
HAZEL: Okay.
LOUISE: Oh, my goodness.
TIG: Be careful now.
Don't let that get hooked to you, Hazel.
LOUISE: Start to get tangled.
Setting a net right now with high water,
it has its difficulties.
We're fighting the current, and it's very dangerous.
At the end!
Ahh! There goes the anchor now.
TIG: It's hard to set a fish net in high water,
but hopefully we get something.
♪ ♪
JOEL: This time of year revolves around the salmon.
The bears are out, the seals are out.
For everything to live, the salmon have to die.
It's a cool little circle of life
you get to witness in the fall time.
♪ ♪
Tracker. (whistles)
♪ ♪
I just got my solar panels in,
and I'm trying to upgrade my system right now.
My house isn't hooked up to a power grid.
So, the only way to get power is with solar panels.
♪ ♪
Currently I only have one panel.
So, I got two more panels to kind of upgrade my system.
My goal is to be pretty much self-sustainable up at the house
so I don't have to burn any gas.
So, if I didn't have to burn any fuel at all, that'd be perfect.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah.
Ohh. (laughs)
They look good.
These were actually the last ones they had.
Just getting the solar panels out here is a huge ordeal.
They have to go to Anchorage and then drive the panels to Homer,
which is 300 miles away.
And then once they're on the first barge,
they go across Cook Inlet
and they come over the mountains on a truck.
And then they get on another barge,
and then they go across the lake into Pedro Bay,
and then I got to go pick them up with the ATV.
So, it's pretty expensive,
but in the long run, it's gonna save me a lot of money.
And I don't even really have a choice,
'cause I don't have power lines running up here.
I think I can knock these trees down real quick.
They're definitely gonna be blocking the sunlight,
especially once the sun starts dropping later in the year.
But now 'cause we're losing so much daylight,
I need to pull in more power.
(starts chainsaw)
Being able to get energy from the sun,
I feel like it's a huge deal,
because the sun is unlimited and it's free.
It's free electricity forever, basically.
You know, there's so much energy from the sun and from the wind.
Why wouldn't you, you know, capitalize on that?
(chainsaw revving)
(cracking)
♪ ♪
We'll cut this one down, it'll be my last one,
and then I'll get those solar panels up.
(starts chainsaw)
(chainsaw revving)
The dangers of falling trees out here
are definitely a tree falling on somebody.
Like I do, I do worry about that,
like losing an arm or something.
It's not like living in the city.
Help's not right around the corner, it's not coming.
(chainsaw revving)
(cracking)
♪ ♪
Sweet. I like it.
What do you think, Tracker? Huh? It's good?
Want to put up some solar panels? Huh? Come on.
MARVIN: Fall, we do a lot of subsisting for the winter,
and in the 50 years I've lived here
we still need what we are doing.
(thunder)
♪ ♪
GLYNDARIL: This'll give you an idea
of what you're using out there.
Go ahead. Out of the chamber, now slide it forward.
Pull it all the way back.
There you go. You're hot.
MARVIN: How the wind is?
GLYNDARIL: Perfect, it'll teach you when to wait
for right time to take the shot.
MARVIN: Okay, off. Firing. Fire in the hole.
Take your time, find your comfort zone.
♪ ♪
(gunshot)
Huh, you dropped it.
JAZMINE: Did I miss?
MARVIN: We'll find out.
Jazmine is gonna be on her first-time hunt,
and out here it's a very big part of growing up,
hunting deer and subsisting.
Where it was at, you see where the bullet hole hit right there.
I feel very fortunate
to be helping her move in that direction.
JAZMINE: I didn't get it.
Oh, no, I did right there.
MARVIN: Yeah, you did.
GLYNDARIL: If that's a dear, you got it.
For Jazmine, she's a real good shot,
but she's never shot anything alive.
MARVIN: How you feel?
JAZMINE: I feel good.
MARVIN: Yeah, I'm happy for that.
GLYNDARIL: She's real nervous, but this is a team effort.
To give her that confidence, to let her know that you got this.
MARVIN: Okay, you guys ready?
JAZMINE: Yeah, a little nervous.
MARVIN: That's a feeling you are allowed to have.
We're gonna go walk this trail here.
Only thing we're gonna see is the white tail running away.
I look around the world and what's happening
and how hard it is to get the resources that we need
for our community.
So, it is very important for me to show Jazmine
that we can get a deer right out our door if need be.
We're coming up on the hill over here
where we're gonna scout down in the flats.
One time, coming up on top the hill right here,
and just about 50 feet
there's three deer heads staring right at me.
They'll be right over the side of a hill,
and we don't know till we spook 'em.
♪ ♪
JAZMINE: Over the years, my dad,
he would sign me up for air rifle,
and I would go hiking with my uncles,
and we would go targeting.
Now it's like time to put all the knowledge together
and get my first deer.
♪ ♪
GLYNDARIL: Hey, hey.
Hey, Unc, is that a deer right there?
Right there in that little bush.
MARVIN: Oh, that is. That is. There you go. You see it?
JAZMINE: I see it.
MARVIN: But you see how much they blend in?
JAZMINE: Yes.
GLYNDARIL: Alright, hop down.
Here's a good spot, get comfy.
Just keep your eye on it, here you go.
♪ ♪
MARVIN: Just take your time and just put the deer's head
right in the crosshairs.
Take your time.
JAZMINE: Okay.
MARVIN: There you go.
Just take your time, take your time.
Till you get it right.
GLYNDARIL: And when you're ready, take it.
♪ ♪
(gunshot)
GLYNDARIL: Oh! Damn, I'm proud of you. Good job!
Gimme some, gimme some.
Good job! MARVIN: Good job.
GLYNDARIL: I'm proud of you, baby girl, you did great.
Look at that, one shot.
One shot!
MARVIN: Happy for you.
JAZMINE: Thank you, Uncle.
GLYNDARIL: You happy? JAZMINE: Yeah!
GLYNDARIL: I can tell by that smile.
JAZMINE: I feel excited and proud of myself,
because it was something I've always anticipated
when I was younger,
and having the dreams and finally being able to do it...
GLYNDARIL: Good job, baby girl.
JAZMINE: ...made me feel really happy.
GLYNDARIL: Alright, let's go get this deer.
MARVIN: There you go.
GLYNDARIL: Let's get our hands dirty.
MARVIN: Oh, yeah.
TIG: This is what they call old land around here.
There's a lot of traditional cultural aspects of the land
that it's important for my kids to learn.
♪ ♪
Alright, you girls, let's go check this fish net.
It's right up here.
Kind of tell the water dropped some from last night.
It's not the ideal set for me,
I would rather have it flowing farther out into the river.
Hopefully we get something.
But you know, we do have a little area closed off.
It is some slack water.
So, I do feel confident we might snag a fish or two in this area.
Oh, man, it's still full of silt.
It is full, full of junk.
Oh, look at that.
That's why the fish aren't getting stuck,
they can see all this junk in my net.
Whoa!
HAZEL: Hey, what the...
TIG: Pull them away.
Otherwise we'll just keep catching the same stick.
LOUISE: It's a little worrisome having three girls in the boat
with us, reaching in and trying to help with the net,
but at the same time,
it's good for them to be out there learning,
getting hands-on experience.
TIG: You girls got to learn how to do this type of stuff.
LOUISE: It's something we have to do every fall.
TIG: Get as much of this gunk as we can out of there.
LOUISE: Seasons are changing. It's getting a lot colder.
In about a week or so, ice will start floating down the river.
We want the net as clean as possible.
TIG: We know there's fish in this area.
We're just gonna have to keep trying.
Water's dropping, so I'm hoping, you know,
this spot's gonna get better and better.
If not, we'll try another spot tomorrow.
♪ ♪
Since we don't have a boatload of fish,
we might as well grab some smokehouse wood.
You girls help me grab some sticks for the smokehouse?
HAZEL: Yeah, Dad.
♪ ♪
TIG: We got an empty boat.
We're not filling it with fish,
we might as well fill it with some wood.
♪ ♪
LOUISE: Careful.
TIG: Watch out, it's slippery, icky mud.
Look at that.
Teekkone tracks.
There's a couple of them.
By just looking at the tracks,
you kind of tell the age of an animal.
You know, you can tell how long ago that track was made.
LOUISE: Can you girls tell which way it was going?
HAZEL: That way.
LOUISE: Yeah.
TIG: There's a lot of different little learning opportunities
when you see a track.
Alright, well, that's a good wood right there, you see it?
Dead right there.
♪ ♪
For thousands of years,
wood's always been available to us.
Fall, it's a good time to go out and get some.
♪ ♪
Alright, girls, we got enough smokehouse wood.
We'll let that net settle.
We'll be back.
♪ ♪
JOEL: The definition of a life well lived
is having something to show for it.
If you have stories to tell,
I mean, that's something to show for something, you know.
♪ ♪
I got those trees knocked down.
I'm gonna put up a couple little braces
to mount the other two solar panels on.
Gonna put 'em up on the front
so I can get the maximum amount of power out of the sun
right now basically.
In the wintertime,
sometimes we only have five hours of actual daylight.
So, I need more panels to collect as much energy I can
while the sun is out.
(grunts)
This is where another set of hands would come in...handy.
(sigh)
(grunts)
Living out here in the bush,
it's kind of a lot of work with basically everything.
♪ ♪
(drill whirring)
Huh!
It's also worth it.
♪ ♪
(whirring)
There, okay.
(whirring)
(whistling) Pretty frickin' level.
So, I'm pretty much always busy out here, working on something.
(whirring)
The house is not, you know, quite finished yet.
(roaring)
And I'm already doing upkeep on it.
Alright.
I think the people out here adapt pretty well.
And that's kind of like what this is, is, you know,
you're just adapted to the more modern, modern living
kind of a thing and...
making life a little more comfortable out here.
♪ ♪
(whistling)
(dog barking)
Oh, yeah, there's a bear back there.
Tracker!
(barking)
JOEL: Tracker just bolted out of here.
I think the bear's coming down to go to the creek.
Living out here, you really need to, you know,
observe your surroundings.
This time of year, you know, the fish are going up the creeks
so the bears are out.
We kind of get all sizes of bears here.
We get you know, smaller ones,
and you get all the way up to,
you know, 1,000-pound bears, the 8-footers.
(dog barking)
(bear growling)
Those are the ones you got to kind of watch out for.
Tracker.
(claps)
Come here, you. Yeah.
The bears, like, it's just a common occurrence out here.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Of course, I love you.
I mean, there is that one out of a hundred bear
that he just wants to eat your face off.
'Cause you're gonna keep them away, huh?
Yeah.
But other than that, they just want to leave you alone.
They just want to eat fish and hang out.
Just like me.
That'll do, yeah.
I'll leave them be if they leave me be.
♪ ♪
I got all the panels plugged in.
We'll let these charge up the new batteries.
But I think I'm gonna go fishing,
and hopefully we'll have some power by the time I get back.
TERESA: In the fall time, it's just beautiful.
It's all kinds of colors, orange and gold.
There's no picture like it.
JOHN: And every bend like this,
we have to slow down and look for seal.
TERESA: The more ice, the better.
LIANA: Right now, we're probably the first people
who are out riding our boats this morning.
LIANA: We're gonna catch a seal today.
♪ ♪
TERESA: Hmm, you smell the grass?
Mmm.
JOHN: They're very sensitive to the noise on the water.
They can come up and check what it is.
♪ ♪
(tapping)
TERESA: Calling the seal.
♪ ♪
Seals are curious, they come by.
'Cause sound travels in water.
(rubs pole on boat)
SONNA BOY: That? JOHN: Yeah.
♪ ♪
LIANA: Every time I come out here as an adult,
it just brings me back to my childhood.
Our parents' training and teaching.
It's always a good feeling to come back here.
I feel younger when I come out here.
♪ ♪
PANITA: Open air.
I can see as far as my eyes can see.
Refreshes our soul.
JOHN: Come on up, it's time for you to come out.
Come on up. (tapping)
SONNA BOY: Maybe if we go down more.
JOHN: That's what we were doing. We're gonna go down.
SONNA BOY: Yeah.
JOHN: Until we see a seal.
It takes patience.
That's how our people become good hunters.
♪ ♪
TERESA: We're gonna stop here and observe.
Wait for the seal to come to us.
♪ ♪
Maybe that seal we saw yesterday
will be coming back down again today.
♪ ♪
Waiting for a seal, we call it awitaciq.
Your eye should be out there on the water, old boy.
You awitaciq, okay.
LIANA: Whatever I learned from my parents,
I know they learned from my grandparents
or great grandparents.
So, if you want something to stay alive,
you gotta teach and share.
♪ ♪
JOHN: My new Eskimo song.
JOHN: I wouldn't discourage our hunters out there.
You might have to go about ten times,
but that's okay, but you're gonna learn from that.
JOHN: It'll make you stronger and persistent, too.
That adds up.
Let's go back, watch out for seals.
♪ ♪
TIG: Fall, oh, I can't wait for it to roll around.
(howl)
I get everything out of my system
that I want to do out here.
We got everything we need in our land.
♪ ♪
LOUISE: Looks high and dry.
TIG: We're back here for a second day
net-checking this area.
♪ ♪
Damn.
LOUISE: Crazy.
How do we even get that out?
TIG: Huh.
We're very good at catching sticks, it appears to be.
Well, that's just one of the problems of trying to set a net
in this high water.
High water means a lot of sticks in the river.
♪ ♪
Fish, they can see all this stuff sitting there,
and they don't want to swim into a wall of junk.
I got to take my time, get all these sticks out nice and slow.
These nets, they cost a lot of money,
and it takes a lot of time to mend them.
TIG: Oh, man.
I think I almost got this big tree out.
♪ ♪
There you go, be free.
Biggest tree I have ever caught.
I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed.
This time of year,
we should normally have a lot of fish by now.
♪ ♪
Oh. Hey! LOUISE: Whoa.
AMIYA: We caught a fish!
TIG: We better not lose him.
AMIYA: Caught one. It's a big one.
TIG: Okay, we got him in the gills.
No, don't want to lose him.
I know.
Got you, got you.
How does that look, girls?
GIRLS: Wow.
TIG: We got one.
LOUISE: We want to try to show our girls
how to take a fish out of a fish net,
and they only get one fish to take out.
So, that's not very good.
TIG: I'm hoping there's gonna be more fish beyond this first one.
For the amount of gas we're using, it's just not adding up.
Well, girls, this isn't working.
We caught a lot of sticks.
♪ ♪
I think we'll pull it and try another spot.
What you girls think?
LOUISE: Yeah.
(motor rumbling)
TIG: This damn high water,
we should be at rock bottom right now,
and we're still bank to bank.
And this is changing every year, it's all different.
Everything is out of whack nowadays.
We should be able to expect what type of water conditions,
what type of weather we're having right now,
and everything's just kind of a crap shoot.
We don't know what's gonna happen next.
But either way, you know, we got to find an eddy
or at least an area where the water's a little slower anyway,
set this net.
♪ ♪
Now this is a good spot, I like this.
♪ ♪
Alright, well, fire up the motor.
(starts motor)
(motor revs)
Woo, pull me with the Hellcat.
LOUISE: Too fast, too furious.
♪ ♪
TIG: Trying to make sure this top line and bottom line
don't cross each other.
♪ ♪
Kaboom. New day, new spot.
We'll see how we do.
You did good driving. Get us home.
LOUISE: Okay.
♪ ♪
(drip)
JOEL: Living with nature,
walking around and exploring,
I haven't got sick of it yet.
Great place to live.
♪ ♪
I'm down at the mouth of the river,
trying to catch trout.
So I just did a bunch of work on the house
and upgraded my whole solar system.
It's quite a bit of work putting those panels and everything up.
♪ ♪
So, there's always a million things to do out here.
There's always stuff to fix.
There's always something broken, you know.
(whistling)
So, it's good to take a little time off
and just enjoy the weather, enjoy the fishing.
(whistling)
I still have to feed myself.
Tracker wants to bite my lure.
You're a horrible fishing dog, Tracker.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah.
Pretty good size one for the river.
There we go.
Couple of those would be a good meal.
Hey!
It's pretty cool that, I mean,
I can walk like 100 feet from my house
and catch a trout or salmon.
Oh, yeah.
♪ ♪
A rainbow?
Alright, well, I think I got enough for dinner.
I'm gonna head home, fry these guys up.
See how much power we got running to the batteries.
Alright, Tracker, let's go cook some fishes.
♪ ♪
JOHN: Because we know this land,
we can find our path, wherever we go.
♪ ♪
TERESA: Nice day to catch a seal, Liana.
You ready?
LIANA: Yep.
TERESA: Alright.
LIANA: We're ready, mama.
TERESA: Here we go.
Panita can't be with us today.
I'll be in Liana's boat.
And John is going to be the spotter in the other boat.
JOHN: Liana, stay close to the edge, not too fast.
LIANA: Okay.
♪ ♪
(motor revving)
When there's no traffic, those seals like to stay on the land.
TERESA: Okay, yeah.
LIANA: Sometimes they look like logs.
LIANA: Okay.
TERESA: Even if I have one daughter down,
the other one is just as good 'cause she can shoot.
She knows how to go after seals.
The sun's coming out.
Now we'll be able to see better on the water.
♪ ♪
Stop.
I smell a seal. You smell it?
LIANA: I smell it.
Yep. TERESA: Yeah.
Okay, slow down.
It's coming from somewhere,
either from the water or somewhere on the land.
Your senses are sharp, they get sharp out here.
But we're just gonna keep looking.
Getting a seal is part of our subsistence life.
It's our livelihood to this day.
♪ ♪
Is that a boat?
It is a boat.
LIANA: They probably see it over there.
TERESA: Oh, yeah.
LIANA: I'm gonna go check 'em out.
TERESA: Yeah, go check 'em.
LIANA: And just like that, it turned into an awesome day.
TERESA: We all work together
when there's different boats hunting.
The person that draws the first blood
is the one that's going to get that full seal.
And whoever harpoons that seal, they get a share of that meat.
LIANA: Yeah, that's Jeremy. TERESA: Oh, hi, Jeremy!
What is it?
Huh?
TERESA: Nayiq?
LIANA: I'm a better shot sitting when it's wavy than standing.
So, mama, if we take over this,
you got to be slow on the control.
Do it slowly. Okay?
TERESA: Okay, if I do take over, yeah.
LIANA: When you do take over.
TERESA: Oh, I see it. LIANA: Okay, I see it.
Okay, we're gonna get in on this.
TERESA: Okay, careful.
LIANA: Yeah.
(motor revving)
Mom.
LIANA: You can do it.
You better do it.
♪ ♪
LIANA: And then go on neutral.
♪ ♪
TERESA: They're right there, Liana.
LIANA: I'm gonna be ready, too.
TERESA: Get it, Liana.
(gunshot)
TERESA: (speaking Cup'ik)
They got it, oh, my goodness.
Get it!
We're still looking for it.
It's somewhere.
♪ ♪
LIANA: They didn't get it.
TERESA: Sometimes we lose 'em and sometimes we get 'em.
LIANA: Those are what they call elimaq seals.
The professional seals, they've been hunted before
and kind of hard to catch,
so they're experienced at being hunting,
they're not gonna be caught, so we're finding our next seal.
♪ ♪
TERESA: I want to be able to go back to camp
before we lose light.
Many a times you go after seals late in the evening,
and then you get caught in the dark.
In the heat of the moment. (chuckles)
LIANA: Mom, you did good driving my boat.
TERESA: I'm used to driving your dad's big boat.
LIANA: Yes, you are.
Even if we didn't have any tough guys in our family,
we had the strength in me and my sisters,
because our parents raised us tough.
TERESA: At least you got some shots fired, Liana.
(chuckles)
TERESA: Yes.
LIANA: We didn't have a mindset that we couldn't.
We always had the mindset that we can.
We're able to do anything, so, here we are hunting.
TERESA: What a way to close the day.
♪ ♪
GLYNDARIL: One bullet feeds a whole family
for a couple of days.
Couple of bullets, if you do it right, feed the village.
♪ ♪
MARVIN: Find it?
JAZMINE: Yeah.
MARVIN: Perfect deer.
Very good.
GLYNDARIL: Good shot, Jazz.
MARVIN: This is the hard part.
You see where we are?
♪ ♪
We can't see nothing around us,
and you know we're in the bear's country.
And what the bear know about gun sounds,
they know usually there is something to eat.
So it's nice to get out here in a clearing.
GLYNDARIL: We're on Kodiak Island.
The bears are big around here.
So, we got to keep our eyes open.
MARVIN: There you go, Glyn, it's its good side.
GLYNDARIL: Let's rock and roll.
♪ ♪
MARVIN: Oh, yeah, there you go.
GLYNDARIL: Alright.
JAZMINE: My first time watching a deer
being cut open and cleaned out.
I'm not a big fan.
I wasn't ready.
Disgusting.
(Marvin chuckles)
GLYNDARIL: Disgusting until you eat it.
JAZMINE: Yeah, but I usually don't watch the processing.
MARVIN: Ha ha. But the results are good, though,
it tastes so good.
GLYNDARIL: There's the liver.
Heart.
We do have a saying,
don't pull the trigger unless you're ready to get bloody.
Fortunately, I can't actually force her to cut it and gut it.
But she kept her eyes on me, she's seen what we were doing.
It's a process that she will get at some point.
Let's get this bad boy out of here.
MARVIN: There you go.
♪ ♪
I feel very excited about how it's come together.
She got the knowledge now,
and this is gonna be there for the rest of her life.
GLYNDARIL: Pull all the way in, there you go.
Right there.
JOE JOE: You caught a deer?
JAZMINE: Yeah.
JULIANA: Really?
GLYNDARIL: One shot. MARVIN: One shot.
GLYNDARIL: John John, you see the deer?
MARCELLA: Look at!
GLYNDARIL: Jazmine, she's gonna be the light carrier.
She's going to be the one to blaze the path
and her little siblings
will have her to look up to and follow.
And that, there's no amount of pride
that I can explain that I have for her.
She is amazing.
I'm so proud of you, Jazz, you did great.
LOUISE: It's nice to sit on the bank, where I grew up.
And now I have a family of my own to do that with.
I'm really thankful.
TIG: Today's our last-ditch effort to catch some fish.
Hopefully our luck will change.
LOUISE: How many you guys think we got?
TIG: Probably about 25 in there.
SOPHIE: 100.
TIG: 100? LOUISE: Whoa.
TIG: I hope so. Then we'd be done.
LOUISE: I don't think we'd see the floaters.
(chuckles)
TIG: Yeah. Go big or go home.
I'm not the only one struggling to get fish out here.
I think the whole community's having a hard time
with this high water.
Coming in hot.
Coming in... Uh-oh.
This is our big portion of our diet through the winter.
LOUISE: Dad's getting ready to check the net.
You girls come check it out.
HAZEL: Ah, yah, yah!
TIG: Oooh.
SOPHIE: We caught a fish!
TIG: Oh, yeah.
LOUISE: A whitefish.
TIG: Oh, boy.
We must have caught him right away.
Woo.
Mmm. Wow, look at that. Eggs.
Woo, oh, boy. Enaa sebaabe.
LOUISE: Awesome.
TIG: Enaa baasee'.
We don't go the type of country where we can go out
and just have instant success on anything.
Look how fat she is. Big fat mama fish.
We have to give it 100% effort on everything we do.
Woo, good eating, girls.
LOUISE: All you girls are lucky with fish.
Anytime we have you guys, we get at least one fish.
TIG: Hey! Where's the bucket? We got a fish.
Oh, I'm about to lose him.
Ooh, got him.
LOUISE: Hey.
TIG: We can't half-ass anything out here,
otherwise you're not gonna be successful.
Oh, no!
Ah!
Wahh!
LOUISE: Holy cow!
We caught three fish.
It was really good to have my girls with me,
trying it out, you know, doing something I did as a kid.
TIG: Your luck, Dink.
You's the little lucky charm, sweetheart.
Couple more years, I'll give you the key to the boat,
the fish net, tell you to go out and get us some fish.
MARCELLA: And just lay these all out.
JAZMINE: You made little slits in them?
MARCELLA: That's a technique Papa taught us,
it's called butterflying the meat open.
You know, butterflies? (laughs)
JAZMINE: It doesn't look like a butterfly.
MARCELLA: It really does make a difference
in how you cut the meat, the way they're cooked.
JAZMINE: Being able to help my mom
and learn on how to cook deer
with the deer that I got is amazing.
My mom was super proud and excited for me,
because it was like one of my big dreams
to actually shoot a deer like the rest of my family.
MARCELLA: One shot, one kill. I'd say you're pretty skillful.
It feels really good to know
that there's another person capable
and is able to go out and get deer.
I'm very, very proud, and I'm very, very happy.
JAZMINE: Thank you.
(sizzling)
♪ ♪
JOE JOE: Oh, deer.
MARCELLA: Go ahead, you heroes eat.
MARVIN: Got the heroes. Oh, yeah.
Well, it's well worth it.
I'm patiently waiting for all this good food
you guys made today.
This is a celebration of how Jazmine got that deer.
It comes back to where we live, the way of life,
and it's the experience I can instill in her to carry on here.
It's very big for me.
GLYNDARIL: So, how's your deer taste?
JAZMINE: Tastes amazing.
MARVIN: Does it taste better than beef?
JAZMINE: Yes! MARVIN: It does. Mm-hmm.
GLYNDARIL: Oh, so good.
JAZMINE: I'm glad that I have the knowledge
to be able to go out and do this.
I know it's definitely not gonna be my last time
providing for my family.
MARVIN: Well worth it, huh?
JAZMINE: Yes. MARVIN: Mm-hmm.
♪ ♪
JOEL: I just got the new panels hooked up.
They've been charging a couple hours.
Give it a little test run.
Oh, yeah.
That's kicking out some power.
It's good.
Simple, simple setup.
Alright.
♪ ♪
Alright, I got my solar system all updated.
It's pretty sweet.
We're pulling in quite a bit of juice now, too, which is nice.
'Cause usually when I'm running all my power tools,
I have to run the generator, 'cause the one panel wasn't,
wasn't putting out enough electricity.
But with the three of them, I'm getting more than enough.
♪ ♪
(sizzling)
But, uh, talk about living sustainably.
Caught my fish out of the creek.
Getting power from the sun.
A good day.
Huh, Tracker?
Yeah.
♪ ♪
(girls giggling)
LOUISE: Don't get splashed. TIG: Yeah.
LOUISE: Not too close, Sophie.
TIG: Usually in fall time we just go out and we try and spend
as much time as possible out there in the woods.
Having the girls out here,
showing them the beauty of the land.
If you ever get hungry,
you know how to go get your food out there,
one way or another.
Next summer, you girls are all ready to take the boat
and go set the net for me.
TIG: Almost? Just got to learn how to drive the boat now, huh?
TIG: This is our home. This is where our people came from.
This is where we've lived
for thousands and thousands of years.
♪ ♪
MARVIN: I finally realized that I always got to come back home,
because out here I am peaceful, quiet,
and I'm very happy.
♪ ♪
JOEL: Living off of the seasons, you get more out of life.
Definitely have, like, a connection with the land
and stuff out here, just the way of life.
I fit out here, I, like, belong out here.
♪ ♪
TERESA: Changes from season to season,
its exactly how the creator meant it to be.
To see with my own eyes the beauty of it
that nobody else can see.
This tundra, this is it for me.
And it will always be for me.
It has sustained me.
It has given me life.
It's my life.
It's my whole being.
♪ ♪
Captioned by Side Door Media Services