♪ ♪
[John] Our elders tell us,
"Take care of the land and it'll take care of you.
If we don't, you're gonna be hungry."
[gunshot]
Same thing with the ocean out there.
Our elders tell us, "Respect it.
Don't challenge it.
You're not gonna win."
You have to be respectful for all living things.
You're living in my land.
Just one little spot in the whole map of the world.
We have to live off this land,
and the ocean out there, and the rivers.
Hard work, but we can sustain that,
we sustain our way of life.
♪ ♪
[Tig] All the moose are usually up and down the rivers
this time of the year.
In the winter, moose aren't reactive
to any type of calls or anything.
They hear a moose call, they just wonder,
"What the hell is that?"
In winter, moose hunting some ways is easier,
but some ways is a lot more difficult.
♪ ♪
Luck isn't something that a person is born with,
it's something that you build up and you work on all your life.
Woo.
Cold!
I try and store up as much as I can for moose hunting.
That's when I need most of my luck.
All the moose tracks are going into the woods
down in this area.
Moose are too smart, you can't just stop on their tracks
and follow their tracks in.
My plan is to go back here and try and circle around the moose.
It's the same way the wolves hunt moose.
♪ ♪
That's where he slept.
♪ ♪
My goal isn't to find and shoot a moose back here.
I had to make a little more noise coming back here.
If there is a moose between me and the river,
hopefully it'll hit the open river.
♪ ♪
If there was a moose back there, he would have came out.
I see two sets of tracks right there.
I think three of them did go across.
There's a cow, calf, and a bull.
Mating season's over, but they still hang out together.
Not all of them, but some of them.
I think it's a safety-in-numbers type of thing.
This is a dangerous country.
There's always predators roaming around.
Aw, man, little marten up here.
[whistling]
Pack of wolf tracks following a moose track right here.
There was a battle here.
You can see where the wolves
chased the moose out of the willows.
Yeah. See the marten tracks around here?
See, the marten came in,
sniffing around where this moose and the wolves fought.
You can see where they chased them out of the willows.
Wolves came in from all directions.
♪ ♪
Damn! He's dead in the woods right here.
Got a calf!
♪ ♪
See, that's just a little calf, man.
Looking for a bull, they kill anything.
A young cow.
Cow moose calf.
Man, that's horrible.
The first dead moose I've found this winter.
I keep cruising up the river, I might run into these wolves.
I got to get on this quick.
Quick, quick, quick.
♪ ♪
[Jody] Whoa!
We came down here to the lower country.
Today we're hunting ptarmigan.
See if we see any sign or any birds.
The river just froze super jumbled.
Lot of ups and downs over ice and drift.
Definitely a challenging year using the river.
[Jamey] There's some pretty good drop-offs on the other side
on the bar over there, some of it's like six feet down,
straight down, some of it's 10.
We'll see going across.
[Jody] Take it real slow, okay?
[Jamey] Alright.
[snowmobile starts]
♪ ♪
[Jody] In my lifetime, I think that I've seen
is winter is coming later,
and so the river's freezing later.
The ice conditions aren't as safe,
and so we have to learn to adapt to, safety-wise,
things that we're not familiar with
in order to feed our family.
♪ ♪
So, what do you want to do, babe?
[Jamey] Walk in right here, huh? Check it out.
[Jody] Yeah.
♪ ♪
So, we'll just walk the trail for grouse tracks.
[Jamey] Yeah.
[Jody] Are you gonna take the kids' little .22?
[laughs]
It's such a tiny little kids' .22.
I'm indigenous to this place.
I'm a part of the landscape,
I belong here, and home is everywhere.
You know, wherever I'm at in this country,
out walking the land, I just feel like I'm at home.
I'm not here to, like, shape the land or conquer anything.
For me, it's more about just being a part of it.
Grouse.
♪ ♪
[Jody] What's that hole?
That's where the grouse go into the snow right there.
[Jody] Oh, yeah.
And burrow down in the snow.
When I was a kid walking in there,
and all of a sudden they start taking off all around me.
[Jamey] They were in holes all in the snow.
[Jody] Uh-huh.
They were all buried in the snow.
Whoa, what the heck?
♪ ♪
Nope.
That's not one of those holes.
[Jody] Oh.
[Jamey] I bet a squirrel fell out of a tree is what it was.
[Jody] Really?
[Jamey] It was on a branch, and the branch fell down,
and he hopped away from it.
[Jody] At least you look good.
[Jamey] What's your name again?
[Jody laughs]
♪ ♪
[Jody] Well, I don't see any tracks out here.
It's just too open, you know.
They're not in the open areas.
♪ ♪
We'll turn around and head back.
It's so important when you're out there
to remember that sometimes you might get lucky,
and other times you might not.
But always be thankful for whatever you get,
even if it's just a nice view.
Okay! Here we go!
[Jamey] What are you doing?
♪ ♪
Ha, you got it.
Ha, not me, I'm not that fun.
Nah, I'm good.
♪ ♪
[Jody] So, we'll head back to the river,
and we'll just keep at it.
♪ ♪
There's our cannery right there.
[Marvin] This is where we get our heating fuel.
♪ ♪
Okay.
One drum at a time.
It'll last in my house a couple months.
That's $2,000 or so for oil and gas for the winter.
Thank you, Jamey.
I'll bring you some king crab.
[Jamey chuckles]
♪ ♪
The heat in my home gets pretty expensive,
anything to do with trying to get ahead
with the little bit we can save is, man, that's priceless.
♪ ♪
Well, Glyn, look at the house.
♪ ♪
[Marvin] It's all, look at how rotten the plywood is.
[Glyndaril] Ooh, like shredded cheese,
it's like shredded, shredded wall. [laughs]
[Marvin] Spring, summer, fall, and winter,
out here the weather takes its toll.
My house is rotten.
This window is leaking inside and...
[Glyndaril] Raining inside as much as it is outside.
[Marvin] Oh, yeah.
The weather changes very quick around here.
Within 12 hours, it could be flat calm,
and next minute we got a blizzard.
Right now it's a perfect time to catch up on my house work
that's very much needed.
It's pretty rotten.
I bought that home there for my Auntie Marta.
My uncle who lived there many years prior,
you know, they never painted it,
and it was vacant for many years,
and all the moisture just absorbed into that plywood
and got behind the caulk in the windows,
then it leaked onto my floor.
Then I started noticing that I got a hole in the floor,
it's like, man, I better get to it.
Looks easy, but we don't know until we get into it.
Progress, yeah.
Alright.
Let's see what happens here.
♪ ♪
I'm just breaking the window frame.
Whew.
Got to take my hat off.
[clinking]
Wow, bled into the wall.
Whew.
[Glyndaril] Oh, yeah, this is all a whole lot of--oh, whoa!
[Marvin] Whoa!
Yeah, this is gonna come out really easy.
[Glyndaril] This thing will go.
[Marvin] There it is.
There's the water that's trapped in there
and leaking from the window, this leaking side here,
and it froze and broke the window.
Now that the window's out, I'll be able to see the studs.
If the water rotted out these studs,
my house will be in trouble.
Oh, how's that looking there, Glyn?
[Glyndaril] It all looks good here,
it's probably a little soft spot right here, but.
[Marvin] Oh, that will be, it'll dry out.
[Glyndaril] Yeah, once it gets sealed in.
[Marvin] Yeah. Yeah.
This Tyvek saved the day.
It didn't rot after many--
I thought it was going to be a lot worse
from just looking at the plywood, you know,
that really made me think of, like,
"Man, now what did I open up?" [chuckles]
♪ ♪
Cool like that.
Should be very good for the night there, Glyn.
Tomorrow about 10 o'clock, it'll be daylight.
We'll open it back up and put up new window.
[Glyndaril] Oh, yeah.
♪ ♪
[Teresa] Careful, Patrick, Sonna Boy.
[John] Be really careful.
Teresa, it's just right for our house.
[Teresa] I told you.
[John] Wowie!
Go ahead and put the stove there.
Yaa, tawaten.
[Teresa] When the electricity goes out in the winter,
we look at each other and we say, "Uh-oh."
We need a woodstove in this house.
[John] Yes.
[Teresa] The heating fuel is like $5.36 a gallon.
[John] Mm-hmm.
[Teresa] No matter how far we are
from what's happening in the world
with fuel and all that,
it's affecting us right here in the village.
[John] I don't think the prices of the oil is gonna get smaller,
they're gonna be bigger.
And the woodstove is my lifesaving investment
for the future.
Alright.
Sonna Boy, we'll have to get some driftwood,
so we can go back and forth and bring some here for...
our...
what?
[Sonna Boy] Stove. [John] Loud.
[John] Stove! [Sonna Boy] Stove.
[John] Alright.
♪ ♪
[Jody] Caribou.
I've been seeing their signs for like months.
But I haven't seen any.
[Jamey] Yeah, it's pretty cool.
[Jody] Today I'm not hunting them.
They're out of season.
But it's nice to see actual caribou,
so I'm sure we'll see more soon, so let's skedaddle.
[Jamey] Alright.
♪ ♪
[Jody] The edible birds we're looking for,
spruce hen, ptarmigan, and then also the grouse.
Really looking for any signs of fresh tracks
that will indicate there's one nearby.
♪ ♪
[Jamey] Seen a lot of rabbit sign, that's for sure.
[Jody] Mm-hmm.
♪ ♪
We're sticking to the trail and not going off into the woods
too much, just because the snow is just super deep this year.
♪ ♪
It's hard walking through
when it's like thigh-deep snow, you know.
There's all these grouse tracks.
These are the tracks where it walked and it turned around,
so it landed here, and it walked this way and around,
then it took off from here to there.
And then it launched from there somewhere this direction.
But now that we're seeing more tracks,
Jamey can walk out in the woods and look for those birds.
I'm gonna shoot over here and go on a trail.
[Jamey] See you on the other side, huh?
[Jody] Good luck, babe.
♪ ♪
[whistles]
♪ ♪
[Jamey] There's sign everywhere, all over in here.
Back here where I started and all over in here,
so they're in here somewhere.
They were here at one time.
♪ ♪
[Jody] Ready and waiting.
My new name.
See anything, get anything?
[Jamey] Nope.
I see a lot of tracks, but no birds.
[Jody] We're just gonna keep covering country
and looking for those tracks.
♪ ♪
Babe, I see fresh tracks right here.
It's like going on and off the trail.
♪ ♪
Oh, there it is.
It popped up, babe.
[Jamey] I see it.
[click] [Jody] Damn it.
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
I got it.
[Jamey] Nice shot.
[Jody] My little .22, it misfired,
which is super frustrating,
but then I was able to get that bird.
A willow grouse.
[Jody] There you go.
It's a nice one.
Mahsi' choo.
♪ ♪
[Glyndaril] Hello, world.
At least the weather's nice, right?
[Marvin] Oh, yeah.
It's just like spring weather
out here in the middle of winter.
Perfect timing for new window, new wall.
Yeah, just try to find a two-by-four.
[Glyndaril] The stud? [Marvin] Yeah, the stud.
Gonna take a while.
[Glyndaril] Oh, look how rotten that is.
See how soft that is right there?
[Marvin] Geez, Glyn. These are the ones that I'm--
Oh, [bleep].
Hit me right in my jaw.
[laughs]
Whew.
That didn't feel too good.
You got me there.
[Glyndaril] I got you.
[Marvin] I'm a seasonal worker,
and I use my money that I make from my fishing
to pay for fuel, the heat in my home.
My material for the wall and the window,
that became very costly.
With this new thing I'm doing, it's really gonna help,
'cause of the draft I'm gonna stop from around the windows,
'cause I know there was draft,
because if the rain gets in there, so does the wind. Ha!
Oh, yeah.
There it is.
[Glyndaril] There it is.
[Marvin] There it is.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah.
This will go over the top of it and slide it.
[Marvin] Slide it up.
[Glyndaril] Oh, yeah.
♪ ♪
There it is.
[Marvin] That is very good.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah!
The ladder's ready.
Okay.
[Glyndaril] For the coup de grâce moment.
Fin.
[Marvin] Just push it right in. There it is.
[Glyndaril] You want to hold, I'm gonna run inside
and come, pull in.
[Marvin] You go and hold that and I'll put a couple screws.
Just grab right in the middle of the window there, Glyn,
and pull it. Hold-- There you go. You got it?
[Glyndaril] Yup.
Go for it.
[Marvin] Okay.
♪ ♪
I'll put another one there, that'll keep it from moving.
♪ ♪
There it is.
[Glyndaril] Move.
We got the easy part done.
It'll give us time to work on this other half.
[Marvin] It'll come together.
♪ ♪
[Tig] Looking like a cow moose.
Perfect shot, too.
Broad side.
Easy shot.
Yup, now I see underneath it good,
it's got a low-hanging belly.
There's a baby in there.
Do your thing, big mama.
♪ ♪
Get off this god darned river, though.
Wolves around.
Now, these wolves, they don't care, not like me.
The one that they killed down here, that was just a calf.
Some moose tracks coming in.
I can tell, see, this is just moose tracks,
this one I can tell the wolf pack is on behind it.
I'm gonna go out back into the woods
and follow these tracks back.
♪ ♪
I'm about 99% sure that there's a dead moose back here now.
I'm seeing all the signs of a dead moose.
♪ ♪
That's not a good sign right there either.
Big chunk of moose fur on this trail.
Ah, horrible.
This trail's getting a lot wider,
this moose is starting to drop,
they're dragging this moose down now.
Yeah, blood in here.
Think we're getting close.
In these packs they got these big wolves,
they're about 100, 120 pounds, and those guys are like anchors,
you know, you get two, three, four of those hanging on you,
the other younger ones are coming in, biting at it,
pulling, you know, taking chunks out.
You know, that's why I say my rifle,
it's the best death that any animal can have out here.
When these animals die natural death out here,
it's not nice, it's not a pretty death.
There could be a wolf on it, it could be alone.
I'm not totally sure.
Uh-oh.
[Tig] See the kill right there.
Yeah, they got it.
Yep, big cow moose.
Definitely.
These wolves, they're a vicious animal.
This belly right here, that's a cow moose.
They only do that to cow moose,
go straight into the belly, eat that fetus.
Who knows how many calves,
there could have been one, two or three calves in there.
Over the years they say one cow moose can have 50, 50 calves.
That's just one dead one, but futuristically, you know,
30 moose probably they killed.
Early last winter there was a bunch of wolves around town
that were getting dogs and whatnot,
and I tried my best with them, I didn't have any luck.
And I can't let this continue to happen.
I know the wolves are gonna come back for this,
there's a lot left to eat.
I'm gonna hang some snares, put some traps and whatnot.
Then next time they come through,
even if I don't catch anything,
they're gonna know that I'm after them.
You know, they're not gonna feel safe anymore.
♪ ♪
[John] Ah, let's check some more down to the south area
to find wood for the woodstove.
[Sonna Boy] Alright.
[John] There was a typhoon in Chevak, Alaska.
♪ ♪
When the wind subsided,
I saw the big difference with the land.
It's not like the land I've seen before.
These are the type of wood
that came all the way from the Yukon River.
That typhoon flood that came,
took all of this wood and deposited them right here.
This is more interior than ever before.
I lost a lot of things in Typhoon Merbok.
But it materialized something
that will keep us alive in the future.
♪ ♪
Okay, good.
[Sonna Boy] It's gonna be a while before I get back
from basic training with the National Guard.
I won't be here for a while.
I'm gonna miss the fresh air
and the outings with my grandparents.
♪ [singing Cup'ik song]
Chop the wood.
Hup.
Split it in half.
Light your match.
Oh hoh hoh hoh.
Man, it's really hot.
♪ ♪
[Sonna Boy] Ah hah hah hah.
[chuckles]
[John] Got to fill this up, okay?
[Sonna Boy] Uh-huh. [John] Go!
We are going to be warm for the rest of the year.
♪ ♪
[Glyndaril] Wonder if I could snap that.
Nothing beats brute strength.
[Marvin] How you doing there, Glyn, pretty good?
[Glyndaril] Oh, yeah.
[Marvin] Well, here we got a break,
as you can see, it's a little bit of rain.
But no wind.
Lot easier to...
[Glyndaril] The only thing predictable about this weather
is it's unpredictable.
[Marvin] Doing the same thing on this side as I did over here.
New window, new wall.
This is all totally doomed.
♪ ♪
[Glyndaril] Mother Nature has snow, she has rain.
She has cold and wind.
♪ ♪
[Marvin] There it is.
[Glyndaril] You give Mother Nature time,
Mother Nature will beat it down.
Already starting to pick up and get windy out here.
Starting to get little white caps.
♪ ♪
[Marvin] Oh, yeah.
You can see these two windows,
the one I'm putting in there is longer,
so I got to come out and move this over.
♪ ♪
[Glyndaril] The inside, we thought it was bad,
but the floor, it was worse.
[Marvin] Look at that, see the rot. Wow.
Look at this. That's the floor.
See the floor?
[Glyndaril] Oh, yi-yi.
[Marvin] It's disastrous.
♪ ♪
[wind howling]
[Marvin] That's why I didn't really want to get into this,
because I knew this was coming,
but, oh, well, I'm getting into it, heavily into it.
[saw whirring]
♪ ♪
Well, I'm trying to find the floor joist.
As you see, I got to cut the plywood out,
because I got to put new plywood here, this is all rot.
Well, that's what I'm gonna do.
♪ ♪
[Glyndaril] I'm just securing this Tyvek.
Make sure it doesn't--wcchh!--go.
♪ ♪
[saw whirring]
♪ ♪
[Marvin] I'm going to draw it out, Glynn,
so I know what we're drawing.
21 and three quarters.
[Glyndaril] 21 and three quarters.
♪ ♪
Oh!
Like a glove.
[Marvin] And like I say, it's no worries.
♪ ♪
[Glyndaril] Ladies and gentlemen.
♪ ♪
[Marvin] There it is.
[Glyndaril] And you know it's sturdy, it's holding me.
[Marvin] Now, I got to build a square box.
[Glyndaril] Yeah, for your window to sit on.
[Marvin] Yeah.
It's very hard living in the remote community,
because your mind wanders.
With that comes negativity.
And then I don't feel good.
I have a lot of experience.
[Glyndaril] Oh, yeah! Woo! Look at that.
That looks good.
[Marvin] Alcohol manipulated my way of thinking,
and it took me 35 years to realize that.
Took everything from myself,
till I ended up with just a backpack on my back.
And I'm getting everything that I've lost back again.
I got my outboard.
My skiff.
I got my house.
♪ ♪
There's that.
And it's very big for me.
Man, it's...felt right here.
There it is.
[Glyndaril] Perfect. Like a glove.
[Marvin] Happy, Glyn. Here you go, buddy.
Thank you.
[Glyndaril] My pleasure, Unc.
[Marvin] I'm so happy now.
♪ ♪
[Jody] Jame.
You see that wind whipping? You can hear it, too.
The sound of the wind blowing through those trees
across the river reminds me of my childhood.
Feels like home.
So while Jamey's getting the fire going,
I'm gonna start processing the bird.
These animals are our brothers.
We have to be humble, grateful,
and really have a mindset of reciprocity.
'Cause I can give you countless times
where the animal just offers itself to you.
And then that's when you take it really in honoring that relative
for sacrificing itself so you can eat.
That's the way I go out, that's my mindset,
and those are our traditional teachings.
Sure will taste good.
♪ ♪
[Tig] Seven, eight, nine.
[Hazel] How many snares are you gonna bring out, Dad?
[Tig] 12.
We'll start off with a dozen.
We're not gonna set nothing on that main trail.
So that way when the wolves come back in,
they're gonna come in as a pack.
They'll follow the leader in,
and then they'll get to the dead moose,
and they'll start breaking pieces off
and going to the sides.
And that's when, hopefully,
we'll catch wolf in one of these snares.
Let's go, baby.
♪ ♪
See this dead moose, baby girl?
[Hazel] Much bigger than me.
[Tig] Definitely been a wolf in here.
Oh, look there's tracks in it.
You see all these little trails leading out, baby?
That's where those wolves are gonna come in,
they're gonna chew off a good chunk of meat.
And then one's gonna go this way,
and he'll go lay down and eat it over there.
Another one will take a big chunk
and go lay down over there and eat it.
And that's the ones we want to snare off.
Wolves, you know, it's just another animal out here
just the same as us, trying to survive.
I never, ever want to extinguish the pack,
but they're getting a lot of moose,
and they're doing it really close to town.
There's 180 people in our community maybe.
All of us are moose-eating people.
We don't have any more caribou herds.
The fish aren't really back up this way.
The wolves got to eat just like us,
but they can do it farther out there in the country,
doesn't have to be right here next to town.
Wolf's chin is right about knee high.
That's how high you want it.
If you can get this snare to drop right behind the ear,
he's gonna be dead within five minutes.
Alright, baby doll, time to start sneaking these out there.
♪ ♪
Where should I put this one?
[Hazel] Right here, I think.
♪ ♪
[Tig] What do you think, it look good?
[Hazel] Yep.
[Tig] We'll give this three days maybe.
Think we'll get some snow here, and once we get that fresh snow,
it's a brand-new blank page out there.
Somebody's got to go out and read the story in the tracks.
Who knows?
[Tig] Alright, baby doll.
Let's go take a look at our spot.
Hold on.
You hear that?
♪ ♪
Wolverine.
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
Not what I was expecting.
[Hazel] Enaa baasee' doyonh.
Wolverine, daaltl'edze, teekkone.
Those are three of the most powerful spirited animals
in our culture right there.
You know we got something, we got to be thankful for it.
Well, I got some skinning to do.
[Hazel] Do we still need to go for the wolves?
[Tig] Yeah, absolutely, we still got to try and get those wolves.
The wolverines aren't the ones killing the moose.
The ones killing the moose are the teekkone.
Holy cow. Oh, it's--oh, heavy.
Man. He's full of that moose meat, too, so he's fat.
♪ ♪
Little bit exciting?
[Hazel] Yeah.
[Tig] That's called adrenaline rush
right there, baby.
♪ ♪
[John] No, not there.
Oh, yeah, right there.
Not crooked, you got to do it straight.
[Sonna Boy] It'll be at 32.
[John] All the way to here?
[Sonna Boy] Mm-hmm.
[John] Okay.
♪ ♪
Okay.
[Teresa] Need help?
Oh, don't let it fall.
[John] Ah.
[grunting]
[Sonna Boy] Is that, is that it?
[John] Look at it.
Look at it from the side, see how it is.
Oh.
[Sonna Boy] Looks nice.
[Teresa] Look, it says inactive and active.
Okay.
[Sonna Boy] This lever goes to the door.
[Teresa] Let's say it goes south, okay?
[Sonna Boy] And then, and then you got to wait
till it says "active."
When the needle goes west,
you can take this lever and face it north.
And then if you want to add more wood,
you take the lever and you, again, face it south.
[Teresa] Just say toward the door. Like you said.
[Teresa] Taringan? [John] Yeah.
[Teresa] And we'll ask each other again after half an hour.
[John] Don't ask me again.
[laughs]
[Teresa] We'll ask Sonna Boy.
Sonny Boy's a phone call away.
[Sonna Boy] With this stove and with this wood,
it's gonna help them out a lot while I'm gone.
They wouldn't have to worry about going to the store
and getting, getting little propane tanks.
Those little propane tanks don't come cheap around here.
It's, it's totally worth it, totally worth it.
I'll get ready to start the first fire.
I'm pretty excited about this.
[John] From this day, we're gonna have a warm house.
And our family, I know they'll be coming here
and stay in a warm place.
♪ ♪
[Jamey] Better chow down.
[Jody] Jamey and I aren't rich
by the American standard of wealth,
but I feel like we're rich just with peace.
You can't really buy this, right?
The view, with the Yukon out there, warm fire.
Good life, huh?
[Marvin] Now that I've changed my way of thinking,
I know good things come to you.
I don't have to go very far to go and get it,
it comes right to my door.
[Niece] Oh, really nice.
[Marvin] It's like we knew what we were doing,
like we're regular carpenters,
I was so happy when it came together and what we did,
it's like, man.
Having Glyn here was a big help.
Want to come inside and hang out for a second?
It's nice and warm.
♪ ♪
-Dad? -Huh?
[Hazel] What kind of tracks are these?
-That's moose. -Oh.
[Tig] I live here in Allakaket, Alaska,
along the Koyukuk River,
the confluence of the Koyukuk and the Alatna River.
Might be one of the coldest spots in Alaska.
This country, it's tough, and that's something
that you can expect to go out and just have luck.
[Mother] What you do today?
[Hazel] I went up the Alatna River,
and Dad heard a wolverine growling
'cause it got its paw stuck into the snare.
[Mother] Still alive?
[Hazel] Yep.
[Mother] Wow.
[Tig] We do get cold.
Just got to keep in mind that the end of the night
we're gonna be home to make a fire and survive.