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TIG: Man, that's beautiful.
It's nice on the river like that.
LOUISE: Really.
TIG: After not seeing it for so long, it kinda hurts my eyes.
(laughing).
Moose gotta miss the sun too I'd imagine.
I would've hoped they would come out and take a peek,
soak it up some.
There's that wolf pack upriver not too far.
There's about five or six of them.
That's why we're starting to notice a lot more moose tracks
around the river, these wolves are terrorizing them.
Every day, they're losing more and more fat as these wolves
are running them.
We better hurry up and try and find one.
I got a large family.
Nine of us total eating off of one moose.
You know, my kids probably eat three to four pounds of
moose meat every day.
We need the meat, but we have to keep an eye out
for other predators.
We can't be the only ones that miss the sun.
I see them.
Cow and calf.
We're just gonna have to let them go.
We kill a cow moose, that's just like killing
anywhere from 30 to 50 moose, just by killing one cow moose.
Every other year, they have a calf.
And every other calving season, they have twins.
So that's a lot of food for us.
You know, that's gonna feed our children,
our grandchildren, our great grandchildren.
All coming from that cows right there.
So we need to respect them.
God bless you both.
I wish nothing but the best for you.
MARVIN: Here in our village, we live by the tide out here
when the tide is low, the table is set.
A little bit of snow, it don't bother me because
I can still see.
You know, right now I'm just on the mission for
getting some, oh look at this.
Sea urchin.
This is what we call Uutuk in our native language.
Don't need much, just enough to eat.
Huh.
When I was a kid growing up, we'd fill up a five gallon
bucket like this in about 20 minutes.
Very easy pickings then.
And now they're harder to find, and they are a lot smaller.
This has gotten harder, and it takes a little longer.
Akhiok has changed quite a bit
in my 50 years of being out here.
It's getting a lot hotter, tides are gotten bigger,
food is slowly disappearing, and that's the scary part.
You know, if we don't deal with it, it's gonna deal with us.
It's getting just a little too hard to see,
and the wind is picking up.
I think I should call it.
JODY: No matter the temperature, there are always
things we have to do.
Things need to get done no matter the weather.
So what do you want me to do, babe?
JAMEY: Hold the ladder for me when I go up.
JODY: Okay.
JAMEY: And watch, see if I, if anything happens,
"Whoa, help me!"
JODY: Just watch you. JAMEY: Yeah.
JODY: So you're gonna tie off though?
JAMEY: I'm already tied off right here.
JODY: Oh, okay, good. This makes me nervous.
JAMEY: Makes you nervous?
JODY: It's been a really interesting winter.
Really rough conditions, big drifts, extreme wind,
a lot of deep snow.
Just real erratic type of weather that we're
not familiar with, and just having to be prepared and
adapt and adjust has been very challenging.
It just never really ends.
Today we have to get a few chores done.
We haven't been able to get as much done because
it's been so cold out.
JAMEY: Throw this over the top, you can hand me that shovel.
Okay.
JODY: We are gonna be pulling some snow off the roof.
Need to get some medicine for my cough,
and gather some water from the river.
So Jamey's gonna go up on the roof, but he's gonna
tie off with a rope so he doesn't slip off and fall.
Make a good knot.
JAMEY: Yeah. Got it, babe.
JODY: We're moving snow off of like a metal roof.
He could most definitely slip and hurt himself,
and we don't have any medical care close by,
so that's really important to be safe out here
and not take any like undue risks.
But at the same time, we gotta get this snow off our roof.
You know, it's a lot of weight to hold on top of our roof,
and we don't want to have any structural problems
as a result.
So we just have to stay on top of stuff like that.
Oh, there we go.
That's working good.
Like an avalanche.
Dang!
JAMEY: I'm moving to the other side.
JODY: How are you gonna tie off on this side?
JAMEY: Snow machine.
JODY: You want me to go bring it around?
JAMEY: Yeah. Loop it just probably right, right there.
JODY: Okay. JAMEY: Yeah.
I'm tied off to the tent frame on the other side,
I'm using that as an anchor.
But I have nothing to tie off to on this side,
so I'm gonna use the snow machine to tie off to.
Just so I don't slide off the other side.
Good, carry it over to the snowgo.
JODY: All right!
So I moved the snow machine over here to tie him off
because he's now working on the other side of the roof.
Are you good, babe?
JAMEY: Oh, yeah!
♪ ♪
That's it!
JODY: Good job, babe.
JAMEY: Oof! Job well done.
JODY: Yup.
JAMEY: All right. Let's go warm up.
Have a little tea time.
JODY: I know that's a lot of snow.
JAMEY: Yeah. It's a lot of snow.
JODY: Hi, Kubo.
DANIEL: It's a family effort here.
You know, everybody works on little projects of their own
to get everything connected.
CHASE: Not too long ago. DANIEL: Yeah, looks nice.
CHASE: I didn't tell them that I was making it, so I,
kind of, want it to be a surprise.
DANIEL: It's the first wood stove my boy made,
so I'm excited.
It's gonna have the garage nice and warm, work on my
equipment and whatnot, and it's gonna be a big help.
I'm really grateful for that.
Aa!
CHASE: Oh, yeah.
CHASE: I didn't really test it out to see if my weld had any leaks.
DANIEL: So we're gonna test it outside, just in case,
you know, I might burn the garage down.
CHASE: So, I'm a little anxious to see it run.
DANIEL: It'll be easier to burn.
The fun part begins!
DANIEL: Come on!
DANIEL: Eh!
Stove didn't want to start up because it wasn't mine.
Yeah! The first smoke!
DANIEL: Now we gotta go get the wood for it, eh?
CHASE: Yeah.
DANIEL: Wow, looks good!
TIG: You gotta treat the country right, that's what
our elders tell us.
You gotta respect it, the country will respect you back.
Maybe we'll just put on our snowshoes and head out this way.
Moose can hear that snow machine coming from miles away.
And when they hear that coming, they're not a dumb animal,
they're gonna step off into the brush, lay down,
hide themself.
God bless the man that invented the snowshoes.
LOUISE: Nothin' in there.
TIG: Clear? LOUISE: It's good.
TIG: All right. I wanna make sure we're safe.
LOUISE: Yeah, I'm safe.
TIG: I wanna go home with all the same holes I got.
LOUISE: Hopefully we see something.
Maybe we'll get lucky and chase something out.
TIG: Made a bed right there.
Definitely a moose in this island.
I'm not sure if it's hiding behind one of these humps or what.
There's a lot of fresh tracks around here we're seeing,
beds and whatnot.
Kinda thought we would've seen something by now.
A lot of tracks in here.
Is that eye or button?
(whistling).
It's a bull.
If you can see your shot, take the shot right behind the ear.
♪ ♪
TIG: The safety on these guns.
He must have hit the road and ran out of here.
We ran into a moose and I finally seen some small
buttons on it, and, you know, decided to take a shot.
I handed Louise the gun, she loaded it.
But, I forgot to tell her that the safety was on,
so when she went to squeeze the trigger,
she couldn't pop a shot off.
That was my mistake right there.
Catch your breath for a minute.
See, the moose is out here.
He ran along this willow line,
went back out towards the river.
A nice young bull, small antlers on him,
nice tender good-eatin' meat.
Got your breath?
LOUISE: Just listening, see if I hear any willows breaking.
TIG: She's my ears, I'm her eyes.
All right, let's see if we can catch up to him again.
MARVIN: I have my ups and downs, but I got
a lot more ups than downs.
Only way I can look at change is through me.
(match strike).
That's a nice flame there.
That looks pretty hot.
I just got some sea urchins.
Uutuks, on that minus tide, and the seafood that we get
out here is very hard to come by.
But it's very nice to have a little fire like this.
Take a little breather and warm up a little bit, and
carry on your mission.
It's a time of healing for me, when I'm finally figuring out
what I'm gonna do.
And when I do it, I'm ready to go and do it all over again,
but I'll be sober.
Winter time out here is very hard because we are
very limited on a lot of things to do.
A wandering mind just beats you up very bad.
Alcohol played a big factor,
and I got no shame speaking of that.
That is the bottom line.
I was an alcoholic.
It took me 35 years to realize that there is something better.
In the ages of my sobriety, I have really worked,
and I got everything back that I've lost on the way.
I missed so much of my youth, but there's nothing that will
make me go back to where I was before.
There's not an amount of hurt that'll make me falter.
Yeah.
Right now, I think it's about low enough for me to go and
get some sea urchins, uutuks.
DANIEL: It's harsh winters, very harsh.
The weather changes in an instant out here.
But when those nice days come around, you know,
it's rewarding.
DANIEL: Russia's only 38 miles from here.
DANIEL: See that? That looks good, boy.
Okay.
CHASE: That one? DANIEL: Yeah.
CHASE: Okay.
DANIEL: Come over here, in this side, eh?
DANIEL: Ey! CHASE: Okay.
CHASE: Yeah. Are you gonna cut?
DANIEL: Go ahead. CHASE: Okay.
CHASE: I have no clue. I don't know how to use it.
CHASE: I'm pretty nervous and excited at the same time.
Just thinking about it, I might accidentally chop
my toes off or somethin'.
Oh, man.
CHASE: I don't know how to use it.
CHASE: Okay. DANIEL: Hold onto this one.
♪ ♪
CHASE: Yeah.
DANIEL: It's pretty cold out there.
Very hard on the machinery.
(chainsaw whirring).
DANIEL: Ey!
(chainsaw whirring).
DANIEL: Turn it off.
CHASE: Turn it off? DANIEL: Yeah.
CHASE: It was my first time actually trying the chainsaw,
and I just loved it.
A new toy.
DANIEL: Chase is growing up, and he's a young man now,
you know, it's humbling to watch him follow in our footsteps.
Now!
You have fun with the chainsaw?
CHASE: Yeah, yeah, I did.
This load is probably as much as this sled can take, eh?
DANIEL: Yeah. Okay.
CHASE: Oh, yeah.
JODY: The land provides everything that we need.
And so, I'm just really lucky that this land right now is
still somewhat healthy and intact.
(coughing).
I've had this horrible cough, and this here is medicine.
I can make a tea out of this part of the tree branch.
I don't remember the name of it in Indian, and I don't know
the name of it in English.
But I know it's medicine.
So I'm gonna take this branch home and be able to make a tea
out of it, and it's gonna help me with this cough I've had.
Our people have lived here for millennia and have always
known how to live in this harsh environment.
The land holds a lot of medicines.
I would say almost for every ailment or injury,
there's something in the land that will help cure it.
We hold traditional ecological knowledge that comes from
generations of observations of living in these places,
of knowing these animals, these waters, these lands.
This one spruce tree will provide a lot for our people.
It's firewood, it could also be used to make a log house.
The spruce pitch can draw out an infection from the skin,
like from an abrasion or a cut or something.
So, all kinds of implements to care for our people.
You know our way of life has always been sustainable,
'cause we lived in balance with our surroundings.
You know we have this sacred relationship with the land,
and we're blessed because we maintain that relationship for
thousands of years.
This is a good medicine,
and I'm gonna drink some of this tonight.
TIG: This is our farmland out here.
We got everything we need in our land, and we've been
taught how to get everything we need out of this land.
That's a subsistence lifestyle.
I'm not seeing any buttons.
I am not gonna go the rest of the year
until fall without eating moose meat.
You know, we've been driving around looking for moose,
trying to get our freezer full.
I can't tell you for sure if it's a cow or a bull, ma.
TIG: A little too far to see the buttons with just binoculars.
I really want to get closer to make sure it is a bull.
I have to get close, I have to make sure that that's a bull.
I do not ever want to make a mistake and shoot a cow.
That's our future.
These calves, that's the food my kids are gonna eat.
That's the food my grandkids are gonna eat.
This time of the year we can't see any antlers.
(imitating moose call).
LOUISE: Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!
TIG: Looking like he's stuck in this bank.
TIG: He's right in here someplace.
Pretty sure it was a bull too.
LOUISE: Hey!
TIG: Yeah, I don't see no dutes, I didn't see any buttons.
No dutes, no bell.
No dutes no shoots, Ma.
Man, I was hoping that was a bull.
I felt bad that I did chase it and stressed it a little bit.
But you know I would have felt a lot worse if I had decided
to take a long shot and shoot it, and I pulled up
and I found out that was a cow.
LOUISE: What do you wanna do?
TIG: We're just gonna keep driving around, put on
snowshoes and walk through the willow bars and
see if we can't run into one.
DANIEL: Living out here, all the freedom that you have,
it took a lot of hard work.
I don't think I'll ever live anywhere else.
Gonna get it running here.
See how it looks in there.
Today we're gonna bring the wood stove in the garage.
CHASE: My dad wanted this garage for a long time, and
hopefully we can get it warmed up today.
I've been waiting to get my stove running,
and I'm pretty excited to.
Is everything all right?
DANIEL: Okay, you ready? CHASE: Yeah.
DANIEL: Probably need to climb up on the roof.
CHASE: Okay.
DANIEL: Kinda secluded, to be way out here.
In the middle of the Bering Sea, kinda hard to,
uh, get anything out here.
If you want it to warm up you go out and do it yourself.
DANIEL: So, you think it's gonna hold for now?
CHASE: Yeah. DANIEL: Yeah, that's good.
DANIEL: Chase is anxious to start up the stove.
He worked on it, so I'll give him the honors.
CHASE: Long enough, you can put it that way.
CHASE: That should start it.
DANIEL: That actually sounds like a wood stove, eh boy!
CHASE: Oh, man.
DANIEL: I was very impressed that he built this wood stove.
The workmanship on it was pretty good.
A lot of hard work was just put into that garage.
DANIEL: We're ready to rock. You did a real good job.
DANIEL: I think that wood stove's gonna last a long while,
and I think it'll be passed down from generation to generation.
Ey!
DANIEL: Gonna be fun.
JODY: A lot of people for generations have lived like
this including my own family, and we survived and we have a
lot of crazy stories to tell.
Even though there are some risks I just feel like
this is really living.
JAMEY: Ah, do I have to do this today?
JODY: If you love me.
We have to gather water on the river because we don't have
running water or a well.
It's been cold, 50 below last night, 38 below right now, so,
takes a little work, we gotta punch a hole in the ice.
We've actually had a pretty cold winter.
In these really bitter cold temperatures, so, this is the
first time we ever used one of these kinds of motorized,
what is that called?
JAMEY: Auger. JODY: Auger.
Normally we chipped it out but we knew it was such a cold winter,
let's get one so it'd be easier to punch a hole in the ice.
All right, let's do this.
JAMEY: Okay.
JODY: Native people today walk in two worlds.
You know our traditional, cultural way of life,
but then also this modern way of life.
That's a lot of ice.
JAMEY: That's pretty thick.
We'll just keep trying it.
We'll get there.
JODY: We go through ten gallons of water a day on average.
Drinking, cooking, washing, dogs, so you have to be ready
to go out and get water at any point.
It's just a way of life out here.
You're always having to do something just for your
basic means of survival.
And it's good to make sure you have enough to last you
a while, 'cause you just never know how conditions are,
and it may be harder tomorrow to get more.
JAMEY: All right.
JODY: Oh, my God. That was some work.
My arms are tingling from all that.
But, it's the best water ever.
Crystal clear, pure Yukon River water.
If we had any kind of industry upriver from here,
we wouldn't be able to use this water.
So, way of life really depends on the health of the land,
and the water.
Water is life.
Babe.
JAMEY: Huh?
JODY: See how it's kinda dirty around there?
I feel like that nasty ass machine, look, see what's dripping?
I hope our water's not contaminated.
ing dr.
JODY: Look, and around our water hole now.
JAMEY: (bleep) Doggonit.
JODY: So it kinda has me worried our water might be
tainted now from that machine.
Arctic cold can be hard on everything.
It's hard on machines so happens like that and now
our water hole could be tainted so.
I dunno, we'll check out our water and see if
it's still gonna be okay.
So if the water is contaminated from that machine,
then we're gonna have to melt snow.
It's time consuming, sometimes it's hard to melt enough snow
to meet all your water needs.
I'm gonna test this water first, okay?
JAMEY: Okay. JODY: Man.
I don't see any residue.
It was oil so it'd be kinda like a black residue on top, floating, yeah?
JAMEY: Sheen, yeah. JODY: Sheen.
I don't see anything like that, looks good.
It's fine.
Looks good and clear to me.
MARVIN: It takes a lot of uprightin' that ship,
but then, once you're upright you're floatin'.
When you're floatin' you've got visibility, and when you
can see you got choices.
MARVIN: This is, uh, not my dog but I feed him on a good
basis so he hangs with me, and I like it when he comes with
me because he's a good guard dog.
His name is Hero. Right Hero?
MARVIN: Sea urchin.
Must be going blind in my age.
This is not only part of what I do, just to get seafood.
This right here is a part of my healing.
Good enough.
I'm starting to learn in my sobriety, it relieves a lot of
tension and stress because of how pristine and
unique it is out here.
Yeah, it's really nice when it's moonlight out.
You know what the moon does to the tide, the weather,
and everything else?
It has a strong effect on me.
I've already been on the bottom.
And I've already been on the top,
and it's all in the same wavelength.
Now I see hope, I really do.
I think I shall call it an evening for getting sea urchin
I guess.
Very nice.
Starting to feel in tune with that wonderful moon.
TIG: If you keep trying, keep on it, you respect the land,
the culture, eventually you're gonna be blessed
with what you're looking for.
Hey.
TIG: Tseekk'aal, no haal tee'oyh.
Great grandfather, please bring us some luck.
TIG: It's always a good sign when you see ravens out here.
In our culture or tradition,
the raven is a very powerful animal.
In the beginning, the raven built a raft and it took all
the animals in pairs and put them on this raft.
Just the same way as Noah's Ark.
That was the beginning of the earth, beginning of our people.
And this story came from before our people had ever
seen outside culture, outside tradition.
When we'd shoot a moose, there's their big gut pile and
the blood and whatnot, everything that they like
to come and eat.
And that's good for them.
We give it all the respect we can.
We make prayers to the raven all the time.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
LOUISE: Well, it's getting a little bit colder now,
it's cooling off with the sun going down.
TIG: I believe it will warm up eventually.
Can't stay cold forever.
For some reason, we're just not having any luck.
LOUISE: Our people always say don't give up,
you gotta remain strong.
We have to keep going out, we have to keep trying.
TIG: See some fresh tracks going into this bar.
You know the moose like to come back out of the trees
in the night.
Sleep along the willow bark,
so they keep an eye out for predators.
Maybe we'll turn up the bank and go through the
portage a little bit.
See if anything came back out of the portage.
You doing alright?
LOUISE: Yeah.
TIG: Your face isn't, no frostbite, no nothing?
LOUISE: No. TIG: Okay.
You look like a snowman.
I don't know what I look like either.
Probably look all snowy too.
Ready?
LOUISE: Yep.
TIG: All right mama. Hang on good.
LOUISE: Okay.
TIG: I do get cold, this is 65, 70 below you know.
We're not made of steel, you know.
We do get cold out here.
If we did not get a moose this year, you know that's 75% of
our diet throughout the year.
We do do our best to feed our kids as traditional and
as much native foods as possible.
We are gonna get this done.
We're gonna try and hopefully we will be blessed.
Right here, I can see its head.
Behind that pile of brush.
You see?
Right here, you see him good?
Whoo! Whoo!
He's right there, Ma.
Got him?
He's running.
Might catch him up out here.
TIG: Go ahead, go ahead take him.
Take him.
LOUISE: Okay. TIG: Yup, you're ready to go.
(gunshot).
Think you got him.
Yeah, he's down right there.
Oh yeah, you did hit him right behind the neck, Ma.
Oh yeah the buttons are right there.
Beautiful animal, beautiful.
I'll take good care of you.
LOUISE: I brought down a big animal, it's pretty proud
feeling but I'm not gonna boast about it,
that's now what we do.
I was taught to remain silent and grateful.
TIG: We just go out and we thank this moose,
thank you for offering yourself to us.
We tried hard, we looked for you hard.
We didn't give up.
You noticed it and you allowed us to take you.
We just want to give ultimate respect to this animal.
In the future hunts, the other animals will know, okay this
family they gave it good respect let's give 'em some luck.
Let's offer ourselves up.
Grab my cup, Ma.
♪ ♪
Ugh. Warm.
My mom taught me, when you shoot a moose in the winter,
drink the blood.
You don't have to drink a whole cup or nothing like that.
Just enough, that's gonna give me the energy to
finish this moose.
Better than tea.
This is why we pray to the raven.
We stay faithful to our traditions, our ancestors,
and we'll be blessed.
Oh.
LOUISE: Careful.
TIG: What we're taught from a young age is everything
has got a spirit out here.
We're connected, we're just the same as these animals.
We're just trying to thrive, survive, and live too.
Good way to respect these animals is stay connected
with them, appreciate them, talk with them.
Let them know we have the ultimate respect for them.
I believe we are set to load up, head home,
cut something off to cook.
JODY: I'm tired after a hard day's work, but I feel best at
the end of the day, after I've spent some time on the land.
Living out here and having all this work to do just for your
basic means of living, it's just, makes you appreciate
all the other little things.
I'm just doing things like this to be productive,
and pass some time.
I enjoy it, it's kinda relaxing for me.
I like making stuff.
Not too long ago, my husband Jamey harvested a couple
wolves, one of the wolves my husband got was actually
headed towards our yard where I had all my sled dogs.
They're like us, they're also predators and, you know,
we have to like kind of respect each other's space.
I don't take it lightly when I take any animal whether
it's for food or fur.
It's our way of life and I don't necessarily get hurt
and devastated and things like that.
You know, but at the same time we have to really honor this
animal and it's in our culture to respect these wolves.
We like to use all parts of the animal, and so I really
enjoy processing the claws to be made into jewelry.
You know, our people for the most part don't really care
for fancy diamonds and things like that.
We like to adorn ourselves with things from the land
and the animals.
These are of high value for our people, and so I'm really
glad to be able to put them out into our community.
We get to live once and I'm just so happy to be on the
land as my ancestors have been.
TIG: You gotta work together.
One of you guys are pulling and one's pushing.
At the same time you're doing opposite motions.
I go three times as fast with you guys helping me.
This moose is gonna provide many meals for my family,
we're gonna offer some to the elders, my auntie she knows
how to tan moose hide.
She's gonna take that, tan it, and make moccasins, mittens,
stuff to keep us warm.
Nothing is gonna go to waste from this animal.
Everything will be used.
What's up Doc?
What you want, you want rib? Thigh meat?
DOC: Thigh meat. TIG: All right.
You look hungry so I'll cut you a big piece.
I hear your belly from here.
If I help out, I continue to pass it along,
it'll continue to come back to me.
TIG: Oh ho, oh ho.
The plate that I gave away, the plate that's now empty,
that plate will get filled up again in the future.
That's how we continue to keep our luck, you boys.
We can't be greedy with our food.
That's how our people have been able to live and thrive
like this for a long time.
It's just the way we are.
Let's go eat boys.
You guys did a good job today, I'm proud of you.
MARVIN: Hmm.
Oh, that's a pretty skinny one, it looks like he was starving.
Ha. It's a toughie.
Oh yeah, this guy's got something, you can see that.
All right, there you go.
These are very good, right off the beach, but even better
the next day because they get sweet.
And, um, these are a little small, but
they still taste the same regardless.
Very rich in iron.
And good, good with bread.
My, um, grandparents who I would call Ootoo and Papa.
I used to sit and watch them.
They would eat everything in sight, the sea urchin,
all the guts and everything, they would just clean the
whole thing out and eat it.
Tastes very good.
Makes me think of my mom and dad 'cause they would sit up
in the morning, first thing in the morning, they would
sit there and they would have uutuks and homemade bread.
We relied on these oceans for generations and
things are changing.
The ocean is not producing what it used to.
TIG: Everything's changing, the land, the river, the animals.
DANIEL: It's a lot harder to go out in the boat now.
It's a lot windier now, and the waves come in faster, bigger.
MARVIN: Snow, on the mountain, you could just slowly see it
disappearing over the years.
And that is pretty scary over here to see that happening.
JODY: Right now, Alaska especially is out of balance,
but also our people, using our sovereignty,
hold a lot of the solutions.
We have thousands of years of our relationship with
the land and the animals in perfect balance.
TIG: As long as we stay true to our culture and
our heritage we're gonna thrive, we will survive,
and we're gonna make it through.
Hard times don't last forever.
Strong people do.
MARVIN: If we take care of that ocean that's out there,
where these are at, you know,
they'll always be there and plentiful.
And that's a very good thing.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.