CHASE_APASSINGOK CHRIS_APASSINGOK DANIEL_APASSINGOK GLYNDARIL JOEL_JACKO JOHN_PINGAYAK LOUISE_MOSES MARCELLA MARVIN_AGNOT SONNA_BOY TERESA_PINGAYAK TIG TIG All winter you go through nine months of dead silence. MARVIN AGNOT Getting a little tired of cabin fever, in this long cold winter. TIG Then you start hearing that first honk of a goose. Oh, my goodness, breaks the silence. To hear those spring birds come back. Amazing, unexplainable feeling. MARCELLA It's green everywhere. Very beautiful. Flowers everywhere. MARVIN AGNOT Blue skies and calm water. Green grass starting to grow. JOHN PINGAYAK It's spring right now. I can feel the sun. My spirit is renewed. In every season, we always have a different way of subsisting. TIG The springtime, there is a sense of urgency to get stuff done. It's a very busy time of the year. DANIEL APASSINGOK That's when the work starts. Need more game out there. Main migration of whales and walrus are here. LOUISE MOSES That's the time to go out duck hunting. JOEL JACKO Might catch a bear if you get lucky. MARVIN AGNOT That's what I'm looking forward to. MARVIN AGNOT Good things are coming. CHASE APASSINGOK We're kind of see the same spot. CHRIS APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Oh! There it is! Where is it? You never see it? CHASE APASSINGOK It just went down. CHRIS APASSINGOK It's gonna come up right there somewhere. CHASE APASSINGOK When I'm out there seal hunting with my brother, we gotta make sure we have the food for not only us but the community. It's just the way of life here. Come on, where'd it go? CHRIS APASSINGOK Yeah. On baskin. Never came up again. Go get em' on the boat, huh? CHASE APASSINGOK Yeah. Bet you, it's gonna come up again once we get to the boat. CHRIS APASSINGOK Ahh. DANIEL APASSINGOK Almost. DANIEL APASSINGOK Past couple years, I've had health problems. I had an ATV accident. Broke a couple of ribs. Month later, I had a heart attack. I got in the boat. And I'm stepping down as a captain just because of my health problems. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah, it looks pretty good out there. DANIEL APASSINGOK Best opportunity. My two boys, uh Chris and Chase. They hunting a lot of seals the last few years. Chris has been promoted as a boat captain. Chase has been promoted to be a striker. He wants to take after his brother. Hopefully I taught them well enough to be out there by themselves. Right there. CHRIS APASSINGOK Are those seals? CHASE APASSINGOK Yeah. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah. CHASE APASSINGOK When you're out in the boat, it's a lot harder to shoot then on land but, but if you take that shot, you gotta make sure that shot counts. CHRIS APASSINGOK Whenever you got a beat on it. CHASE APASSINGOK I'm gonna go for the one way on the right. Left. CHRIS APASSINGOK Anyone of em'. CHASE APASSINGOK I missed. DANIEL APASSINGOK After they go down in the water, it's a little bit harder. A little disappointing but, you know, they're still around so stay persistent in chasing em'. CHASE APASSINGOK God, almost! You can call me, almost. JOEL JACKO The winters finally over. Summers here. The weathers good for building and traveling. Trying to get as much done as I can. JOEL JACKO Hey, get outta there. JOEL JACKO I'm going up the Pile River today, we're gonna start on uh, rebuilding my dad's cabin. Try to take the four-wheeler up there so I can drag logs to the new site. The boats kinda a little too small to be doing this but think I should be fine if I can get it on here. All right. I got it on. Think we're ready to take off. You know, it's not easy when you're alone and your dog doesn't have any thumbs. My dad built his original cabin probably before I was even alive. And now it's just deteriorated to the point where I don't even think it's fixable. The river changed directions a little bit so it's actually not even on the river anymore. Think the best course of action is to go build a new cabin closer to the river that a little more easily accessible. A little better view. The original reason the cabin was up the river is �cause my dad would go trapping all winter up this valley. There's a lot more animals up there, especially in the winters. Be nice to kinda bring that back and to be able to hunt and trap in the winter. Being able to get out of the elements and have somewhere to crash for the night would be a game changer, I think. I reached the mouth of the river. This river gets a little tricky in here especially right now cause the suns melting the glaciers and so it turns the water like this blueish-green and you can't really see into it very far. So, it's hard to tell where the deep and shallow spots are. And then where the logs are covered up too. So, it will be a little tricky getting up in here without hitting anything. Try not to take off my lower unit off. When I was younger, we were leaving here. The boat drifted into a sleeper. The river was moving so fast it actually flipped the boat over and we almost died. Part of the beauty is the danger that goes along with it. You know, it's part of the reason I have a cabin is so that if something does happen, out in the middle of nowhere, I have somewhere to kinda retreat to and lick my wounds a little bit. It's the magical place that'll kill you. TERESA PINGAYAK When other people look at the tundra, they see nothing. But we see things that other people don't see. The tundra, it's a lifeline for us. JOHN PINGAYAK You ready Sonna Boy? SONNA BOY Yep. TERESA PINGAYAK There's a new day beginning. Take a deep breath. TERESA PINGAYAK [speaking Cup'Ik] Assiqapiareluni. JOHN PINGAYAK Going down Kashunak River. JOHN PINGAYAK It's kind of long and winding river. JOHN PINGAYAK We're gonna be looking for seal. It's sustainable to our way of life. JOHN PINGAYAK We can cook the meat, render the seal and use the skin for mukluks. Teaching your grandchildren how to hunt and survive on this land. It's really, really special to me and it�s spiritual too. SONNA BOY My Ada taught me growing up, seal hunting with him. I do not choose the seal, the seal chooses me. JOHN PINGAYAK [singing Cup'Ik] TERESA PINGAYAK Over there, over there, over there, over there. SONNA BOY Oh, yeah. JOHN PINGAYAK Sonna Boy, get it. Come on, Sonna Boy. TERESA PINGAYAK If you look out upon the water a head will bop up. JOHN PINGAYAK Keep your eyes open, both of them open, don't wink your eye. Here. TERESA PINGAYAK He keeps going back and forth, playing with us. JOHN PINGAYAK Huh, yeah. TERESA PINGAYAK [speaking Cup'Ik] Yaa-i tang, yaa-i tang! Right there, right there. Little low. SONNA BOY Embarrassing. TERESA PINGAYAK You will get it old boy. Wanna go down river a little bit, huh? JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah. TERESA PINGAYAK Let him go and find something else. JOHN PINGAYAK You gonna learn and you shouldn't have to feel bad about losing that seal �cause they'll be another one. TERESA PINGAYAK You ready old boy? SONNA BOY I'm ready. MARVIN AGNOT The tide has a lot to do with subsistence. Minus tides in the morning, it's a good sign that spring is here. MARVIN AGNOT All right, we're off like a herd of turtles. MARVIN AGNOT We're just out on our village. About ten-minute skip ride. MARVIN AGNOT We got all kinds of seafood out here, clam. All the good things that go with, living off mother nature. This is all these reefs around here that you gotta navigate. Otherwise, it's, hope you don't tear your lower unit off. Around here you got to pay attention to mother nature �cause it's just so unpredictable. The tide changes every 6 hours and there's nobody around here to rescue you. We're just gonna park right up here. We are getting some clams. And this is the first spot I've known how to get better clams right on the spot. This is the tool right here. This rake is a lot better to use than the shovel because it will break the clams with the shovel trying. My father taught me how to do this since I was a young kid and we've been carrying this on and I'm 50 years old and so it's still a spot that still produces a lot of clams. I try to move around the beach to find the concentration of them due to the tide. Looks pretty clammy around here. Always have to work our tide to get these because figure out places to move. There's quite a few steamers that are very good, you just soak them overnight and eat em' whole. All this seafood is fresh. It's not frozen when you get it. It's as fresh as it's gonna be and it's very healthy. A lot better than this fast food. See we got the tide coming in pretty quick. MARVIN AGNOT We got foam on the beach and the tide is changing. This time of the year it just comes up so, so quick. It's all about mother nature out here. I don't want to get stuck on the beach. MARVIN AGNOT You can see the tide just roaring. MARVIN AGNOT We get some really high, fast winds. MARVIN AGNOT It's pretty drastic out. This is totally unexpected. Out here, you have to prepare for the unexpected. If you're stuck or broke down, that's very dangerous. And we don't want that on a good day. Well at least we got a success and got some clams for a dinner tonight. TERESA PINGAYAK The community of Chevak is also my family. All together as one. JOHN PINGAYAK We cleanse ourself. JOHN PINGAYAK We burn part of the willow. The fire and the smoke will cleanse those not good spirits off me. When we do this, we can feel much lighter than ever before. JOHN PINGAYAK Sonna Boy, even if he doesn't catch anything. I always encourage him, you have to be persistent and going out next day, next day, next day. JOHN PINGAYAK Thank you. JOHN PINGAYAK [speaking Cup'Ik] Quyana. You ready Sonna Boy? SONNA BOY Yep. JOHN PINGAYAK I think they're running after a seal. SONNA BOY Yep JOHN PINGAYAK So I'm gonna join them. Sonna Boy, be ready. All of us are relatives when we're hunting. TERESA PINGAYAK Over there, right in front of that boat, I think it's a maklagaq, old boy. JOHN PINGAYAK [speaking Cup�Ik] Yaa-i tang. Here, over there. TERESA PINGAYAK Come on, get it. TERESA PINGAYAK Oh my goodness. That got it. They harpooned it. It's never individual in Chevak, it's together that makes us a stronger people. JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah. Yay! TERESA PINGAYAK It's Kerby, he wants to give us the seal. JOHN PINGAYAK So thankful for those young men. It really humbled me. That value is a blessing. When they give food, it comes back tenfold. That's the teachings of our ancestors. TERESA PINGAYAK All right, take care, be careful. JOEL JACKO It's great being out in the woods. It's just nice to get away from people and everything. Just listen to the river. JOEL JACKO Home sweet home. All right, wasn't too bad. Better than I thought it was gonna be. Well, that was the easy part. JOEL JACKO I came up a couple weeks ago and I kinda got a new spot picked out for the cabin. It's closer to the river. Cleared out some brush. Think I'm ready to start digging my holes now. And I can break some ground. My goal today is, just get the foundation in and I think I'll be sitting pretty if I get all that done. This is groundbreaking. This cabin is pretty far away from everybody. I went from being a family man to being just a guy with a dog in the woods. Everything has kinda changed a little bit. I kinda like the struggle of doing stuff by myself. Gives you a sense of accomplishment. Now I got it finished so see if I can't bust my way out. Fall some tree's, buck em' up. Limb em'. First, let's see if we can't get this outta the boat. This is definitely the first four-wheeler that's ever been up this river. Oh. Oh, I got the boat tied up tight enough. Come on, oh. Shit. Damn it. JOEL JACKO Ah. Stupid! Holy crap. Pulling the four-wheeler off the boat and the torque pushed the boat back and it snapped the rope cause I have stupid cheap line on there. And the boat slid out and the four-wheeler dropped and here we are, stuck in the sand. Mother suck. I got no four-wheel drive. No wonder why it won't climb up there. Brought a broken four-wheeler up the river. I think the front differential must of went out and I didn't know it. Cause the front tires aren't spinning, that's why it won't pull itself up the hill. Shoot. Ahh! I got the stupid broken four-wheeler out. It's not gonna be a whole lotta good now cause the front wheels don't freaking work. But I'm gonna go grab the boat now before it floats down the river and then I can't get it. Then I'll be walking home. It's the day of the two-wheel, I guess. So, I don't know how the cabin build is gonna go now with having a two-wheel drive, four-wheeler. I don't know if it will pull the logs or not with it, but I'll give her a try. It's a little, it's a little chilly. MARVIN AGNOT The food we eat out here is right out our door. That's the very uniqueness of Akhiok. MARVIN AGNOT Beautiful day for this, very beautiful day for this. MARVIN AGNOT There's a muscle in there. MARVIN AGNOT And you turn it around and you run your knife down the edge of it and you cut the other side and as you can see it just pop right open. MARVIN AGNOT And you do that on the other side. And there you go. You take the clam out and the gills you scrape that right off. And squeeze the belly and there you go. I've experienced once with one clam where I swallow up as big as a pie. I don�t know how long you'll live with a poison and I don�t wanna find out. That'll be terrible way to go. My parents were very into the subsistence stuff. That we were all united and gathered. We'll just get more of this cleaned up. I'll invite my family down here to come and have some clam chowder soup. Our food, that's a big part of our family tradition that we still subsist. I feel very happy to have all this seafood out here. Nice to have it in the restaurant too, but in the restaurant, it cost you an arm and a leg. And out here, just a little bit of time but the reward is greater because we put it all together on our own, and it's so much fresher. This is the reward of the adventure. Next mission is on the stove. Just gonna go dump these shells out on their normal habitat. Then be ready for the next adventure. CHASE APASSINGOK It's a learning experience every trip, you're never done. Just like life, you're figuring out things more and more as you go. CHRIS APASSINGOK After we get a seal, look for a meal. Haha. CHRIS APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Qateghllugllaak! Qateghlluk. CHASE APASSINGOK Seal hunting. CHASE APASSINGOK It's been a tradition for thousands and thousands of years. It's just the way of life here. Keeping the tradition alive, it energizes me. CHRIS APASSINGOK Look, look, look. God. I can't get a beat. DANIEL APASSINGOK Almost! Got to move to a different spot. CHRIS APASSINGOK go over there already. CHRIS APASSINGOK You know it's big responsibility to be the captain of a boat. Cause it's gonna take you where you want to go. You find the game. You can't not know how to do anything if you're a captain. Oh. There's two swimming in front of you. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah. CHASE APASSINGOK Yeah. If you see one there's gonna be more. My brother Chris, he's not only thinking about us. He is also thinking about the whole community. CHRIS APASSINGOK Lay down if you want. CHASE APASSINGOK It's important for us that we get more than enough food so we can distribute it to the rest of the community. Where? CHRIS APASSINGOK Right over there. Right in front of you. Ah. DANIEL APASSINGOK Watching Chase try to decide which one to shoot, kinda reminds me of me somehow. There's a time or two I had to do that. DANIEL APASSINGOK His mind must be going crazy. You know, you learn from your mistakes, and you try to adjust with them. Another. CHASE APASSINGOK I missed. Why? How we play that like groundhog game or something. Where you hit the groundhog with the hammer. It's kinda like that for me. I mean the seals come up outta nowhere and it's like a game of hide and seek. Where? DANIEL APASSINGOK That one on your right. CHRIS APASSINGOK Other side of that ice. DANIEL APASSINGOK Right there. Right in front of you. [speaking Akuzipik] Got too close. CHASE APASSINGOK It's just about telling yourself you're gonna get the next one. You gotta think positive. You'll find your shot. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Eshga Taanata! DANIEL APASSINGOK Hey! [speaking Akuzipik] DANIEL APASSINGOK Right on the neck. CHASE APASSINGOK As soon as we hit the seal we gotta try to go up to it really fast before it sinks or anything. We gotta harpoon it. You gotta try and get it in one shot. And got to get it in the best spot for it so we don't waste any food. CHRIS APASSINGOK Right on the neck! All right! DANIEL APASSINGOK Makes me happy to see them accomplish uh, catching game. Pull it up huh. Hunt some more. Pull it up and hunt some more. CHASE APASSINGOK It's a really big responsibility to be a striker. You gotta know where to hit it. It's a really good feeling when you hit 'cause you know you can do it again. For myself, knowing that I can do that, it's, it's a lot to take in. I've been practicing and practicing for so long. CHRIS APASSINGOK All right. CHRIS APASSINGOK Huh, this a [speaking Akuzipik] qazigyaghaq? DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Na neghsapiggaaguq. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Tagneghllak. CHRIS APASSINGOK When my brother finally hit the seal you know it's a big, happy feeling. Finally getting that food on to the boat. DANIEL APASSINGOK Day's not over, there's still more seals in the water. Might as well try see if we can't get another one. CHRIS APASSINGOK There's like three, four, five seals over there. Straight ahead. All right, let's go check them out. JOHN PINGAYAK I look at the river as a source of life. It's not stale, it doesn't stay in one place. It keeps moving. Full of fish, full of seals. It's a way of living. SONNA BOY When we were here a couple days ago I saw a needle fish in the lake. TERESA PINGAYAK Needle? SONNA BOY Uh huh. Needle. TERESA PINGAYAK [speaking Cup�Ik] Cukilek. SONNA BOY [speaking Cup�Ik] Cukilek. I'm gonna try and go get some. TERESA PINGAYAK Here? SONNA. BOY Yeah. TERESA PINGAYAK Oh, you're, you're on a mission. JOHN PINGAYAK Wintertime when the food is scare. JOHN PINGAYAK Our people are starving. Men go out and they cut a hole on the side of the river. And they put their nets in and during the low tide, all of the fish that are swimming out, they get caught in the net. This is what saved our people. JOHN PINGAYAK Until the resource like the seals come in. SONNA BOY Oh, that's, that's a lot. They're gonna be happy. TERESA PINGAYAK Did he get that many. I can't eat that many. SONNA BOY I tried getting as much as I could. It's a good snack to munch on. Oh. Yeah. TERESA PINGAYAK Oh, they're so good. It's a fish that small, that's a giant for people that can survive off the richness of that little fish. Comparing that to me. No matter how small I am, I am a bigger part of the bigger world. If my home community, if they're in survival mode, I am going to be the one to save them. I am that little needle fish that feeds many. And I am important. SONNA BOY They're just right. TERESA PINGAYAK Um hm. JOEL JACKO The most fulfilling here about living out here is building stuff out of nothing. Just a chainsaw and a dream. JOEL JACKO I got a couple trees picked out right here. I gonna try and knock them down and then, hopefully the four-wheeler will pull them in two-wheel drive. It might be a little bit of a challenge. We'll see how it goes. JOEL JACKO If I could get a couple trees right here for the foundation. JOEL JACKO And then maybe the first two logs going across the foundation posts, I think will be a good start for the cabin. I got one down, I got two more to go. Try and drop this one right in the river I think. Most people when they need lumber or firewood they gotta go to the store. The great thing about being out here, you get to use the land to your advantage. The reason this river was named Pile River is �cause they came up in this valley to get all the pilings for the docks in Bristol Bay, 60 years ago. These logs are so heavy, I can't pull them by hand. Hopefully I'm still able to pull the logs with two-wheel drive on this thing. Yeah! Yeah! You know, I'm up here with the four-wheeler from the early 90's that I just found in the dump basically, got running. The four-wheel drive went out, but it's still, its pulling logs, I'm impressed with it. It won't die. There's no way I could do any of this without it. Tracker. There's something over there. JOEL JACKO Tracker. Tracker. Tracker. Where's it at Tracker, huh, where's it at? Tracker. I think there's probably a bear coming up the river. Could be a moose but I doubt it. There's a pretty prominent bear trail that follows the river all the way up. There's actually been one hanging out at the mouth of the river, so hopefully they aren't coming up here. Oh, here's a couple tracks. Yea, this is a good size bear. I mean, that's his front paw too. There's wolf tracks right here too. Wolf tracks, moose tracks and bear tracks, within three feet of each other. I mean, you can still see the claw marks on everything, they're so fresh. There's definitely a bear over there, but he might be going away now. Tracker doesn't get that excited over nothing. He definitely knows that there's bears around. Within half mile , he's gonna find them. He may sleep all day, it comes down to the action, he's ready. He don't' fear nothing. Great protector of the woods. Yeah, yeah. DANIEL APASSINGOK As you get older you know, it's bittersweet sometimes. Learning how to hunt, something that you pass down. Touches my heart. CHRIS APASSINGOK Oh! Long range. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] It's floating. CHRIS APASSINGOK Right on your wound. All right! DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Katamngwaaghuuq. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Tagtalnga pinipigtuq. CHASE APASSINGOK I feel real confident about myself. CHASE APASSINGOK It's a, it's a really good feeling. Especially when your catching food for your family and for other people. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] There, we got a good and tasty seal! DANIEL APASSINGOK We got two seals in the boat now. Real good job for the boys, that they get two seals. Chris mastered the boat and Chase proves himself as a striker and a hunter. CHRIS APASSINGOK All right, let's go cut them up. CHASE APASSINGOK Fresh seal man, I can't wait to have some. I'm gonna be the one cutting the seals, and my brother, he's gonna be helping me through it. He knows a lot about cutting seals and butchering them. CHRIS APASSINGOK As long as you get to the spine, you can go to the other side. And past the first shoulder blade. DANIEL APASSINGOK Chris has been cutting seals since he was like five years old. I taught Chris a lot about butchering and hunting and it's good to see him passing that along to his younger brother, Chase. CHRIS APASSINGOK Put your hands on both sides. DANIEL APASSINGOK It's good to see my boys accomplish that at a very young age. CHASE APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Taawa. CHASE APASSINGOK Can't wait to eat. DANIEL APASSINGOK Both the positions that they're in you know, it's a joy to watch that. CHASE APASSINGOK I'm bringing it home. JOHN PINGAYAK If I pray, food are gonna be given to me. We have to respect the creator. JOHN PINGAYAK Keep your eyes open. JOHN PINGAYAK If you know the land and you respect it. JOHN PINGAYAK Our creator will look down upon you and give you plenty. The birds. SONNA BOY Duck. TERESA PINGAYAK Oh, they're gathering old boy. And these groups, they usually start gathering at about this time before they take off south. And they are good eating, so we need to get some, we need to hunt. JOHN PINGAYAK Use the shotgun. JOHN PINGAYAK Good job, Sonna Boy. Sonna Boy, when I first taught him how to hunt, I had doubts. He grew to be a man. Right now, he knows what to do. TERESA PINGAYAK You're a good shot, Sonna Boy. JOHN PINGAYAK My family, they gonna keep fishing out there. They're gonna keep hunting and storing food for winter. It's not gonna stop with me. My grandson is going to continue living the way I lived. Bringing our culture alive. JOEL JACKO I brought the Alaskan mill with me. I mean I actually made most of my house with this thing. And it's probably older than me �cause this was my dad's also. So he did a lot of milling with this for his house. The mill's definitely been around the block. Yeah, I didn't bring any power tools or anything with me so I'm just gonna do this kinda the old school, traditional way. Chainsaws and axes so, you know, notch in everything. I got all my tree's cut down and got them cut to length. I got the, you know, the fortress of cabins. Okay. All right, got all the posts in. They're all pretty lined up. And we'll through these long guys on top of them and then we can put the joists in. This is my first log, the building. Pivotal moment in log cabin building. Super excited to have this cabin up here, especially in the wintertime. Be able to go snow machining and then go moose hunting, back in this area and just have like a nice cabin to come to and warm up. Be out of the weather. I just think it will be great to have my own little shack in the middle of nowhere. All right, that's it. DANIEL APASSINGOK My boys got a couple of seals and we're gonna eat. Food's looking nice boys. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Neqniighhaghmeng! Seghleghhalek! DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Neghunnaqukut! CHASE APASSINGOK Feels great to be able to be looking at the food I caught, I get to feed my family. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Heng. Yughaalta. CHASE APASSINGOK Thank you father for this food bless this food. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. DANIEL APASSINGOK Hmm. It's hard to except the times. The older you get, the harder it is to do stuff. Having your boys step up in ways that you can't do yourself anymore. It's gratifying. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Eh! Neqnighllak. I have a lot of confidence in my boys. Skies the limit, what I see. Nice beautiful day to eat out. GLYNDARIL WHITE, JR. Hey Unc, ready to chow down. MARVIN AGNOT All right, we are ready for that. Come on in kids. MARCELLA Hi, Uncle! MARVIN AGNOT Hey, how are ya. Hey, there kids. You guys happy. Oh. MARVIN AGNOT We're so happy. MARVIN AGNOT All right. MARVIN AGNOT What did you bring to this. MARVIN AGNOT Fantastic meal? MARCELLA Fried halibut, some fried rice, some uh, fish to throw on the grill. It's gonna be an awesome spread. MARVIN AGNOT We'll we're gonna eat very good kids. MARCELLA We tend to rely a lot on our subsistence life. The fish, the clams. MARVIN AGNOT Well this is the only contribution I got. This is the clams that I cleaned yesterday. MARCELLA That's the important ingredient for the chowder. MARVIN AGNOT My family still practices native ways of subsisting and I am very proud of them. Runs in the family, how to cook. MARCELLA That's the funny thing, everybody always wants to sit there and wants to try to ask for recipes. We can't really give them to em' cause we don't measure anything. The joke is we sit there and receive the messages from our ancestors. MARVIN AGNOT Seafood we got right here is right out your door. This is how we were brought up, right from the sea and land but very comforting to see that, you know, that what was brought on by my parents to seen how happy the kids are and being a part of all of this. And, you know, that's where it is, right here with the family. TERESA PINGAYAK Let's see if they're easy to pluck. You want to race? JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah, I want to compete. I'll go faster. Man, you're an expert. TERESA PINGAYAK I'm always an expert at ducks. JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah. SONNA BOY It was a beautiful day today. I didn't get no seal in the end. But we got fish and a couple birds. Maybe a seal will want to come see me another day. JOHN PINGAYAK Sonna Boy, you were told to do service for me right? Until I pass on, right? And that's a big commitment for you. And you're already done a lot so far and I can't go without you. [singing Cup'ik] When I sing a song I have a beat. The sound I already know in my spirit, in my heart, in my whole blood. It's my mom's heartbeat. That's my family song. If it belongs to me, it belongs to you. Sonna Boy, stand up. Face towards the east. And put your stance on, put your hands up towards the east. That's where our creator is. That's where the sun always come up from the east. You want to be a good hunter, then you go like. Go up and down. There you go. Keep doing that and don't stop. [singing Cup'ik] It's non-stop, it just keeps going. JOHN PINGAYAK It's part of my body. And if I'm signing and performing in front of everybody, it reflects that heartbeat out to the people. And it wakes them up. Hey, wake up. This is life. No matter how tired you are, I'm gonna let you dance all day. GLYNDARIL WHITE, JR. First time I�ve smoked a deer, won�t be the last. These are where the kings hang out. Just got this smoker about a month ago. I think I�ve done cooked on this more times than I�ve cooked inside the house since we got it. You would call this ode to my father-in-law. He�s the one who taught me how to process all the deer. How not to waist the deer. The deer neck is usually something most people don�t eat. I actually salvaged the deer neck from someone who shot a deer. He was just gonna throw the deer neck away so I took the ribs and the neck. Just picture it as recycling, recycling deer meat. Another�s man trash is another man�s treasure. But I did not get this outta the trash. Let me reiterate, I did not get this outta the trash. I salted the deer neck for about five days. Took it out, we marinated it. Then we smoked it for about, ooh, since what, about eight o�clock this morning and then at about two o�clock turned up the heat. And it�s already got the good smoke flavor in. I just put the salmon on the grill. Learned so much more cooking, my repertoire has just expanded when it comes to cooking. The Filipino dishes and the native dishes, oh, they�re all so good. Gotta love the village life. No other place I�d rather be than right where I am, right now. There is no comparison to here as to California, where I was from. That was my life and it was just, this was all day, all day, everyday. You don�t smoke meat in California, you don�t got the time. Here, you got nothing but. This is home.