CHRIS_APASSINGOK DANIEL_APASSINGOK ISAAC_BIGGER_BOY_PHILLIPS JODY JOEL_JACKO JOHN JUSTIN_PHILLIPS LINDA_AMODO MARVIN_AGNOT NALU_DANIELLE_APASSINGOK STEVEN_TIG_STRASSBURG TERESA TERESA I still listen to all those stories that were told of long ago. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Ever since as a little boy, my grandparents, my dad told me it's my duty. JODY It's my responsibility. MARVIN AGNOT My own clear path. JOHN To share whatever you know, whatever you learned. DANIEL APASSINGOK Pass it down to the next generation. JOHN Tell the world how we survived out here. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG All throughout history, our people have always gotten together to listen to the stories of how our elders used to do it before us. And that's how we survive out here. JODY This is harsh, cold, dark environment. Unpredictable and unstable conditions. JOEL JACKO I like to live off the land 'cause I think it's very important to be self-reliant. MARVIN AGNOT I got a lot of nieces and nephews here in the village and I want to teach them. DANIEL APASSINGOK The unity that we have, having this culture, this lifestyle. CHRIS APASSINGOK Feel a responsibility that has to be carried on. JOHN Our way of life is so unique, so rare that if I put a fence around my culture. JOEL JACKO Right there, right there! JOHN That's it, it's gone with me. DANIEL APASSINGOK The weathers been pretty harsh lately. DANIEL APASSINGOK About a month or so since we went out last time. We've had a poor season this past year. But the game is still out there though. Ay! DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Ayveq esgha taana ii-i! Walrus! Down there, right there. Looks promising. My name is Daniel Apassingok. My native name is Takevaghmii. I live in Gambell, St. Lawrence Island. Two hundred miles (320 kilometers) west mainland Alaska. And thirty-eight miles (60 kilometers) from Russia. I'm with Laakaghmii Clan here in the village with my family. My boys and my daughter. We are Siberian Yup'ik. Heave ho! We live this tradition. DANIEL APASSINGOK Good to be out in the ocean. DANIEL APASSINGOK Feels good. CHRIS APASSINGOK Me and my sister and cousin, my dad are going out boating. Hopefully we'll be able to see some walrus. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK What's that up there? I thought I saw movement over there. DANIEL APASSINGOK Walrus are migratory animals. We have a short window to, uh, collect that. Walrus is the food that we eat the most. DANIEL APASSINGOK We try to bring as much home and try to make it last through the summer and, uh, back into fall. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK Come on something. DANIEL APASSINGOK Ay, ay, ay! DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Tazinga! Ayveghllak! Haay? DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Aygumun pinaquq! CHRIS APASSINGOK Should come up real big again. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Esghapakaghluku ay? DANIEL APASSINGOK Look for a fin now. DANIEL APASSINGOK This area. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Naagu, esghaghnaqiteggu. It'll come back up. CHRIS APASSINGOK Young bull. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah. Young bull. CHRIS APASSINGOK Just exactly quite we're looking for. DANIEL APASSINGOK Real fat one. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Teskanavek aningughyaqumta! DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Sangwaat pillequt. CHRIS APASSINGOK It shouldn't go too far. JOEL JACKO Ugh. No. JOEL JACKO Come on. Tracker. You gonna help? JOEL JACKO Not much help at all. JOEL JACKO My name is Joel Jacko. I live in Pedro Bay, Alaska. Which is really on a lake. I'm Athabascan Indian. I'm part of the Taltsiine Clan, which means Water Clan. Everything revolves around the lake here. Living alone in Pedro Bay, it's just me and Tracker. He's definitely my best friend. Living out here you define yourself and you're not dictated by what other people do or what other people think of you or are gonna say about you. I mean I saw more freakin' spruce hens today then I did people in the last month. I've been around the world, and I realized this is where I want to be. I like knowing that my destiny's in my own hands. Wanna be self-sufficient, that�s my goal. Oh yeah, I think I see the mill. JOEL JACKO Today me and Tracker, we're gonna try to retrieve my buddy�s old sawmill. I think that's it. It looks really bad. Not good. It's pretty covered in debris; I hope nothing got damaged. There's like an old boat right here too. Like all this got washed up in the last storm. It's not what I was expecting. I have to get this mill like right now, 'cause once the bays freeze over, I can't get the boat out anymore. And I need the mill to finish my house. I've been working on it for ten years. It's an ongoing battle. Dang. I don't know, I might have to cut this out with an axe or something. Ah. I don't know, this is like ridiculous I feel like. My buddy, he's coming back in the spring and he's gonna need the mill. So, I only have until spring to use it. So, if I don't get it out now, then I'm kinda up a creek. There's a big storm rolling in tonight or tomorrow. You see it's already getting cloudy. This ice on top's not bad, it's the stuff in the ground. That ice mixed with the sand, it's super hard. Starting to look like something now, huh? Come on baby! Come on man. Ugh. Okay. What do you think? Huh? Man, the rest of the stuff is buried in there. I might try to light a little fire here, see if I can melt some of this and take a little break. This is quite a bit of work. The days are super short right now, so I don't have a whole lot of daylight. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. Definitely time for my own mill. MARVIN AGNOT You think we're ready huh? You ready? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS How you get the seal? MARVIN AGNOT We're gonna go up on the beach and you're gonna see it right out in the front. MARVIN AGNOT You're just gonna put it right in your crosshairs and you're gonna hit the right there and you'll get so excited. JUSTIN PHILLIPS See you later, Buck. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Bye Buck. MARVIN AGNOT I am Marvin Agnot. I am Alutiiq from, Akhiok, Alaska. Out here it's very unique where I am at on the southern most part Kodiak Island. My dad was a very big part of how I was taught to survive from the land. I do miss the old days very much. We still harvest off the land, but our culture out here is dying. There's not very many more elders. I might have to bring the knowledge that I carry on for future generations. That's a big part of our survival out here. MARVIN AGNOT Nice and calm in here, Bigger Boy. MARVIN AGNOT You see right here's where you're gonna get your seal at. Today, I'm going to take my nephew Justin and his little boy, Isaac. MARVIN AGNOT Are you ready, Bigger Boy? Oh, there's seal over there. I call him Bigger Boy. MARVIN AGNOT We're gonna go out and experience Isaac's first seal hunt. We're gonna go in this little lagoon. MARVIN AGNOT It's shallow and it's flat, calm. You see the seal down there? There's always seal. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Dad, there's three of them. JUSTIN PHILLIPS You see three of them? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Oh, yeah. MARVIN AGNOT Let's go over there and go check them. See if we can get close to them, okay? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Uh-hmm. MARVIN AGNOT We're gonna let Isaac shoot the seal in the water. He has some pretty good skills using the scope. JUSTIN PHILLIPS You can aim. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Yeah. MARVIN AGNOT Justin is a very good hunter. You know, he's a good provider. JUSTIN PHILLIPS There you go. MARVIN AGNOT It reminds me of how I used to do all these things with my dad growing up. JUSTIN PHILLIPS You see the whole scope open? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Yeah. MARVIN AGNOT Justin's a very important part of my life. I never grew up with no brothers and to be a part of his adventures is. I want them to go farther than I ever want, went. Ha. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Hey dad, right there. MARVIN AGNOT There it is over there, you see it Bigger Boy? Wah, wah. It's what my dad taught me. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Wah. MARVIN AGNOT It was wondering what that was. This thing is a very big part of how we live. This is a good teaching experience for him to go and get the first seal. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Oh. MARVIN AGNOT It's gonna come up again, watch. It's gonna come up closer. There see, I told you, it's coming really close. There it is, you find it? Take your time, take your time. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Shoot it? MARVIN AGNOT Uh-hmm. MARVIN AGNOT Oh, you shot low Bigger Boy. You shot low. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Oh. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Close. MARVIN AGNOT Close, it's all right. Wah, wah, wah. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Wah. MARVIN AGNOT Bigger Boy, now that we've, um, shot and scared these seal, they're way far away. But I'll show you another spot, we'll go try again. Okay? Sound good? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Yeah. MARVIN AGNOT And you just keep trying and trying and next time we just get better okay? We're not done yet. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Okay. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG These wolves, they're real territorial. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG And so, a lot of times they go and investigate when they hear another wolf. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG From a different pack in their area. This is their turf. With this moonlight these wolves, they're definitely gonna be active out here. Wild things come out when the sun goes down. My name is Steven Strassburg. I live here on the Koyukuk River in Allakaket. I am Koyukon Athabascan. Part of the South Fork Caribou Clan. A lot of my friends call me Tig. Short for tiger. Me and Louise, we have seven children together. What I learn, I pass it down to my children. And I feel like my children, they're the next step. I don't see myself living any other type of lifestyle. I'm content right now, I'm happy. This is my happy place. Having a crappy day, I can jump on a machine, I could go out to church. Can't get no closer to God then being right there in his own country. The red light is gonna reflect their eyeballs real bright. So that's what I'm looking for with the red light. Hoping to see whatever kind of eyeballs we're gonna see is gonna be predator eyeballs. In our culture and tradition, the wolf plays a key part in our memorial potlatch's. When we lose a person from the community, we have a memorial potlatch in order to honor that person. We can't have these potlatches without wolf or wolverine furs. This is a spot where the wolves killed a moose up here. Not very far from town. There's not a lot of trappers left. A lot of people rely on me to go out here, get these types of furs and bring them home for the potlatches coming up. So, I'm gonna try. Well, I better cruise. I need to put out some traps. I'm gonna have to give it my all. JOEL JACKO Probably like two hours of daylight left. JOEL JACKO I'm gonna try to flip this into the boat while the fire's going. JOEL JACKO All right, watch out. Oh my gosh. Think it's full of ice too. Ah. JOEL JACKO This is not going well. Wind's definitely picking up. Yeah, the wind's definitely making this a little more difficult. Golly crap. Man, this thing is heavy. He's a big help. I really wish I just had somebody else with me right now. This is definitely not a one-person job. Ah. Oh, all right. So, I got get the rest of this junk outta the ground now. Ah. Fire's a little bit, a little bit in the way now. It did melt it quite a bit, so that's good. Hopefully the wind doesn't pick up anymore. Yes! Ah, come on. Running out of steam. Oh, there we go. Oh yeah. Wow. Oh, that don't look good. Yeah, this is getting bad. This might have been the worse day possible to do this. Ah, I got it. Just got a couple more sections to throw in there, then I'm gonna get the hell outta here. It wasn't supposed to get this bad till later tonight. So, it'll be an interesting boat ride home. JOEL JACKO I'm gonna follow the beach. JOEL JACKO In case this thing ends up back in the water, and so do I. JOEL JACKO Too much weight there. If I wasn't already off the beach, I think I'd probably dump the mill. (bleep). This is not good. Holy (bleep). Stupid! JOEL JACKO I'm gonna have to drop this mill on the beach somewhere. Before I capsize. I gotta get this thing dropped off 'cause at this point it's like life or death 'cause if I go in the water then I'm probably not gonna survive. This is Pile Bay. We're gonna drop the mill here. Cause there's no way I'm gonna make it home with this much weight in here. The bow was just about going under water with these waves out there. This point, I just want to get home. Pile Bay, it's like, uh, ten miles (16 miles) from there. Used to be a small town, now it�s basically just the end of the haul road. Oh, this is, uh, it got as bad, about as bad as it could get, I think. Well, the mill's safe for now, I'll come back another day and get it. I was gonna run home and dry off. I'm like pretty much soaked to the bone now. I'm really starting to hate the mill. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG I see, I see which way you coming in. Hang a snare right where you're gonna be walking. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG I got some snares and I'm just gonna do my best to try and get some furs for the community. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Because these animals are a huge part of our memorial potlatch. My brother he was the true wolfer, that guy. My late brother, his name was Harvey Williams, they called him Thumper. 'Cause he was like a rabbit. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG You know, always just jumpy. Huh, I gotta go. You know, just a jumpy guy. Many times, I'd see my brother take off and within a couple hours, he'd come back to the house with a wolf. He always made it sound simple. Just by how good he was out there in the woods. So, when he was gone, it was time for me to step up. I found out, the stuff that he did wasn't too damn simple. All right, the more and more of these trails that they have and I cross them off with snares, the better chance we're gonna have. Always gotta keep moving and keep setting. When I'm out here in the woods, I like to imagine you know, my brothers right there with me. Guiding me along and taking care of me. He's always got his hand on my shoulder. See where the wolves been making a trail right here. I see a couple really big heavy ones in there. Go ahead and drive over here, follow their tracks in. All right, I'm gonna anchor it off to this big willow right here. My brother taught me to never give up. Keep on trying. When things get hard, get harder. Work harder. Do better. Give up is not part of the Denaakk'e language because it's not something that our people do. All right, that looks all right. Now hopefully, next time the wolf's gotta come through he's gonna get stuck in one of these snares. MARVIN AGNOT It's only half tide now. Still got a few more hours of tide and no success yet and. MARVIN AGNOT Don't worry, we all miss. MARVIN AGNOT But now, next time he'll do it again, he'll have more confidence and he'll be well on his way to be a marksman. MARVIN AGNOT On the way going that way, there's this whole beach 'cause it's shallow. MARVIN AGNOT And we'll just stop and look for seal. Okay, sound so good? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Yeah. MARVIN AGNOT Are you gonna finish your coco. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Um-hmm. MARVIN AGNOT All right. MARVIN AGNOT You know I want Bigger Boy. MARVIN AGNOT To be strong and leading. A part of what I'm doing with him is building confidence. Are you ready, guys? MARVIN AGNOT See 'em right there? Look. Look right there. Right there, you see 'em? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Oh, yeah. MARVIN AGNOT There you go. MARVIN AGNOT Gotta be quiet, okay Bigger Boy? MARVIN AGNOT Gotta sneak. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Stay down and be quiet, okay? We're trying to approach the seals as quiet as possible, walking on the beach there a lot of crunchy clams and everything. MARVIN AGNOT Right there. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Ready? JUSTIN PHILLIPS Look. You see that one there? JUSTIN PHILLIPS Closest one to us? MARVIN AGNOT Whenever you are ready, let you dad know. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS I'm ready. MARVIN AGNOT Okay, ready? Just take your time Bigger Boy, just take your time and you got it, 'cause you see, they're not even scared. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Just hold it on him and shoot real slow. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Go ahead. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS That one? JUSTIN PHILLIPS No the, the back one. MARVIN AGNOT Got it! Yeah! Look at that! I knew you would do it! Woo! I knew you would do it. That's a big boy see it's floating. Good job. I'm so happy Bigger Boy. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Dad, we gonna to get the boat? MARVIN AGNOT We gotta go grab him now. We'll just grab it and put it right in this skiff. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Isaac being only seven years old it makes me pretty happy of what he can do and how I've taught him. MARVIN AGNOT Woo-hoo. Are you scared? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Nah-uh. MARVIN AGNOT No? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Oh. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Very important to get the youth into hunting around the village. MARVIN AGNOT You got it? JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yup, I got it. MARVIN AGNOT Ho, you got a good one there Bigger Boy. Are you ready? One, two, three. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Whoa. MARVIN AGNOT I'm so happy. JUSTIN PHILLIPS One, two, three. MARVIN AGNOT Okay, put his head over like this. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Okay. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yup. Good job son. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Dad, that's a big boy. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yeah, it's a good one. MARVIN AGNOT That's it. We are just gonna head home. You did a good job today Bigger Boy. So proud of you. JOEL JACKO Ready Tracker? JOEL JACKO Yesterday I had to drop the mill on the beach 'cause it was getting way too dangerous. JOEL JACKO There's no way I would've made it back with the mill I would've ended up in the water so, weathers cleared up a bit today so, I'll head back and try to grab it again. JOEL JACKO Pretty much everything in my house I'm milling myself, so I mean I need the mill to finish, I mean anything. Right now, with it being winter everything has to be flown out and it's super expensive and the sawmill is actually the only mill around so I can't even rent one 'cause it's like, the only sawmill. I have interior walls to finish, I have window trim, bed frames, everything in my house basically. Everything, it's gonna have a little bit of danger involved and everything is a little bit of an adventure and sometimes it becomes more of an adventure then you had planned for. Calculated risk is a, I mean it's a big part of everything out here. Yes! It's a huge relief to get this thing, you know, back to my beach and I have my, um, encounter with death for the month so I, I think reached my quota. Now I can start milling boards and finish my house. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK What's right there? Is that it? DANIEL APASSINGOK No, that's that ice. Same as earlier. I thought it was that walrus. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK Oh. DANIEL APASSINGOK Pretty hard to get anything from the store. DANIEL APASSINGOK We depend on our substance hunting. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK Maybe on the other side of this ice? Up ahead. DANIEL APASSINGOK It's been a couple months since, uh, we've been out boating. DANIEL APASSINGOK Forecast is not looking too good for next week. Who knows how long we're gonna be not going out again. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Seghleghhalek! [speaking English] The current changed. Ugh! Hopefully we'll get a nice dinner in a little bit. DANIEL APASSINGOK Ah, the young ice is forming on the water. And, uh, crossing over and getting thicker a little bit. CHRIS APASSINGOK Could you turn around? DANIEL APASSINGOK You gotta watch, uh, that current real good. You know for once the current changes, uh, the ice closes. Like a wall of ice. It's, uh, dangerous at times. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Seghleghwaa? CHRIS APASSINGOK Yep. DANIEL APASSINGOK We get iced in out there you know the ice closes up and, uh, sometimes we go miles and miles just to go around ice flows. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Paninang taakwna enraq qupeghraak. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Aamggun nanghiquyaqumta. [speaking English] Looking for opening. 'Cause if we get iced in, we'll, uh, end up staying out there, uh, overnight till the next current change. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Sallegmun kaataqlaataghtukut. [speaking English] Ugh. Pretty thick already. DANIEL APASSINGOK Cross over? CHRIS APASSINGOK Yep. DANIEL APASSINGOK I hope it's open up, up there somewhere. DANIEL APASSINGOK [speaking Akuzipik] Aa! Seghleghhalek! CHRIS APASSINGOK When we're going through young ice, we have to, uh, rock the boat just so the boat could break the young ice. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK Workout. Last thing I want to do is spend the night out on the ocean. My dad and my brother have done it a few times and I do not want to go through that. Is that open water over there? DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah. Woo! DANIEL APASSINGOK Almost spent the night out on the ice. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK It's really fun going out boating with my dad and my brother. You don't always have luck but it's always an adventure. DANIEL APASSINGOK Ugh. Yeah, this young ice is pretty harsh. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK A freaking workout, a ab work out. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah, it's, uh, getting late in the day so we're gonna go home. Uh, wait for another day. Time to go home to a warm house! JUSTIN PHILLIPS I'm gonna start butchering up the seal. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Dad is that the bone? JUSTIN PHILLIPS It's his flipper. So you gotta cut the flipper and the head. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Is it dead? JUSTIN PHILLIPS Uh-huh. Me and my older brother we went and got one, one time and that was the very first time we ever, we learned how to butcher a seal, we were just on our own. MARVIN AGNOT Well, I can tell it's going to be a good one already. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS It sure bleeds a lot. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Isaac wasn't quite ready for the butchering. Not too much people even go and get seal any more so not too much kids ever even see it butchered up. I'm pretty sure it's great knowledge for Isaac to take. ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Uncle Marvin? ISAAC BIGGER BOY PHILLIPS Is it dead? MARVIN AGNOT Uh-huh. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yeah. MARVIN AGNOT You can make some oil. It goes very well with the fish we eat. JUSTIN PHILLIPS With the seal there's just a bunch of fat you salvage off of it and instead of just peeling the skin off any old way. I plan on giving some of the meat to auntie Linda, she was asking for some. Old timers love that fat flavor and oily soup. What we do with it is just eat, uh, eat it with a bunch of our native food. I grew up eating with my mom, so I still enjoy eating it. Teaching my son. I'm finished processing the jar of oil and got the meat put away for them. And my auntie Linda should be waiting and ready for it. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG I see some tracks, before the snow. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Something came in. I have to come out here at nighttime and check my traps and sets. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG The animals that I'm after wolves and doyonh. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG They're mostly active at the nighttime. So that's the time that you gotta be out there too. As long as you know where all your sets are at you can check them in the dark. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Nothing in the lower snare. Yeah, just a marten been back here. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Nothing big no doyonh or teekkone. But, that's okay. Still got some time. We need furs for that potlatch. It'd mean a lot to the family. I got some snares in the trees over here. The trail that they've been coming across here. It's getting pretty late. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG It's just like daytime out here. Better keep trying. We've always had traditional potlatchs. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG In these traditional memorial potlatchs we've always had teekkone. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG It's very important, as us, the next generation moving up, that we continue on these traditions and cultures and try and procure these different furs. Tradition that we don't want to die out and tradition that we work hard on to never lose. Hoo-hoo. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Caught a doyonh right here. Woo, that's a pretty one. Man. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG [speaking Denaakk'e] Enaa baasee'. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG My original plan was to try and get some teekkone. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG But the doyonh that's another animal that we need in the community. We need the furs. The doyonh, he's a powerful animal. Back in the day the doyonh was the chief of all the animals. He's a highly spiritual animal in our culture. It is very powerful. It's a big honor to be able to catch such a powerful animal. You know, this, it means a lot to me. I feel absolutely blessed. I can't believe it, that's some luck right there. All right, well, I got my work cut out for me. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG [speaking Denaakk'e] Enaa baasee'. JOEL JACKO So hopefully everything's working. My little test run. Working good. I mean, it's running good. Cutting good still. I'm glad nothings like seriously broke. The major stuff is still intact. I started this house 10 years ago. Finished everything myself and doing everything myself so it's a lot of work now, you know, in the long run it's going to be super worth it and the end is in sight. It's pretty exciting. LINDA AMODO Man, I bet Isaac was so thrilled, huh? JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yep. LINDA AMODO Let me see. Oh, my gosh look at that beauty! JUSTIN PHILLIPS I feel great giving this food out to the elders and people that have no access to it. LINDA AMODO Put it in the dry house? MARVIN AGNOT Yeah. LINDA AMODO So the bear don't come on my patio. MARVIN AGNOT Yeah, we don't want that. JUSTIN PHILLIPS I'm pretty sure they're very grateful for it as well. MARVIN AGNOT Watch you noggin. Justin does a lot of that. He don't mind helping the others either that can't get this. It's a very big part of how were brought up out here and it's a big part of what we do. LINDA AMODO Oh, man, thank you so much! MARVIN AGNOT Oh, you're welcome, Lin. LINDA AMODO Boy, that's gonna be good seal. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yep. LINDA AMODO Seal soup and seal oil. MARVIN AGNOT Well, you let me know I want to come and eat. LINDA AMODO Okay. Okay, man. I'm just gonna dance. JUSTIN PHILLIPS Yep. You're welcome. DANIEL APASSINGOK How far are you on your, uh, piece there? NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK I'm gonna try and make this one a little bit more equal to the other. DANIEL APASSINGOK Looks nice. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK We might not have had a successful hunt, but I really enjoyed doing this with you. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah. Hopefully, we'll be doing this more and more. My daughter Nalu, she's been gone for a while in the city. She's back in town and, uh, you know, she has a lot of interest in our traditional way of life. Working on ivory, it, uh, the artwork comes out with in itself sometimes. You can see it. Touched my heart that, uh, my boys and my daughter, uh, follow the footsteps that I've been going, and I'm very grateful for that. It's, uh, special. Yeah! NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK Do you see it? DANIEL APASSINGOK It looks nice and even. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK Pretty proud of myself. It look good. DANIEL APASSINGOK Family's the heart. As long as you got family that's where the heart is. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK This is a core memory. DANIEL APASSINGOK Yeah. NALU DANIELLE APASSINGOK 'Cause, I'll hold it very close to my heart. I love you dad. DANIEL APASSINGOK I love you too much. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG This doyonh is gonna go a long way. As long as our people have been around, potlatch has been around, and this is what the fur is gonna be for. You know these northern lights will probably be out pretty soon and they'll pick up his spirit and dance it away. Dance it off into the sky, that's a grand exit right there. About as much respect as I can pay for this animal. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG [speaking Denaakk'e] Enaa baasee' doyonh. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Lived a good strong life. Honorable death. Catching this animal, I feel like my brothers right there with me. His spirit, his hand is on my shoulder, and he guided me to this animal. I like to think that my brother is some place. Physically he's not there with me but spiritually, he's always with me. He sparked a little fire inside of me, making sure that these cultures and traditions get passed down to the next generation. It's a strong community we come from. All these other strong natives. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG All these cultures and traditions have made it as far as me and I don't want that to end here. Holy cow, wow! Those northern lights came down to grab him. See that means luck to me right there. Some people go their whole life, and they don't get to see this. Just shows you how powerful that spirit is. We're all the people of the land, that's where we come from, that's where we gonna go. We're all connected in a way. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG All right so next step, I'm gonna set some blind traps along the trails. Pulling out all the stops for these guys right here. Wolf is a super smart, super smart predator. This trap wasn't doing no good in the box. They're the apex predator out here in our woods. Gonna have more of a chance of catching something if it's out there in the trail. There's many different tactics to try and get a wolf. This is an MB seven-fifty, it's a wolf trap it's got a seven-and-a-half-inch (19 centimeters) jaw spread. Just so happens to be my brother's birthday so, I feel like going a little extra hard and putting a little extra effort into it. So, I just gotta keep setting these guys, hopefully have some luck. All right. The wolves are gonna be running up and down the center trail right there. Trying to go after a animal that specializes in these woods out here and how to get around without being detected. You just gotta keep working at it. Most of the time they're going to run the exact center of your trail so you wanna put the trap exact center of the trail. You just hope that they come running along and one of them puts their foot in there. Set that like that. All this will be buried, cover all around here. You gotta kinda get it as level to the trail as possible. The wolf gonna be coming along and hit that pen and set it off. That's perfect. So, I'm gonna keep on going.