AMELIA_STRASSBURG EVAN_STRASSBURG JAMEY_JOSEPH JODY_POTTS_JOSEPH JOEL_JACKO JOHN_PINGAYAK JOHN_PINGAYAK_GRANDCHILDREN JOHN_SONNA_BOY_PINGAYAK_III STEVEN_TIG_STRASSBURG JOHN PINGAYAK When we start seeing the land with a bright snow, that's a sign of the spring. JOHN PINGAYAK [speaking Cup'ik] Up'nerkaq. JOHN PINGAYAK The very first birds that come around here are the ptarmigan. That's the first animals we hunt. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Ah. JOHN PINGAYAK The snow and the ptarmigan, they blend together. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III All right, I got it. JOHN PINGAYAK Some people if they've never hunted ptarmigan before, they'll be looking around, Where, where? but they're not gonna see it 'cause their eyes are not trained. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III It was nice and nice and big. JOHN PINGAYAK Sonna Boy came to Chevak when he was twelve years old. JOHN PINGAYAK At first when he came out he was. JOHN PINGAYAK Like city boy. JOHN PINGAYAK Now he's a. JOHN PINGAYAK Village boy right now. JOHN PINGAYAK Me and my wife together. JOHN PINGAYAK We shaped the character of this young man. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Did nana want us to take care of them out here or? JOHN PINGAYAK Ah, no. JOHN PINGAYAK Everything that we trained. JOHN PINGAYAK He's going to. JOHN PINGAYAK Use that in a whole life. JOHN PINGAYAK When our children leave our nest. JOHN PINGAYAK It's kind of heartbreaking in a way, but. JOHN PINGAYAK It's also a blessing to that young person. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III My plan for my future, I'm gonna go join the National Guard. It's so important that my Nanas and Aatas are teaching me these traditional ways before I join service. JOHN PINGAYAK Okay, let's look for another one. Okay, Sonna Boy? JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Yeah. JOHN PINGAYAK Okay. JAMEY JOSEPH Man, I don't know babe. JAMEY JOSEPH This might not be a good idea. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Haul ass baby. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Eagle is split into two communities. JODY POTTS JOSEPH And where the town sits right now is where our traditional village was. Ooh, these guys are probably getting ready to evacuate. JAMEY JOSEPH Yup. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Jamey and I are making a quick dash eight miles (twelve kilometers) to town to check mail and do a supply run before the potential flooding hits. The ice is moving. Break up is a really big deal around here because it's a powerful natural occurrence. When the ice is moving down river with the current, it can cause a lot of destruction. Oh, my gosh, I've never seen the water this high in front of town. When the ice collides with another iceberg or the ground, you definitely feel it, just feels like the earth shakes. I'm stress eating. Holy. We're definitely getting ice, everywhere. I've never seen the river rise like this. We're really at the mercy of nature during break up. This winter, we just got a ton of snow. And that's gonna all melt, it's gonna need to go somewhere. We're gonna have a pretty epic flood. Probably similar to 2009. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Last time the river flooded, it took out the whole village. It just sheared the homes right off the ground, right into the Yukon River. JAMEY JOSEPH Let's see what's going on here, huh? JODY POTTS JOSEPH Holy crap. Crossing the road can be dangerous if the river breaks up, it floods. It can all happen in a matter of minutes, and we don't want to be stuck in town away from home. I've never seen this high before the ice went out, this is just crazy. Once starts the ice starts moving and water starts surging, it's definitely gonna be pushing ice over the road. So, that's why we gotta pretty much be outta here. The Yukon River during break up is a powerful force that can do a lot of damage and our house is on high ground and there's no real risk of flooding. Yeah. I'm ready, let's go to high ground. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG We're gonna be cleaning every single piece of these shotguns, Evan. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG We don't want to get out there and have it jamming up, we can't cock, can't get a shell in there. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG I'll be swearing at you. Come on Evan, hurry up and shot that damn goose. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Winter's finally starting to loosen up around here. Spring time's starting to pop out a little bit. One of the first signs of spring is the spring birds are starting to come back. Just a staple of our diet. We have a big family, we got seven kids and they rely on me to go out there and bring home food. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Every year this is how we start the spring. Spring geese hunting, right here, Evan. This time, I'm going out hunting with my son, Evan. He's right about that age where it's not so fun to hunt with dad anymore and it's gonna be a lot more fun for him and his friends to go out. You'll find out hunting with me is boring compared to hunting with your friends, you know. Hunting with your friends, you guys are joking around and having fun. It's a dangerous situation, having kids out there with loaded shotguns. So, I want to make sure he's truly ready for this. EVAN STRASSBURG I feel good around guns, but this is my first time cleaning any type of gun. It's really important 'cause you know, I don't want nobody to get hurt or anything. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Definitely gonna be a lot of worry on my part but I got to grow as a father and learn to let these kids take their steps on their own out there in the woods. All right, Ev. I'm gonna pour a little bit of this into your barrel. And you're gonna plunge it. EVAN STRASSBURG Okay. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG I'm not too sure if I'm a good teacher or not. I don't know everything but, you know, everything that I do know I can teach to my children and that's all that I can teach them. You see how dirty that is baby? AMELIA STRASSBURG Uh huh. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG It used to be white and now it's black and that's what we're trying to get outta the barrel. I want them to be able to thrive and survive in this type of country. See, you hear it's smooth. I don't hear no sand, grinding, nothing. Try yours, see if you hear and sand or anything grinding. Feel smooth? EVAN STRASSBURG Yeah. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Like a knife through butter my boy. Now that we got the guns cleaned up, it's time to start making our way out to the goose hunting spot. All right, my boy. Let's grab some dirt off of this bank, fill up this bucket. You know why we got to do this, my boy? EVAN STRASSBURG How come? STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG If you can see it's all winter out here and the snow hasn't melted off enough for the goose to find any mud to sit down. These geese, they're flying up from down south. They've been sitting in nice warm fields this whole time. So, when these geese get here, they don't really have any good mud bars or anything for them to land on. This is something my late grandma used to do at spring camp with me, she'd use the stove ash to get this done. The dirt, it's dark and it's heavy and when it lands on the snow, the sun is gonna start heating up that gravel. So, you gotta sprinkle it in the snow, and try and get that snow melted off in a spot for these geese to land. All right, my boy. That look about good? Clean that shovel off. Get some of that dirt off. Whoa! JOEL JACKO So, I like to get up into the mountains and hunt birds. JOEL JACKO And this is the only time a year you can do it. You need ice to get across the lake, you need snow to get across road. JOEL JACKO And like right now we have both. Had a super warm winter this year and the snow is like wet. We have a very short window to try to shoot some birds. Oh, all right. So, I'm trying to get up to go ptarmigan hunting and I just hit the haul road. I'm way about 200 feet (60 meters) in. I already got stuck. Might be a rough trip if it's like this the whole way. So, because the snow is so soft, you kinda gotta be a little bit careful. JOEL JACKO Once you start to dig in, like your track goes straight in and you're stuck like instantly. Not really, not really a basin here. It's just fluff. Helps not, not right around the corner. It's you know hours away, at best. All right. I just scared off a big flock, like hundreds of birds. And there's tracks all over the place. They seem like they're pretty skittish, so they're probably not gonna let me get very close. I can't flush them out again. They're not letting me get close at all with the snow machine so, by foot it is. I can hear them cackling but I can't, I can't see them yet. I'm gonna try to get a little bit closer and hopefully they don't take off before I can spot them. Oh, yeah. I got a couple of birds hiding over here. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] JOEL JACKO I think I'm too far away. The birds are so far away that you need to be like super accurate. I missed. It's just hard to get a good beat on these birds. They're super freaking skittish. I probably shoulda been able to get that one. Usually, you get a little closer to them, they're not so skittish, but, man, one of them takes off, the whole group takes off up the valley. So, I'm gonna try again. So, I've been chasing birds, farther and farther up the valley. It's a little bit overcast. It's just making it really hard to see what I'm hitting. Yeah, there's one. One lone guy sitting right here on this hill. JOEL JACKO I can't even see what I'm hitting. I'm not even sure that's a bird now. It's a stick. I've been shooting at a stick. It looked exactly like, you know a bird, so. In my defense. Well, there's definitely a lot of birds out here, I just can't, uh, just can't get close enough to shoot them right now so. Come back tomorrow with some different tools and try again. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Wow. JODY POTTS JOSEPH This is high. We made it back to high ground yesterday. JODY POTTS JOSEPH About twelve hours later the ice finally went out. It was quite the epic event. This is pretty insane. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Town must be hit pretty hard 'cause there's are still a lot of houses that are on the lower bank and in the flood zone so. So, I'm kinda curious about walking up there but our road is got to be completely covered. Maybe we can see how far we can. JAMEY JOSEPH Cross over there, get over to where the ice is at. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yeah. It's crazy. A lot of water flowing over the road and washing it out up there. JODY POTTS JOSEPH And, so, I mean, if it's, this is a little higher than certain areas. On the road to town there's some areas that are even lower, so I'm sure there's ice for miles on the roads. Crazy. JAMEY JOSEPH Be a while before I can put a boat in down here. JODY POTTS JOSEPH We are definitely pretty locked in right now. Definitely no going to town. We could check out that upper boat ramp. JAMEY JOSEPH Yeah, let's do that. JODY POTTS JOSEPH We're at upriver end by Dog Island and the boat ramp down to the river is covered in a lot of ice. JAMEY JOSEPH And it's the same. JODY POTTS JOSEPH I mean, we can't even access the river to put a canoe in 'cause I don't know how we're gonna get down that what thirty, forty foot drop of ice cliff. JAMEY JOSEPH Yeah. JODY POTTS JOSEPH To get to the river for even a canoe. We don't have access to town or the river. We're kinda grounded for a while, huh? JAMEY JOSEPH Bummer. Yeah. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Have to find things to keep ourselves busy up here. We can't really go anywhere so, just kind of forces us to focus on a couple of projects that we need to get done since we're kind of isolated right now. I don't mind being stuck back here with you. JAMEY JOSEPH Check out Buckeye? JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yeah, go check out Buckeye. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG All right, I'm gonna go nice and slow. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Just keep throwing, if your arms get tired then maybe we'll switch out. All right. Kick out the first load. So, you get it out there, reach out. We gotta give these geese a good place to land, some good mud to sit on. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG And once it's melted down me and Evan's gonna throw out some decoys and see if anything will fly in. Whoa, looking good, keep going. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Yeah. Yeah. All right, let me give you a break. EVAN STRASSBURG Okay. Woo wee. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Don't go fast now. Nice and slow, nice and slow. Whoa. Calm myself down. Whoa. Oh, (bleep). [COMMERCIAL BREAK] EVAN STRASSBURG You okay? STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Yup. It's not the techniques that our forefathers used; we grew up in a different age but we just get a lot more down with today's newer technology that we use. All right. We gotta shovel out the blinds. On to the next job. We need a spot where the geese aren't gonna see us, we gotta create some cover for us to sit behind. Make it not so easy for them to spot us from the sky. They're looking for any sign, anything out of the ordinary. I like a big blind, so we got room to move around. What you think, my boy? EVAN STRASSBURG It's good. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Looks pretty darn good. EVAN STRASSBURG Yeah. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Sun is gonna do the last of the work for us, by the time we come back. EVAN STRASSBURG What time are we gonna come here tomorrow? STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Oh, probably mid day maybe. Come and spend most of the day here, spend the evening. Not too hot, it's not too cold. And then on top of it, they know it's gonna be night soon and they gotta find a place to sit down for the night. All right, my boy. We'll be back. JOEL JACKO So, yesterday 'cause it was overcast and it was fresh powder. It was flat light and there was no definition so you couldn't see the birds sitting in the snow very well. JOEL JACKO But today it's sunny out, so I don't think I'll have that problem as much. JOEL JACKO There's one right there. JOEL JACKO He's right in those bushes. Damn it. The birds are laughing at me right now. I might need to sight something in here. So, I brought my other twenty two 'cause it's got a scope on it but I was, like, the last time I used it I was having like a bunch of problems with it JOEL JACKO jamming up and misfiring and double feeding, but I might not have a choice right now. I found a makeshift target in my bag. It's a little apple sauce brought for a snack, you know. So, I'll do a little target practice. It looks like it's shooting high. I'll move it down. All right. Killed it. Killed an apple sauce container. The only thing I killed today. The scope was definitely off. I'm gonna go try to find some more birds. JOHN PINGAYAK Why did you miss it? JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Let's go that way. The tundra is my sanctuary. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III It brings us a lot of joy, a lot of food, and a lot of good memories out there. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Look, a little one over there. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III There. JOHN PINGAYAK Run after it! Come on, hurry up! Hurry. Hah. All right. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] JOHN PINGAYAK All right! Yeah! You got it! Yeah! All right! All of these animals that we hunt have they all have spirits, and we have to take care of them and not waste them. You thought you could run faster than a ptarmigan? JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Yeah, you see me struggle there? JOHN PINGAYAK I know you gave up. Right? JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Yeah, after I tried tackling it the second time I gave up. JOHN PINGAYAK Oh, that made me laugh but, uh, load up and be ready to shoot again. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Okay. Feeling the wind just makes me feel more alive. I got it. I think I see another one over there. Three in one go. JOHN PINGAYAK That was a good shot, Sonna Boy. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Here take a look. JOHN PINGAYAK Sure. How did you get that one back there, it just flew in? JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III I snuck up on it and it let me catch it. JOHN PINGAYAK Our creator just blessed you by letting those birds fly close to you. That's what we believe, that's what our elders believe. If we do a good deed in helping someone any, anybody, those animals will come to you. It's not luck that's gonna get me one, it's going to be a blessing from the creator that's going to make me catch one. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III We don't tell no one about that, that chase, okay? JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah. JAMEY JOSEPH You stand here, and you need to see the flagging all in a straight line that way when we go down were going in a straight line. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Our family's land on Buckeye creek really holds such a special place in my heart, it's where I grew up, just have a lot of special memories here. Gonna flag this. This land was my grandpa's so it's very, very special to the family and I think for us to rebuild our family home. JODY POTTS JOSEPH And to make it more accessible for, you know, not just Jamey and I but our kids, my parents. I just really, really hope that more of our family will come back. JAMEY JOSEPH Tie it up high so I can see it from a farther distance. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Meet your specs? Mr. Joseph? JAMEY JOSEPH It'll work. JODY POTTS JOSEPH I have to have that mind set to think about the future. So, we wanna see the flood areas on our land and then we'll from that really be able to identify a good safe location to build. We have a lot of work ahead of us but it's exciting to just get to the first steps of this and I'm eager to just continue working on this dream. Man, my grandpa picked out some good land, huh? JAMEY JOSEPH Yeah. Nice river front. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Creek side. JAMEY JOSEPH Uh huh. Got nice little high spots back here. You see where you wanna flag next? JODY POTTS JOSEPH That tree? My grandfather selected this specific place because this is where he would put his fish wheel to get his family supply of fish for the winter. He put in his will that this land wasn't ever to be sold or divided. It was for his grandchildren's grandchildren. You know really thinking forward which is really cool. So, I really, you know, have a lot of appreciation and respect for that. Shall we carry on? JAMEY JOSEPH We shall, lead the way. JODY POTTS JOSEPH It's really important to carry on our family's legacy. I don't want it to end with the 2009 flood, so maybe my kids will pick out places to build their homes and raise their children and start a life for themselves. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Whoa, thawed out pretty quick, my boy. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG It's gotten a lot warmer. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG The river is starting to thaw out more there's going to be a lot more over flow on top of the ice. And it's just another learning opportunity for my son. If it is deep or open it'll be dark. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG What you wanna see is this light blue you see? EVAN STRASSBURG Yeah. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Light blue means it's good. He's gonna know how to cross these tricky areas with a lot of water safely and get to his hunting spots. Don't let this type of stuff catch you off guard. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Don't let get you scared. Don't be scared of your own country. Be cautious, but don't be scared. So, let's hit this thing see what it does, my boy. We ain't going home one way or another we're getting to the goose blind, my boy. Now, it's just time to set out the decoys, hopefully some birds will start flying over us. Yellow foot him, my boy, way too far. Good sign the birds are here. Just pulled up a couple minutes ago. Already had one fly by I gotta get a little better at the call though it don't sound pretty. They sound real pretty, and I don't quite sound pretty. Go ahead, my boy, practice. Move it around. EVAN STRASSBURG I guess that's as close as I can get. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Keep practicing. You and your buddies go out how are you gonna call geese out? Too bad, they can't teach you this crap in video games. There you go. Man, my boy that's springtime in Alaska. Look at this, undoing all the work you just done. It's coming down pretty good. EVAN STRASSBURG Really hailing. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG It was just sunshine a few minutes ago. EVAN STRASSBURG Yeah. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Just a typical Alaskan springtime day. The winter never really wants to let up its hold on us even he keeps throwing punches, he never goes down without a fight. That's Alaska for you, now we're about to get some sunshine again. I should've had some shots off at least by now. Must be these snowstorms holding them off maybe, hail, rain. I don't know my boy. Something's funny. Oh (bleep). Go ahead. (bleep) safety. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Son of a bitch. EVAN STRASSBURG Aw, man it's on safety. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Same thing I did. It's been a year since we been out here shooting at birds. Sometimes I jump up and I got it on safety, you know it happens to all of us. Some good action my boy. EVAN STRASSBURG Yup. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Right there. Three. EVAN STRASSBURG Three. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Holy (bleep). Woo! Finally. EVAN STRASSBURG Pretty cool. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG It's going down let's go get it. It was looking like a pretty grim day not a lot came over us. It was starting to look like we weren't gonna have any luck and now we got two geese down on the ground. Finally, gonna eat good now my boy. That magical time of the year where pots of soup can fall from the sky. I'm super proud of this boy. Every day I'm seeing him grow a little more, learn a little more he's doing better every time I take him out. It's a good trip my son learned the full cycle of the goose hunt. Pretty wild day. EVAN STRASSBURG Yeah. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Let's get closer to the blind and start plucking them. EVAN STRASSBURG Okay. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG [speaking Central Denaakk'e] Enaa baasee'. EVAN STRASSBURG [speaking Central Denaakk'e] Enaa baasee'. JOHN PINGAYAK Hey, Sonna Boy, you see anything that I can carve? How about that one? JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Does that work? JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah. You gotta learn how to carve. When you see this, uh, rough part, you're gonna take it out that's the other part been its exposed to, too long. Go ahead and cut it right here. It's important to teach my grandchildren about their culture. Uh, cut this right there. There you go. Not just hunting birds, but art and stuff like that. I can't teach you all the time, you have to, see my work and start carving on you own. You might carve a ladle. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III What my aata is teaching me is how to survive and take care of my culture. JOHN PINGAYAK Oh, you have two pieces that my ancestors and I wanted to carve, uh, those pointing sticks. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III I really love being Cup'ik, my aata's s and the dances, the art work is just so amazing, it just brings, like, a lot of joy to the family. JOHN PINGAYAK Go ahead and take that. Okay, let's go. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Uh, right behind you. JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah. JOEL JACKO I got the scope sided in. JOEL JACKO I should be good now. JOEL JACKO I'm ready to shoot some birds. Dang it! Still missed. Idiot! Agh. Got him. Yeah, I got him. It's a decent little bird. I got one, one down I'd kinda like to get a couple more. Two or three more would be nice. Shouldn't be a problem now, gun sight is in. The biggest thing I feel grateful for when I'm out here, if you stop and you turn your machine off and just listen, there's just nothing. There's not even people for thirty miles (48 kilometers). Just serenity. Perfect, love it. There's a bird over there. I'm gonna walk this way see if I can get around that tree and get a shot at him. I think I hit him flying. I'm gonna go check and see if I hit that bird. I saw feathers fly when I shot, I think I might have winged him I might have got him I don't know. I'll go, I'll go check it out. I did get that one. I guess he just wanted to die in the deepest snow possible. Ugh. I got two I think that's pretty good. Sustainability, don't take more than you can eat. JODY POTTS JOSEPH This is the trail where I had my rabbit snare line and my little trap line when I was a little girl. JODY POTTS JOSEPH I'd run out here after school and check my snares, run home, chop wood pack it in, those were my chores. So now that Jamey and I got some land cleared we decide to walk the property to start scouting locations for our future house at Buckeye. Even this would be a nice little spot close to the river. It's dry here. Maybe Denali or one of kids or a guest cabin. So, the 2009 flood pretty much cleared everything in its path so if there are large trees standing, we also are using that to determine what is safe land and what is in the flood zone. So, this way is where our house was. Where I grew up. Who knows there might be some old treasures here. Nothings left but a few little remnants of our life there at one point. Here's our old root cellar where we kept food to keep it cool. That was my dad's old wagon that the horses pulled that we'd use to haul water with. My dad made these wagons too. Yup, lots of memories. It's still sad to see it and it hurts but we have to just keep moving forward like the ever present strong Yukon River. Really tap into that same kind of power and energy to really overcome a lot of these things and really set things up for better future. Yeah, only fourteen years and these all grew up really fast. [COMMERCIAL BREAK] JOHN PINGAYAK Oh, hi Sonna Boy. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III Hey. JOHN PINGAYAK I, I wanna show you how to make this, this is the Artic tern and, uh, you see the head here? Uh, and the tail part here. I'm trying to make, uh, wings right now, go ahead and sand this and, uh, we'll make a pointing stick. The Cup'ik word Arctic tern is Teqiyaareq. JOHN SONNA BOY PINGAYAK III This is for, uh, dancing right? JOHN PINGAYAK Yeah, our ancestors use the Artic tern and that's why I'm trying to keep it alive. It's to identify our tribe. The Cup'ik people of the Qissunamiut tribe. My legacy is pass on what I know about my culture to the new generations of today. When our ancestors dance, they use this. Isn't this awesome? You're learning about something that ancient? It goes way back thousands of years, when our ancestors use it to Agayuliaraput. JOHN PINGAYAK That's making prayer to the creator. JAMEY JOSEPH So, this is it, huh. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yup. This is nice and it's open enough for a great big house. The ice is now thinning out on the Yukon River, and we made it through break up and so that's really good. Just feels like a rebirth. JAMEY JOSEPH You have your house here. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Open. JAMEY JOSEPH Your garden right here in front. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yup. JAMEY JOSEPH Views. JODY POTTS JOSEPH The flood of 2009 taking everyone's homes is a painful memory, but I choose not to hold on to the trauma in preparation of the future. I'm excited. I can totally see our house here I love that we can hear the creek. I hope that through re establishing our family on this land that is something that will continue for generations. Has a lot of potential that's for sure. JOHN PINGAYAK Follow me go like this ready, you're flying and you're looking for a fish you go down, and then all of a sudden you get up and what do you say? JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN [speaking Cup'ik] Qaawiq! JOHN PINGAYAK You say qaawiq! JOHN PINGAYAK What do you say? Louder. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN [speaking Cup'ik] Qaawiq! JOHN PINGAYAK [speaking Cup'ik] Qaawiq! JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN [speaking Cup'ik] Qaawiq! JOEL JACKO They're freedom out here. It's really what makes me happy. The ride was great the snow was great there's birds all over like, I couldn't ask for, you know, a better couple days. Days like today makes everything worth it. Wouldn't change a thing. Damn that's good. JOHN PINGAYAK For seventy four years, I've been reviving our Cup'ik people's culture and that's why I'm here for you guys, not for me, so you'll continue to keep that culture alive for the future. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG Me and you, we've been doing this for some years now, I think I've taught you about as much as I can, it's on yourself to go out and learn the rest of it. It's a little bit sad to me that, you know, that these times are coming to an end but I just gotta look back and enjoy those memories. You think you're ready to go to out with your buddies now? EVAN STRASSBURG Uh, yeah, I feel ready and confident to do it with my buddies. STEVEN TIG STRASSBURG I'm just super proud of this boy he's gone from a little mama's boy to an independent young man just gotta let him go, let him be free. JOHN PINGAYAK Sonna Boy, let Sonna Boy do it. Watch these two. JOHN PINGAYAK [speaking Cup'ik] Ayaagalua tengaaralua. JOHN PINGAYAK [singing Cup'ik] I'm traveling, I'm flying. Is that all? Do it, go on! You have to do it from the heart. You ready to fly like a bird. C'mon Sonna Boy, show me what you got. [speaking Cup'ik] Ayaagalua tengaaralua. JOHN PINGAYAK We cannot be silent. JOHN PINGAYAK We have to continue to speak. To say, I will. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN I will. JOHN PINGAYAK Be strong. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN Be strong. JOHN PINGAYAK And learn about my culture. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN And learn about my culture. JOHN PINGAYAK I'll keep it alive. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN I'll keep it alive. JOHN PINGAYAK As long as I live. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN As long as I live. JOHN PINGAYAK Just like my aata. JOHN PINGAYAK GRANDCHILDREN Just like my aata. JOHN PINGAYAK This has to continue to thrive. And be passed down from one generation to the other. If it's not done, when I'm gone it's dead. [SNAP IN] JODY POTTS JOSEPH Oh wow, there's a lot of water in the creek still. Man, all this was under water. See all the silt powder coming off the leaves. The water line went so high you can see where the Yukon left a silt line. So, Buckeye just had a lot of brown water running through our little valley but then now, it's just huge chunks of ice choking off little Buckeye Creek. Holy moly, that is a ton of ice. Actually, more like literally tons of, tons of ice. That's insane. Seeing the damage really makes me just kind of realize your place in the world. And really, as humans we have to be smart and we're really at the mercy of nature. You know that curiosity in me wants me to peak over the edge, right? JAMEY JOSEPH Uh huh. JODY POTTS JOSEPH But I won't. JAMEY JOSEPH Yeah. JODY POTTS JOSEPH This is close as we need to be. JAMEY JOSEPH Waters gonna be high all year. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yeah. JAMEY JOSEPH It might even be another flood if it gets really hot and it melts all of this ice that is all hung up. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yeah. JAMEY JOSEPH And water is very high right now still. JODY POTTS JOSEPH So high, this is just insane. JAMEY JOSEPH If just melt it all very quickly, a couple of hot days and the water is just gonna come right back up again there's so much ice. Well. JODY POTTS JOSEPH High water. JAMEY JOSEPH Yup. JODY POTTS JOSEPH Yeah, times are changing, huh? JAMEY JOSEPH Yup. JODY POTTS JOSEPH It's good that we're building way up. JAMEY JOSEPH Yeah. JODY POTTS JOSEPH In the hills. Should we climb down and head back? JAMEY JOSEPH Yeah. JODY POTTS JOSEPH I'm glad we go out of here when we did.