Growing Native

This week on Growing Native.

(singing in Native language) MARINA: I don't like to call it subsistence, just a way of life.

GARY FERGUSON: Food is medicine, and that's the healthcare of the future.

CHRIS: Oh, nice.

(singing in Native language) JOHN JOHNSON: We had to struggle so much to get this land.

Our plains, our ancestors that are buried in these hills for the last 4,000 years.

(singing in Native language) MARJORIE TAHBONE: What'd you do Chris?

CHRIS: I thought you said it's supposed to be a nice hide.

CHRIS EYRE: Centuries after the first Europeans landed on this continent, tribal people continue to adapt, change, and survive.

(singing in Native language) These are the people stories of reclaiming old ways for health today.

This is Growing Native.

(singing in Native language) CHRIS: For over 40 years, friends and family gather at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks for the Festival of Native Arts.

It sheds light on these dark days in February where the temperature often hovers at minus 20 degrees.

(singing in Native language) Alaska is the largest U.S. state, but with 730,000 residents, it is sparsely populated.

There are 235 Alaskan Native villages, and like Indian Reservations in the lower 48, they are recognized as sovereign nations by the federal government.

However, the structure is much different.

Land claims in Alaska were forced by the discovery of oil in the north, and the subsequent desire to build an oil pipeline across the state.

So, in 1971, the land went to specifically constructed Alaska native corporations.

The corporations are guided by both the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and by Alaska state corporate law.

In these 235 villages, there are 11 distinct cultural groups that speak 20 different languages.

All are celebrated at the festival, whose roots were planted by native students in 1973.

Dr. Theresa John has been part of the celebration since its inception.

(drums beating) DR. THERESA JOHN: The first native students on campus back in early '70's that started the event because they missed that essence of their culture on campus.

It was void in classrooms, so the students got together, and they decided to form a festival that will help to celebrate and honor their ancestral ways of praying, ways of connecting with their ancestors.

CHRIS: So, Theresa, you're a professor.

DR. JOHN: Yes.

CHRIS: You're an artist, you're a matriarch, how is it different now, and what are you proud of now that you see?

DR. JOHN: What I'm really, really proud of is that it has been able to sustain throughout these years.

It's all fully student sponsored, student organized.

The strength of that structure is evolving.

Every year it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger, and you can hear the voices of the different students coming out.

It really bonds the indigenous groups statewide.

It connects together the drummers, singers, and dancers plus the native artists to celebrate their regale, and to celebrate their artwork, and to celebrate just that essence of diverse natives having a ceremony together.

LADY: Here is the performance list for today and tomorrow and Saturday.

STUDENT: Okay.

LADY: Like the bios.

CHRIS: One of the student leaders and emcees of this year's festival is Marina Anderson, a Haida Tlingit pursuing a degree in Alaskan Native Studies at UAF.

MARINA ANDERSON: I can't even remember what magazine it was now, it was back when I was in middle school.

They wanted a picture of a Haida girl or a Tlingit girl, some southeast Alaskan native girl, and they wanted the cover of the magazine in her regalia, and they wanted to do a feature inside the magazine, like, look how great this, you know, Alaskan native girl is doing for herself.

They flew all the way to Prince of Wales Island where I'm from.

They showed up, and they took a few pictures of me, and then they emailed me a few weeks later letting me know that they weren't gonna use the picture because I didn't look native enough.

(dramatic music) CHRIS: Within half a day of visiting Marina on Prince of Wales Island later that summer she definitely looked native enough to me.

MARINA: Everybody has to say (singing in Native language) (singing in Native language) And what does it mean?

Children of the Happy House, and that's what we are.

We're the children of the happy house.

Chris, introduce yourself to me.

CHRIS: Chris, you a sock.

MARINA: You, no we're not socks.

CHRIS: Oh.

(singing in Native language) MARINA: Yep.

CHRIS: All right.

MARINA: I think it's a respect for the fish to get off as much meat for consumption as possible, that way the whole thing is being utilized.

CHRIS: And how fresh is this?

MARINA: So fresh, that it's actually still wiggling a little bit when I'm cutting it.

CHRIS: Marina's family has always lived a subsistence life style.

She remembers times growing up when finances were tight.

But the table was still filled with fresh crab, lobster, and salmon at dinner every night.

So there's sockeye all in this bay here, huh?

MARINA: Yeah, but there used to be way more when I was younger.

It's so sad.

Now, we get as many in a year as we used to in a day.

CHRIS: Where have all the sockeye gone?

MARINA: A lot of is...

It's a culmination of everything, climate change, and then a lot of it's because commercial fishing.

You know, taking more from the land than is actually given to you.

Because we believe in, you know, we only take what is given to us, they're giving us their lives.

But when you're using something like a huge commercial boat with such a big net, there's no chance for any of the fish, and they're not all giving themselves to you.

You're just taking them.

CHRIS: Our goal over two days on the island to hunt and gather for our own subsistence meal.

MARINA: How'd you guys do?

Anything?

Show me what you got.

CHRIS: Oh nice.

MARINA: Some Pepsi.

CHRIS: Awesome.

(singing in Native language) MARINA: Chris, what do you say when you see a fish?

CHRIS: I say...get him!

(singing in Native language) Up first, with Marina's dad, beach seining, which is not quite the pole-and-bobber fishing that I grew up with.

Oh, there's one, right there.

(singing in Native language) Beach seining has been used for thousands of years on every continent in the world.

There are three key jobs on the beach seine.

First, dropping the leads which can't detangle as they fall off the boat into the water.

The second person has the most important job: plunging.

Creating a wall of bubbles to keep the fish from escaping through the only hole in the net under the boat.

One little opening, and an entire school of sockeyes can escape.

And last, but not least, a person on corks pulling the net 700 feet wide and 18 feet high, slowly in, while keeping it untangled for the next drop.

MARINA: So, here's the Haida total, Jim.

This might have been practice.

CHRIS: Marina's father, Jim, has been beach seining for more than 50 years.

JIM ANDERSON: You gotta be pretty lazy to starve in this country.

And the way to not starve is to learn how to subsist.

You go in these grocery stores, you come out with couple of these little green bags, you know, for 200 bucks, it's not a very big bag.

30 cents for one bullet, you know, a little ambition, you can pack a lot of meat.

You gotta learn.

The economy, too, you know, there's no work.

So, you gotta go out and get your venison and your fish.

CHRIS: Later that night, a seal hunt.

Seal is a staple of both the Tlingit and Haida diet, second only to salmon.

They remain the most active hunters of seal in Alaska today.

JIM: There he is right there in front of you, 12 o'clock.

He's not that close.

Right over his head.

MARINA: Ah.

CHRIS: Are you disappointed you didn't get that seal?

MARINA: Yeah.

CHRIS: I thought you hit that one.

MARINA: I thought I hit that one, too.

Did you play basketball in high school?

CHRIS: A little bit.

MARINA: You know, when you think you really hit a shot, and start to run down the court, and really you didn't, and it bounced right back to where you were standing, and you should have rebounded it?

CHRIS: Yeah.

That's what it feels like.

CHRIS: That's what it feels like?

MARINA: That's what it feels like.

It's okay.

They weren't meant to be taken.

There's so many people that would just love to have some seal meat when they're not expecting it.

(gun fires) JIM: Got that one.

MARINA: Got it, got it, go!

Get in the boat, get in the boat, get in the boat.

JIM: Get in the boat.

MARINA: Get in the boat, great.

JIM: Get in the boat.

MARINA: We've gotta go now.

Long time, don't time.

Take him right over there, I'll grab him.

Right over to that shore right there, it's a steep shore.

Thank you, seal.

Thank you for giving us your life, buddy.

CHRIS: Given the size of the seal, comparatively, there's not a huge amount of meat, right?

JIM: No, but in the fat, MARINA: Makes good oil.

JIM: is a lot of good seal oil.

CHRIS: Yeah.

JIM: That natives use for MARINA: Everything.

JIM: a lot of different foods.

Mix them with berries, dried or fresh-- CHRIS: Tell me again, the best meat?

JIM: Actually, it's all good, I mean.

Like, right around the back straps you get more meat.

'Cause your ribs, you see, they're not really that thick.

CHRIS: Yeah.

JIM: So, you get around the back, but it depends on what you do with it, too, you know.

I like the back.

CHRIS: Yeah, yeah.

JIM: With potatoes and onions.

CHRIS: Yeah.

JIM: But I'll dice, like I said, (clears throat) dice the meat up into small chunks, 'cause there's a lot of oil in the fat.

CHRIS: In the meat?

JIM Yeah, you see all the fat that's on it.

(mellow music) CHRIS: And we wrapped up the night with a walk through a rain forest to an amazing 130-foot waterfall at Canoe Point.

Wow, look at that!

MARINA: Isn't that pretty?

CHRIS: Wow.

Jeez.

MARINA: Every first timer has to jump from the top.

CHRIS: Wow.

MARINA: I joke, you know.

(giggling) Isn't that something?

CHRIS: And then, the picking of a versatile plant considered sacred across Alaska.

MARINA: This plant right here is Devil's Club.

It's our medicine plant.

You can use it to make salve, make tea, which is a really good cleanser, and use the actual wood to make beads, you know, put on necklaces and keep away bad spirits.

Today, we're gonna harvest it for the bark to dry it and make tea, and then the beads to make necklaces and keep away spirits, and hopefully donate the necklaces to the up-and-coming potlatches.

(mellow music) CHRIS: Day two, more gathering, starting at Big Salt Lake, just outside of Klawock.

This is the one plant.

MARINA: This is the goosetongue.

CHRIS: This is the goosetongue.

It tastes... ...salty.

MARINA: And this is the beach asparagus.

CHRIS: And this is the beach asparagus.

These are really, really good.

You don't have to add salt to your salad.

MARINA: We'll have asparagus at dinner tonight.

CHRIS: This is very good.

I mean, that goosetongue is so good, if they would have made salads like that when I was young, that would have changed everything.

(mellow music) MARINA: Personally, I don't see subsistence the same way, I guess, other people do.

People call going to the store and getting their food their grocery shopping.

And I call this a way of life.

(mellow music) CHRIS: So, we're harvesting for tonight's dinner.

MARINA: Yep.

CHRIS: Great.

MARINA: Like my aunt always says, when the tide is out, the table is set.

(people chatting) WOMAN: Sounds good.

CHRIS: Wow.

When we returned from two days of hunting and gathering, the table was definitely set for the freshest, and without question, one of the best meals I've ever had.

I'd say thanks for this, for this meal, and inviting me to this meal.

This is such a spread.

I don't think I've ever had this kind of spread before with all this fresh seafood, and and stuff from your home.

What does it mean to be able to share this with your family, and to harvest it right here, to you guys?

MARINA: It brings us all together a lot, for one.

If you said, there's gonna be dinner, everybody comes.

Right, Steam?

STEAM: Yes.

MARINA: Yeah.

FOREST ANDERSON: Just sit around and eat shrimp and pickit, and you know, I mean, fish eggs.

I mean, it's just a social, it's a real social time for us, and always kind of traditionally has been the social time for you know, the natives here.

This is how, how we enjoy spending time together, is sharing our foods.

CHRIS: This is how it's done.

MARINA: It's how it's done.

FOREST: This is how it's done.

CHRIS: And what is the saying about the table and the tide?

MARINA: When the tide is out, the table is set.

FOREST: The table is set.

(upbeat music) CHRIS: Back at the festival in Fairbanks, we explored Alaskan native art.

The University of Alaska, Fairbanks is one of the few schools in the country to offer both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Native Arts.

Da-ka-xeen Mehner is one of the Assistant Professors in the program.

DA-KA-XEEN MEHNER: Well, Alaskan native arts is quite diverse because we've got such a large area met, and there is many different materials throughout Alaska.

But I think something that does unify the arts in Alaska is carving.

Every culture in Alaska did some sort of carving with the adages and the crook knives.

In Alaska, because contact was so much later than the rest of the United States, I think there's a little closer connection to that cultural base.

Definitely materials are very unique.

We have ivory, sea lion.

The most successful artists are the ones that are hunters in their communities because they know how to get those materials themselves.

And so, it's a very important part of it and part of the connection.

The materials like ivory and baleen are just byproducts of the hunting activities that are there still supporting the communities that they live from, living off of the subsistence lifestyle.

And I do see more of our young people speaking the language, learning the songs, practicing the art form.

More and more over the last few years, you know, at the beginning of class, I ask people to introduce themselves.

Most of them introduce themselves in their language, and talk about where they came from in history.

I see this uniform or connection with the dance, the song, the language, and the art kind of all happening at the same time.

And the culture's really strong and vibrant with the young generation that's coming up.

CHRIS: Sydney Isaac's is part of the Renaissance to which Da-ka refers.

A student at the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico, Sydney has spent the last two summers painting totem poles in Klawock.

Totem pole carving has always been an important tradition for the Haida, a method of passing on stories of the world and how to live.

But in the 1930's, the U.S. government made totem pole carving and other Haida traditions illegal.

The prohibition was lifted in 1962, but the 30-year absence meant that much of the traditional knowledge was lost.

Hydaburg Totem Park's newest totem pole was erected in 1938.

It's older than most of the residents in this village of 382 people.

More than two decades ago, master carver, Jonathan Rowan, began enlisting students to restore this totem tradition.

JONATHON ROWAN: For me, it's what it means to the community.

That's what it means, you know.

How they feel, and getting the park back 100%.

SYDNEY ISAACS: For now, this is a resting place for our totem poles.

These poles were up at the park.

They've been taken down because of how much they have been decaying and rotting.

And so, what we're doing now is we're re-carving them and restoring them, and then we're putting them back up to bring our totem park back to life, basically.

CHRIS EYRE: And will that be new totems of the same design for each one of these?

SYDNEY: In a way, yeah.

The main thing that's going on here is just a replication process.

Al of these totem poles are mortuary poles.

So, each one of these represents a person, and they're are even some stories to them.

CHRIS: Now that these totems are retired, what happens to these totems, these beautiful totems that are 80 years old?

SYDNEY: There are three different ways that we wanna go about it, but we're not entirely sure yet, because of the elders want three different things, and we don't wanna disrespect any of them.

But the first group wants the poles to just decay and go back to Mother Earth.

And then the second group wants us to cremate all the poles and send them back to the spirits.

And then the third group wants us to keep them, and give them to a museum for further use and study so that people will know more about us.

And since we don't want to upset any of them, we're just keeping them here.

NORMAN JACKSON: And this one smells like pine.

It's got a wonderful smell.

CHRIS: I experienced the same spiritual connection and desire to pass on tradition carving in Kichxaan, a popular tourist destination where Tlingit artist Norman Jackson stands nearly alone as an authentic native artist with a store in the area.

NORMAN: Art has to give you a feeling.

I believe, you know, each piece will give you a different feeling.

I don't know, I feel like I'm here not just for myself and my people, but for everybody so they can come and learn.

I just kind of hope that I might maybe someday somebody might come down and wanna learn some of this.

You gather so much up here, and what do you do with it, you know?

You gotta share it.

There's this hoping that someday some of our local younger ones might come around before I get too old.

(upbeat music) ALLAN HAYTON: Lear, Lear, Lear!

Meet at this gate that let thy folly in and thy dear judgment out.

CHRIS: At the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater, (speaking Native language) ...it is the art of language being spread through a legendary play.

(speaking Native language) TOM ROBENHOLT: Great job, guys.

Well, Chris, that was the famous blow winds and crack your cheek speech from King Lear's Allan Hayton, and Pete Peter.

CHRIS: Chris, nice to meet you guys.

So, let me ask the obvious question.

TOM: Uh-oh.

CHRIS: Why King Lear?

ALLAN: I kind of saw these connections between the story of King Lear and many of our elders and which in our group.

Almost there's this change happening within the play.

There's a world order that's shifting, and in a lot of ways, our Deg Xinag culture, language, is going through that process, too.

So, by putting it into our language, we're trying to promote, you know, language revitalization.

CHRIS: And after all, what do Indians know about tragedy?

(laughing) TOM: Well, that's the thing, too, is King Lear, he loses so much throughout the play.

It keeps being taken away from him, everything, his daughters, his way of life.

He's being shunned and pushed away, and that's one of the connections we were putting together is that a community that's losing their language, losing their culture throughout time.

And it's kind of a vehicle to help promote the language.

And what it does for the audience, I think I really pops us in and out of the story.

Not out of the story of King Lear, but into the story of Shakespeare's King Lear, and to a different angle of King Lear that no one has ever seen.

It's never been performed like this before.

PETE PETER: Our language goes back, like 30,000 years, and we almost lost it once, but we're bringing it back this way, and it's very important.

It's healthy for our language.

I believe someday it's gonna be the kids gonna wanna learn our language again.

CHRIS: My visit came six weeks before the first performance of Lear Khehkwaii, which toured around Alaskan schools to perform abridged 90-minute shows.

Post-show workshops discuss theatrical activities focused on storytelling, and the importance of language revitalization.

TOM: It's the first step to try to get more people involved.

If we can get out here and show that it can be done, that perhaps we'll have two more actors interested from the community next time.

And so, as the years go by, if we can get more and more young people involved acting in their own language, I feel like, and I know Allan and Pete feel the same way, that's the best way to learn rather than sitting down and looking at a book, but to get up and feel the emotions and bring it out there, which I really believe that's part of language.

It has to be part of the language.

So, that's the real...

This is the first big step that we're taking to hopefully make an impact.

CHRIS: Teaching the youth in revitalization of native culture in Alaska was a common theme at every stop on my journey.

It has been a passion for 91-year-old Athabaskan leader Howard Luke, for the past 20 years at his Gaalee'ya Spirit Camp near Fairbanks.

(snowmobile moving away) The camp utilizes hands-on learning from elders to teach the next generation to carry on their cultural knowledge.

February is a little early for camp, but we still made the trek across the frozen Tanana River to the site which sits on Howard's personal land.

My guide was Marjorie Tahbone, an Inupiaq and Kiowa from Nome.

Marjorie is a former Miss Indian World who's been going to camp for many years.

Now, if my boots could talk, what would they be saying?

MARJORIE TAHBONE: They'd be saying, "Man, I wish I had some fur boots like hers."

CHRIS: That's exactly right.

(Marjorie laughs) We're on the river right now, right?

MARJORIE: Yeah.

And on the powder.

CHRIS: Geez!

(Marjorie laughs) Why don't we have snow shoes?

MARJORIE: I know, we should have grabbed some.

CHRIS: This is cold.

SO, this is Howard's camp?

MARJORIE: Yep, so, we were just at Howard's camp, and that's where he usually lives, and this cabin is for any elders, or any other people that come and stay here, and right over here right next to it is the original camp, here, where his mother used to live.

And so, no one lives in there now.

They used to use it for storage.

So, yeah, this is-- CHRIS: His mom used to live here?

MARJORIE: Yep, that's where his mom used to live, and that was the original camp.

Just the beauty of the river, I mean, it's so amazing.

Just to be out here, you know?

CHRIS: Yeah.

MARJORIE: And smell the smoke of natural wood built.

You know, it's just awesome.

You know, you always remember those smells of home.

CHRIS: We would get to spend more time with Marjorie at her home a few months later, but next we had the chance to speak with Howard Luke himself.

CHRIS: So, what is your hope for the future generations?

(upbeat music) CHRIS: To see an actual spirit camp in action, I'd wait until later that summer to take a breathtaking flight to Nuchek Island in Prince William Sound.

The beautiful island with abundant resources has been claimed by four different nations throughout it's history, but is now owned and controlled by it's original landlords, the Chugach people.

JOHN JOHNSON: Welcome, my friend.

CHRIS: Yeah, good to see you.

Just three steps off my plane, and onto the dock, the youth were hard at work on the very land where their ancestors performed the same tasks.

I really appreciate being here, and just the flight in here was the most amazing scenery I've ever seen.

JOHN: Oh boy.

CHRIS: And then you have this camp that's underwritten by your Alaska native corporation, which is called the-- JOHN: Chugach Alaska Corporation.

CHRIS: Chugach Alaska Corporation?

For the benefit of young people coming out here to the spirit camp and learning.

So, you're gonna show us around-- JOHN: You bet, in fact, what's so great about is all these young people been coming out here for almost 20 years, and now the young people are help running the camp now.

So, it's a success story.

We're real proud of it.

CHRIS: That's great.

JOHN: The main thing we tell people is besides learning all the traditional of how to prepare food, how to dance and sing, is to have pride in who you are and where you're from.

LEADER: This next song is (speaking Native language).

It's you're giving thanks.

The word (speaking Native language) means thank you.

And you're thanking your ancestors for the subsistence life.

And we sing it in the four directions, north, east, south, west, and just getting our thanks across.

Everybody turn.

(speaking Native language) (singing Native language) JOHN: This whole area here is, is a village site here of Nuchek.

Nuchek here is the sight of a large village probably in the historic times, was one of the largest historic settlements in our region.

So many other countries claimed this land: the Russians, the Spaniards, the British.

Our claim to this land is our ancestors that have been buried in these hills, in these areas, for the last 4,000 years.

And that's our title to the land.

That's what's so important about this place here.

We had to struggle so much to get this land.

We're fighters; we fought everybody.

This is our victory place right here.

And my two daughters her, Lauren and Jayme.

They've been coming here since the beginning of our cultural camp.

JAYME JOHNSON: My favorite part is just getting away from the city.

This is where I don't bring anything that's not necessary.

You just get up and go get your own food off the beach.

It's a difference of community that you don't get in Anchorage.

You know everybody here.

You say hi and good morning to everyone.

LAUREN JOHNSON: I think my favorite part would be thinking that our ancestors once lived here, and that we bring back a community.

If even if it's just for the summer, for two weeks, we're a community again.

(mellow music) CHRIS: Across the camp, time-honored activities were passionately pursued by hundreds of native youth.

(mellow music) ALTA ST. PIERRE: You kind of push... CHRIS: Push the meat along.

Everybody's in awe of my cutting skills.

Okay, so after you cut these thin slices, these nice thin slices, what do you do with it after that?

ALTA: Basically we take all the thin slices and we lay them on our rack to dry.

CHRIS: Okay.

ALTA: And then after we fill the rack, we'll go ahead and place it in the smoke house, and allow it to smoke for not even half a day.

JARED SELANOFF: You slide it back.

CHRIS: You also have other meat hanging in there.

What is this?

JARED: These are the flippers off of a sea lion, and we put a smoke to them as well, also to keep the food flies away, and once-- CHRIS: These are the flippers off of a sea lion?

JARED: Correct.

These are the front flippers, and these here are the back feet.

CHRIS: And these are still soft.

Is this yesterday?

JARED: We got them the day before yesterday.

CHRIS: Wow.

And how long will these have to smoke?

JARED: People do it different ways.

We're gonna probably leave these in here a couple more days just to let the smoke permeate the meat.

And then we'll break them down and throw them in some soup.

(mellow music) WOMAN: We're doing raven's tail weaving.

CHRIS: Yeah?

WOMAN: On mop board.

CHRIS: Oh, nice.

Now, I've seen this before.

Tell me about this piece of artwork.

WOMAN: That is a box of bay light design with a treasure inside.

And then raven's tail is one of the oldest styles weaving.

It's hand-woven.

They used to do it on branches, and take it from sheep that were around the area.

It's more of a southeast type style.

CHRIS: As with Howard Luke's camp in Fairbanks, the teaching and storytelling of elders is a key part of the camp's experience.

One of them is a local legend, Henry Makarka, who grew up on the island and whose grandfather's brother was the last chief of the Nuchek.

HENRY MAKARKA: They were traveling a long distance and it ended, they just said they went to shore anywhere in the land.

Stop at a barbecue, we call it (speaking Native language) (speaking Native language) That's an open part of-- CHRIS: Barbecue.

HENRY: Barbecue, yeah.

You drank a cup of tea or some, served some dried fish, and then after that, they said, "Then we begin our journey again."

"Where are we going?"

the leader said.

Choot-man, choot-man, forward, forward.

CHRIS: Choot-man.

HENRY: So, I... You know, I cherish that story from this elder that was telling me this story about how they traveled around anywhere.

They survived off the land, traveled in their kayaks.

CHRIS: While I knew I'd heard of Prince William Sound, it wasn't until Henry brought it up in conversation that I recalled why I was familiar with this area.

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon-Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, resulting in the most devastating human-caused environmental disaster in history.

The toxic affects on the environment, and emotional scars on the inhabitants of the area, remain to this day.

HENRY: What we used to have here, millions of herring would be out here.

When the herring came in to spawn, the black ducks came by the millions.

All over the Sound, all kinds of water fowl all over.

Killer whales, sea lions, porpoise, all over.

I seen it, all right.

Resigned, I mean I cried when I went out there to see what happened.

(somber music) I watched my friends, the Navy boys, their job was to take all over and pick up dead seals, dead sea otters, thousands of different species of birds.

They used to get so mad, they would come back mad and crying with garbage bags full of ducks and all animals.

Tide was coming in.

Millions of salmon fry floating in with the tide.

(crying) I hope it comes back for the youngsters.

JOHN JOHNSON: Subsistence was so damaged from the oil spill, we had to make sure that there was no gap in the generations so people could continue our subsistence lifestyle.

That was one of the important parts of this camp.

CHRIS: And that's when you say chuman.

HENRY: Oh.

Choot-man!

CHRIS: Choot-man!

(laughing) I'm going forward.

HENRY: Yeah, choot-man.

CHRIS: Choot man.

JOHN: You know our ancestors-- HENRY: forward!

CHRIS: Forward.

JOHN: Gave us such a gift of this land, they fought so hard, and they gave us a beautiful gift.

What Henry's doing is giving the next generation another gift to learn and appreciate this great land we have here.

(singing Native language) CHRIS: As we gathered the next morning before heading to my next destination, Henry's words of choot-man, meaning forward, echoed in my head.

(singing Native language) Through this camp, taking place on this sacred land, the next generation is carrying the teachings of their ancestors.

Forward.

See ya!

JOHN: Thank you!

CHRIS: Thank you!

MAN: Hey guys!

YOUNG PERSON: Bye!

(singing Native language) CHRIS: The native youth who performed for us on Nuchek Island were part of the Youth Internship Program at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, which rewards students in its program based on what they learned during the experience.

ANNETTE SMITH: Every year in the summer we double in size.

We hire on 30 interns.

They think they're here for their first summer job, we think they're in school.

So for the 20 weeks that they're internship lasts, we're charting what they have learned over the course of their summer: information about their language, information about their traditional dwellings, or information about regalia.

And then the more they learn, they're paid more.

And so, we create individualized development plans for every single one of our interns to chart what they learned while they're with us.

They come in, and at the beginning of the summer, so many of them are so very shy.

But, by the end of the summer, their public speaking skills develop so much, they can present in front of audiences of hundreds, and they do it beautifully and gracefully, and with so much voice.

(mellow music) CHRIS EYRE: Anchorage is Alaska's largest village, claiming 40% of the populace of the entire state within its boundaries.

Only New York State has a higher percentage of citizens living in one city.

I wondered about Alaskan natives transplanted to this urban environment, and their opportunities to still pursue the subsistence lifestyle of their predecessors.

Dr. Gary Ferguson of the Alaskan Native Tribal Health Consortium specializes in promoting health and wellness opportunities throughout the state.

DR. GARY FERGUSON: The division I work for is called Community Health Services and that is a division that works with our Tribal Health partners, our customer owners who help direct us around helping our native people be the healthiest people in the world as our vision.

CHRIS: Wow.

GARY: So, yeah.

CHRIS: That's quite a mission.

GARY: That's the vision of the Consortium.

It has to start with our young people, and eventually will trickle to adults, but once you have ingrained behaviors, it's hard to change.

(upbeat music) CHRIS: One of the reasons that I took such an interest in talking to you was a program you have called Store Outside Your Door.

GARY: It came about kind of just organically of saying how do we work with highlighting traditional foods, and also those foods that have made us healthy.

Now, with research, we know that those traditional foods actually prevent disease, and can help make you stronger if you are facing a chronic disease.

So, we came up with this program called Store Outside Your Door which kind of reframes Alaska, and many of our villages are looked at as food deserts or places where there's not good food.

And people are like, "I can't eat healthy "'cause the village "doesn't got any good food in the store."

And we're like, well what about the store outside your door?

Really, it's an ancient concept and people have done it for thousands of years.

They've survived and they've thrived on this incredible landscape.

(upbeat music) CHRIS: Gary took me to the store outside his door at Kincaid Park, a 1500-acre municipal park within the city limits of Anchorage.

GARY: So, we're coming upon a really cool plant that is all over south central Alaska, and is in other parts of Alaska as well, but it's especially prevalent here.

It's called Stinging Nettle.

It's known for its stinging barbs.

If you were to pick it, you'd get some stings in your hand.

Some of us don't react to it, some of us do.

This plant, as it comes up, you eat like as a foraged salad.

Usually, you steam it really lightly.

It's good for seasonal allergies.

It's good just for its nutrition.

A lot of people would walk by and say, that's just a bunch of weeds.

CHRIS: This is the produce aisle, the beginning of the produce aisle.

GARY: Exactly, right here.

But it's one of those where this plant you can peel it and eat it as a green.

They call it wild celery.

You can use the roots for medicine for...

It's got antiviral properties, so you can make tea out of the roots.

This is yarrow.

If you take a leaf and you roll it in your hands, you'll be able to smell the aroma.

It's a really pungent smell, and it kind of gives you some hint as to what it's used for.

And this is used for like...

Traditionally, you'd use it for breaking a fever, like a cold or a flu.

It's known as a styptic, or a blood clotter, so it helps wounds.

And so, traditional, like if you get a wound maybe you would chew this a little bit, or break it up really good and then put it into your wound, and it would help stop bleeding.

(mellow music) GARY: Chris, this is Margaret and Tara.

CHRIS: Hey Margaret, hey Tara.

LADIES: Hello.

GARY: They work in our health promotion and disease prevention programs.

They're a part of our Store Outside Your Door team.

CHRIS: So, what are you guys working on here?

TARA STILLER: We're looking at some wormwood that came out this season.

It looks pretty bountiful.

And Gary was educating us on the medicinal uses of it.

CHRIS: He has a tendency to do that.

What do you hope the future holds for Store Outside Your Door?

Sustainability, definitely.

That's key.

I mean, we're doing so much for our communities bringing back traditional ways of hunting and gathering, growing, fishing is so important for our youth.

To integrate that, to keep it going for generations to come.

MARGARET DAVID: I'm also really excited about getting urban young families in the urban areas excited about the Store Outside Your Door.

There's a lot of people from the rural communities that are moving into Anchorage and other larger towns, and sometimes, think that because they're away from their home region, that they don't have access, you know, to fishing and gathering plants.

But, as you guys can see, there's still a lot of stuff that we can do here.

And so, that's one of the aspects that I'm really excited about, too, getting young families involved.

GARY: The more we understand about these powerful medicines that... Our elders are excellent archives of knowledge.

And as we learn more, the more that we can use prevention-based, and food as medicine.

These natural medicines that have very few side effects often, but are powerful just the same.

So, I think that that's the health care of the future is it brings both traditional and the wisdom that we've had for thousands of years, and also the new modern medicine.

It brings a balance of both, but it recognizes the power of our traditional medicines and that to our indigenous people.

(upbeat music) CHRIS: From the largest city in Alaska, we traveled 538 miles northwest to a city that a century ago held the same distinction, but now, just has 3500 people claiming it as home.

Nome has as fascinating a history as any city in Alaska.

The Inupiaq hunted wild game and had a settlement in the area in prehistoric times.

But the discovery of gold in 1898 caused a population boom, drained the resources from the area, and crashed just 10 years later.

Through it all, the Inupiaq remained and continue a lifestyle of survival and subsistence living.

When we last met Marjorie Tahbone, she was helping us trek across a frozen river in Fairbanks.

Now, we're at her family's home in Nome, on the banks of the Bering Sea.

And I'm gonna meet your mom later on?

MARJORIE TAHBONE: Yeah, yep, you'll meet her, and you'll enjoy a nice traditional meal, You'll meet some of my other family members, too.

CHRIS: Marjorie and her mother Sandy, took me around to some of their favorite native gathering spots outside of Nome.

Okay, what are we looking for?

(speaking Native language) SANDY TAHBONE: They're a part of the sassafras family, and we have two varieties that we, (speaking Native language) .

They are two of the ones that we pick.

What we'll do is we'll... We'll pick them and we're gonna cut them up and soak them in some oil.

CHRIS: That looks beautiful.

That looks nice and scrumdilicious.

Now, can I eat this right now?

SANDY: Try that one, then try this young one.

CHRIS: Okay, this is an old one?

SANDY: Mm-hmm.

You know how, these, as they get old, they get a little tougher.

CHRIS: Yeah, so this one more like veal to me.

SANDY: Can you tell the difference?

CHRIS: This one has more taste to it, seems like.

SANDY: Probably sweeter.

And then, these are the flowers, and they're also edible.

Okay, try one of those if you want.

CHRIS: Eat one of the flowers?

Okay.

SANDY: Are they sweet?

CHRIS: These are sweeter.

SANDY: Yep.

They're rich in vitamin A and C. I think they're like 10 times that you would get in an orange.

(mellow music) SANDY: You gotta fill it, fill it up.

CHRIS: The whole thing?

SANDY: The whole thing.

CHRIS: Okay.

(mellow music) CHRIS: When we were in Fairbanks in February, you didn't have the tattoo that you have now.

Can you tell me about that?

MARJORIE: Yeah well, a long time ago, just to give a little bit of background on the tattoos, it's a traditional tattoo that the young woman used to get a long time, way before contact, and the young woman would get them when they became of marriageable age or when they have their first menstrual cycle.

And so, I kind of translated that marriageable and ready for kids, ready for family into the modern setting, so I got these traditional tattoos right after I graduated college when I felt I was able to be an independent woman and be able to support a family.

Our culture slowly was you know, trying to be assimilated and things.

My mother, she grew up in a generation where it was frowned upon to be a native, and to have any type of signifiers that you're a native at all.

She didn't grow up in that, like how I grew up in a positive, strong, culturally involved family.

But she was able to grow up into this strong woman that has been a good role model for me and made me strong enough to feel like I could wear this tattoo on my chin.

Because some people are afraid to do that, even now.

(mellow music) CHRIS: We attempted to fish for our dinner as well, and even Marjorie's sister Vanessa came along for good luck.

CHRIS: Where have all the salmon gone CHRIS: But after three hours and no bites, the discussion turned to something that came up at every stop on our Alaska trip.

And Marjorie had a very unique perspective on it.

MARJORIE: We believe that all this different unpredictable weather has to do with the Earth trying to...

It's a natural cycle that the Earth goes through.

So, in our Inuit mythology, we learn that a long time ago, they went through these great shifts in the Earth, but it's natural, and then it becomes predictable for a good maybe 100 to 200 years, and then it starts to shift again, and so, we believe we're going through this shift right now.

And we just try to adapt to it, you know.

And some elders around here in Nome, they say that this shift is natural, but it's moving along a lot quicker because of all these people in this world.

CHRIS: You know the other thing I noticed up here is that milk is like $10 a gallon.

MARJORIE: Yeah.

CHRIS: Tell me about the cost of food up here.

MARJORIE: Well, in any parts of Alaska where you have to fly things in, and Nome's one of the places.

You can't drive to Nome, you have to fly to Nome.

Because you have to ship things in through the air, it brings the price up a lot, and so.

You know, simple things like milk and bread can be very costly and expensive.

And even with gas, you know, it's $6 a gallon here and this is the hub.

So, if you go to one of those surrounding villages, it's more like $7 or $8 a gallon.

You're best source of nutrition is from the land.

And it's cheaper that way.

CHRIS: It's also better for you.

MARJORIE: Yeah, and it's way better for you.

CHRIS: Fortunately, Sandy and Marjorie's father, Carlton, had better luck catching coho salmon.

And who better to learn filleting from than a world Indian Eskimo Olympic Games gold medalist?

Both Marjorie and Vanessa have had success at the games.

An annual test of skill, strength, agility, and endurance, utilizing traditional native competitions.

In 2012, Marjorie finished first in fish cutting, with a 47-second performance.

The second place finisher completed his fish more than 30 seconds later.

Look at that, and that's a nice filet, too.

MARJORIE: Done!

CHRIS: You're a gold medalist.

MARJORIE: Whoo!

How long was that?

VANESSA: 48 seconds!

(Marjorie grunts) CHRIS: Put your hands up like this.

Oh, with the fish.

MARJORIE: Oh.

(laughs) Yay!

CHRIS: What are we gonna do with the rest of these salmon?

MARJORIE: So, the rest of these, I'm gonna take the the skins off, because we're gonna tan the hides.

CHRIS: Okay.

MARJORIE: So, we try to save as much as we can, and that also includes the skins.

It's pretty simple.

You just kind of have to find the skin side, and you're just gonna slowly just take it off little by little.

CHRIS: Yeah.

MARJORIE: And this is a tanning process that they used to do a long time ago.

CHRIS: Well, I have a surprise for you.

MARJORIE: What's that?

CHRIS: I'm a skinning champion.

MARJORIE: Are you?

CHRIS: I just hadn't told you.

MARJORIE: Oh my goodness.

CHRIS: Okay, and then you just cut the tail off.

MARJORIE: Then you just cut the tail off.

And then you have a nice hide.

CHRIS: Like here?

MARJORIE: Yep.

There you go.

And then, when we tan it, it'll be a pretty red color, and then we can make clothing out of it.

CHRIS: I don't know if that's a nice hide.

MARJORIE: (laughing) What'd you do, Chris?

CHRIS: I thought you said it's supposed to be a nice hide.

MARJORIE: It's supposed to look like this.

CHRIS: Mine doesn't look like yours.

(Marjorie laughing) MARJORIE: Shoot, I'm sorry.

CHRIS: How embarrassing.

Luckily, coho hide wasn't on the menu.

Instead, another fresh meal 100% hunted and gathered.

(chanting Native language) MARJORIE: And this is baked sea... CHRIS: As we dined on the same food, on the same land, as their Inupiaq ancestors have for over 10,000 years, it was the perfect ending, and representation of my entire trip across Alaska.

In this cabin, with not more than a couple hundred square feet of living space, there was an overwhelming feeling of family, community, and culture.

A people not defined by the space in which they lived, but by the abundance of resources within their area that allow them to live.

While native Alaska's exposure to outside influences came much later than in the Lower 48, there's much more to its cultural connection than simply that.

Some of it is out of necessity.

When running to the supermarket is not an option, the table has to be set through other means.

But it can be attributed even more to a deep commitment.

A promise embedded deep within a people that has endured all challenges for centuries, from college students in the 70's to village elders, artists to actors, doctors to camp counselors.

All 11 Alaskan native culture groups are committed to a way of life and fighting to ensure that it exists for hundreds of generations to come.

A life that is equally sustained and revitalized through art, language, dance, and food.

A way of life that lives on through family.

MARJORIE: Yeah, it's good, it's like rain.

CHRIS: Caldo?

MARINA: Yeah caldo.

CHRIS: It's an ooligan fish, not hooligan.

MARINA: You're the hooligan, that's the ooligan.

CHRIS: Nice.

(chuckles) So, here goes my number two.

Let's see if I get this right.

Wow.

That's thicker.

I'm getting worse at this.

(whooping) MARJORIE: Yeah.

CHRIS: I can do a war cry, or I can do...

It's a treasure to have her here, and to talk to you, and to see what berries and salmon can do for a person.

MARJORIE: Yeah, there you go.

(whooping) (laughs) CHRIS: I'm not sure that sounds right.

MARJORIE: Not quite, but you're getting there.

CHRIS: I'll keep practicing.

MARJORIE: Yeah.

Maybe when there's a bear coming, and do the call, do the call, you'll like be able to do it right away.

CHRIS: Animals will stand up, and the hair will go up on their back.

They'll be, what the hell was that?

MARJORIE: Yeah.

(singing Native language) VOICEOVER: Growing Native is available on DVD.

To order, visit shopvisionmaker.org, or call 877-868-2250.

(mellow music) This pro by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, Tulalip Tribes, San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, and Morongo Band of Mission Indians.