Original subtitles

[Chip Hailstone] It flies, swims, crawls, grows underground or towards the sun,

we can probably eat it,

and we've probably killed it.

That would be us.

[narrator] The Hailstones live a nomadic life in northwest Alaska...

-There it is! -[gunshot]

Yee-haw.

[narrator] ...travelling across frozen terrain and uncertain waterways

to subsist and survive.

[Chip] You know, you can pray, you can hope, you can wish, it's all the same.

[narrator] But in order to continue their way of life,

they must pass on native traditions, knowledge and techniques

to a new generation.

On the Hailstones' journey of survival in the Arctic,

thriving off the land as a family is the ultimate freedom.

[Chip] I wouldn't trade this life for anything.

[theme music playing]

[Chip] I'm Edward Hailstone and my friends call me Chip,

and I've been living in this region for 25 years.

I'm Agnes Hailstone and I'm a Kobuk Iñupiaq Eskimo.

My tattoos are traditional style

and when I pass away I would like to go to the happy hunting ground

where my grandparents are and then I can be recognised.

[Chip] We got five daughters and a couple of sons.

We live here on Kobuk River in the Arctic.

What brought me to Alaska was to go see my mom and my brother.

They were living in Kotzebue.

-You know what I'm doing, I'm filming. -Oh. [chuckles]

-You need any... -[Chip] Yeah.

Then, got to know Agnes.

Not only did I like her, but she liked me. Liked me right back.

And we had a lot of fun together. We still do.

And then I just integrated myself slowly into what other folks were doing.

They took me along or I went myself.

Is it still alive?

-Yeah, it does flap. -[Chip laughs]

[Chip] I have a big family here now. That's what keeps me here.

Or I'd be roaming around.

I don't think he'd ever get away from me if he tried.

[laughs]

-Never thought of that threat. -Like you just saw.

-I was just holding a harpoon. -[laughter]

-You'll pull me back in with a rope. -[chuckles] Pull you back.

[Chip] I'd never purport myself to be Eskimo,

but I definitely live a lifestyle

that most of these Eskimos up here do.

My wife's heritage is a heritage of hunters,

and they say, "When in Rome, make like a Roman."

[narrator] For the Hailstones, living a subsistence lifestyle in the Arctic

depends on their ability

to harvest Mother Nature's most plentiful and elusive resource,

wildlife.

[Chip] We're hunters, not farmers.

If I wanna hunt something, I either get it or I don't.

There's no, "You'll get it in two weeks." There's no layaway plan.

You can't say, "Oh, I need a caribou today because I'm bum broke."

You gotta get out there and earn it.

[narrator] Freeze-up marks the beginning of winter in Alaska.

And in Noorvik, a remote village on the Kobuk River,

the Hailstones begin another yearlong quest to feed their family.

[Chip] Late fall's one of the last chances to get a large bunch of white fish.

And setting the nets on thin ice

is probably one of the more dangerous things that we do during the year.

From a far side, it's one-inch ice.

One-inch ice we don't put our weight on, because it's highly dangerous.

This has killed my wife's mother, has killed my wife's brother,

this killed my wife's brother's girlfriend.

A lot of people every year.

So, we just gotta be... Be careful.

It's pretty risky.

Nobody will grab you because you'll go into the ice

and the current will take you. It's a strong, fast-running river.

There's no coming back.

-I feel over one inch. -[Agnes Hailstone] Okay.

-That's as far as we go. -[laughter]

That's as far as we go.

I lost my mother, my brother and his girlfriend to the ice.

Ever since then, I'm real cautious of where I step.

[Chip] We're hoping to get a couple hundred fish a day.

This is an important time of year

because it's the one time of year that they have eggs.

Our preference right now, while they're here,

are the egg-laden whitefish.

And that's why we use such a large mesh on our net.

It's because we want the smaller, skinnier ones to pass through

and the big, fat ones to get caught.

[grunting]

Grab that corner, son.

Hey, dolphin.

[child] Pull that one that was real... [Chip] Yeah, that was real timid.

Look, he's on the inside of the net, Agnes.

I do this the way the folks around here do it,

because the way the folks around here do it is the right way to do it.

So, of course I copy them.

I learn from them, I emulate 'em

and I teach it to my kids.

Right now, we'll be eating the fish and someday they'll come for theirs.

We're all gonna die.

Can't be scared of death.

You just gotta be scared of the pain it takes to get dead. [laughs]

[Agnes] The little things that get thrown at you,

but when you're out here, you just have to keep moving forward

and keep on, keeping on, keep on hunting.

We're opportunists.

-Oh, bright. -[Chip] Yeah, it is bright.

I'll bet you the caribou are closer than they were yesterday.

[Agnes] I probably should take sunglasses.

-You'll suffer if you don't. -[narrator] For Chip and Agnes,

harvesting and utilising all parts of a caribou

provides a major source of food to survive through the harsh winter.

But sneaking up on caribou migrating across the tundra

makes for a difficult hunt.

[Chip] Let's head up to the, erm, to the trail

and take the hard trail. We'll save gas that way.

-Okay? -[Agnes] Yeah.

There should be a small herd of caribou

roaming around, so we're just gonna go check out the flats in the lower hills

and, er, see what we come across.

After three, four days, we pretty much consumed all our extra food we brought.

[Chip] There's a lot of caribou going our way.

[Agnes] Yee!

Pretty much going to stay down low where it's not too windy,

not too cold. We just go right round to the back and watch the herd

and er, just make a game plan from there.

I'm on top of a ridgetop,

and the caribou were slowly eating their way up this way,

so any moment, they should be coming soon,

so I just keep my eyes open.

Whichever direction they come from,

I just pretty much have to be ready.

Whether it's scouting around looking for different things

or we're going directly to where we know what the conditions are

and we can hunt the area,

-we're always hunting. -They're coming straight to us.

That one right there. Come on, turn back.

-[gunshot] -I got 'em.

[Chip] We didn't get defeated on the caribou. We're able to ride,

we're able to, erm, come up about

maybe 2,000 caribou here and we had to pick out a good one.

[Agnes] Huh! We got one.

[Chip] This is a good piece of meat right here.

There's no mistake in shooting this one.

He's fat, too, so...

I can't complain. He's a young bull. We thought a cow, but he's a young bull.

There's always more caribou around,

so we just have to work on meat and try for another one

and keep your eyes open 'cause there's a lot of fur around, too.

Leave the gut pile for the birds.

[Chip] Yeah, and the foxes and whoever else.

We'll come back tomorrow and hunt some more.

You know, I wanna show my kids every season.

I want them to learn winter, I want them to learn spring,

I want them to learn summer, I want them to learn fall.

I want them to learn freeze-up, I want them to learn break-up.

And there's a different skill and a different way of doing things each time.

If you can't teach 'em how to make a lot of money,

you can teach them how to live without it,

and be proud and happy.

That's really the best education you can give a kid.

Carol, we've got to get you a, erm, weapon of your choice.

[narrator] The Hailstones spend their summers along the Kiwalik River,

harvesting the area's vast resources

in order to survive the harsh winter ahead.

[Agnes] Whoo!

There's not very many ducks or geese flying, so they must be no...

Moulting, so we're gonna go out and go, erm,

take a walk towards the lakes and ponds back there, and, er,

go see what the, erm, birds are doing.

[Chip] Basically, what happens in summertime,

the females are off raising their babies, and the males, when they moult,

they're flightless for about maybe a week or so.

[Agnes] We're not gonna use any firearms, but I am gonna carry some

in case bears or other animals come around.

But erm, we're gonna take our clubs and our paddles.

This is actually, erm, a legal way to hunt.

It's way cheaper to do a hunt this way

'cause we don't have to use any ammo or, erm,

anything but our energy to try to catch them.

-Shall we? -Yup.

[Agnes] Yeah, moulting ducks, we're getting close.

[Chip] That's close. [Agnes] Oh!

You girls, just follow me.

Even if I pass 'em up, you girls hit the ones that I pass, okay?

Come on, Carol, Qutan.

[Agnes] Come on, Qutan.

[Agnes] Go, Carol, you can make it!

[Chip] Come on, baby girl! Right there.

Hurry!

Yeah, get it in the head. Clean in the head.

That's a good job, Carol.

[Agnes] There's one.

[panting]

-[gunshot] -Hey!

Baby, stop. Right in front of you. Right there!

Okay, hit it! There you go. Good job.

Break its neck.

[Agnes] I got two right here.

Hey, I got it.

-I got one, Dad. -Good job, girl.

I got one more right here coming directly at me.

I got it.

These are fat geese.

He couldn't... What's going on? Did you round any up?

-I found two over there. -Oh, they get away?

It's all teamwork. Even though my daughter, Qutan, didn't kill one,

she was making her presence by running back and forth,

and the geese didn't wanna go to her,

so, it made them lay down, and me and Carol were able to go catch them.

[Chip sighs]

-[Agnes] Qutan. -Over here, baby.

-Oh, yeah, we did quite a bundle. -[Agnes] Quite the collection.

[Chip] I'm pretty happy for my daughters.

They're gonna learn where to go get food when there's no birds flying,

maybe no fish in their net.

There's no store out here. We ain't got no money,

but, erm, this is the store. This is what was in the aisle today.

We just had a good time. I'm pretty happy with my kids.

You girls know this place now.

-You'll never fail if you come here. -[Agnes] Yup.

[Agnes] I enjoy teaching my girls.

Being real young, my mother passed away.

So I try to teach them as much as I know

before anything happens to me.

There is many different ways to hunt the seal

and, er, it's a kind of difficult hunt,

but my son Jon's gonna be here with me, and, erm,

we're gonna try to go do this hunt together,

because, er, my husband's not a native

and he can't participate in this hunt,

although we would love to have him out there.

Erm, so, you know, it's a challenging hunt

but, erm, it's a pretty good, exciting hunt.

[Jon] Such a beautiful day.

[Agnes] I hope I can get lucky and catch a seal today.

It kind of costs a bit much to fly down this way

to Kotzebue and get in a boat and go out hunting.

We need to at least get one seal

to make up for the money that it cost me to fly down here.

Something on top the ice.

We're way far, halfways to land.

We're like six miles and two bends away.

[Agnes] Oh, son.

[gunshot]

[Jon] Where did it go?

Harpoon, harpoon, harpoon!

[grunts]

There we go. Now let's go and grab him.

You got to go below, below.

[Jon] Here we go. [Agnes] Up this way, up front, up front.

[Jon] Here you go.

-Ready? -[Agnes] One, two, three, go.

[grunts]

[Agnes] Hey! We did it. [Jon] Freaking awesome.

I'm real grateful for the seal. I'm glad it gave itself to us.

-Okay, kids, ready? Shall we head home? -Ya.

[Agnes] There's a lot of things you have to face up here

with Mother Nature doing what it does.

I know in the back of my head, "Hey, there's all kinds of dangers out here."

You can do so well with so little, it's crazy.

Erm, a long time ago possessions were a burden, literally,

'cause you carried everything you own.

And if those folks could live with everything they own,

be able to be on their back, so can we.

And when we started out, what did we have?

Couple of rifles.

A boat.

A snow machine, a sled, and we lived out of it all.

I love you.

But erm, you know, you can be as primitive as you want,

but when you have other people counting on you for support

and you have other people counting on you to give them a rich life, basically,

then you've got to step back and say, "Hey, I need some help."

I get help by chainsaw.

An outboard motor, a snow machine.

I take mechanical advantage.

I have other people that have to eat,

and doing it without mechanical advantage is foolish.

I'd lose them all, I'm sure.

[narrator] In the Arctic,

living a nomadic lifestyle means staying ahead of the seasonal changes.

For the Hailstones,

existing in an unpredictable and uncontrollable climate

requires transportation,

a key element to their success and survival.

[Chip] We are two weeks from everywhere,

so folks here, they have to choose between food

or gas. I choose gas

'cause with the gas, I can probably go out and catch something.

This is gasoline for snow machines.

The gas is pretty important to us. It's precious, it's like, er,

liquid gold.

[narrator] Each winter,

the Hailstones travel 85 miles south from their home in Noorvik

to gain access to hunting grounds.

This is Agnes Hailstone. I'm here to pick up my 9.97 gallons gas.

[narrator] Gas is crucial for their travels.

But hauling barrels of fuel

across treacherous frozen ground is a difficult task.

And any loss of the valued resource is a threat to their livelihood.

[Chip] This is a time of year when we are out for fur.

It's very well worth the ride, the gas, the effort, to come down this way.

[Agnes] Hey, what is that?

-On it? -[Chip] Yeah, gas leak.

Aw, shit. It's leaking.

Man, I can smell that.

-[Agnes] On it? -Okay, we got a pinhole crack right here.

I can see it plain as day right here where it's coming from.

It's leaking real bad?

It's leaking bad enough if we're gonna get to where we're going with it.

Where we live, this stuff's eight bucks a gallon.

If we lose everything, then it was all for nothing.

Gonna save as much of this as possible.

It's like losing blood.

This is just like a real race against time.

All right, well, the first thing I'm gonna untie is this damn fuel.

Well the gas has survived, but we're about five or six gallons less than before.

We're gonna siphon off as much fuel as we possibly can.

The holy drum.

[Chip] The consequences of not having the gas that's in here

is a lot less hunting. Yeah, I didn't come this far for nothing.

There we go.

It took gas, it took money, and now we're here, and we're happy.

Probably make ourselves some dinner and go to sleep.

That's the next plan.

We are kind of isolated, and it's a little harsh sometimes.

At any time, something can happen,

and you don't want to have to walk home at 30 below.

[narrator] In Kiwalik, Chip and Agnes

need to make the most of their final days of their winter harvest.

Their snow machine is a vital tool to hunt and gather

before warmer weather forces them to return home.

[Chip] What the hell?

Yeah, I think it fucking locked up.

Mechanicals up here can be a long time fixing.

And we're right on the verge of excellent hunting, and look what's happened to us.

What's up?

[Agnes] What'd you do? Gee whiz!

You crash like me?

-[Chip] No. -How come you're walking?

-[Chip] I think it's my crank. -Now that sucks.

I'm gonna make two into one.

-[chuckles] -That's my plan.

[narrator] After a recent crash,

minor field repairs remain to Agnes' snow machine.

But with one machine down,

they must now get the other one in full working order.

Since my machine's burnt up, and hers

has a good engine, and will run,

I'm gonna take her machine and go drag my machine back here.

One or the other, I'm ended up with a working ride.

-Are you ready? -[Agnes] Yeah.

It could be that crank burst in half. Let's have a look.

Yeah, it's got metal all over it.

It's toasted, so it's not gonna do me any good.

But I'll use it for spare parts for right now.

My wife will have a good ride.

I'll scrap mine till summer and then figure something else out.

Well, we're getting closer. The gas tank's going on.

We'll get all the stuff bolted back together and fire her up

and get the wife happy again.

I took two machines and made one.

Here you go, tested and approved.

We are back on the road and now we have a pile of parts to choose from.

-[Agnes] This will work? -Yes, it will.

-We're back in action. -[laughs]

Yes, that's how it ought to be.

Oh, nothing we can't always work through, huh?

I'd never live in the lower 48 again.

Well, as opposed to down south, we don't have,

er, roads, we don't have speed limits.

We don't have stop signs, we don't have flashing red lights or green lights.

And we're not highly regulated. If I wanna build something, I'd build it.

If I wanna drive somewhere, I drive.

We can hunt year round. You can't do that down south.

Not having a boss or someone telling us how we can use something or do something

or when to be there, or when not to be there,

that makes us the boss.

So, being our own bosses, that's the best.

He just don't know it, but I'm the boss.

[chuckles] Except when something goes wrong,

-then he's the boss. -Maybe I just didn't want you to know it

-but I knew it anyway. -That way when someone

or something goes wrong,

-we can always have someone to blame. -[laughs]

[narrator] Choosing a life in the Arctic

means choosing to rely on Mother Nature for food, heat, water and shelter.

For the Hailstones, to maintain their traditional native lifestyle,

and survive in brutal conditions,

they must work together as a family

to harvest the surrounding resources of the vast region.

[Chip] You got to get out there and earn it,

but the fact is it's all out here.

So, you get out here, you find a way to get it and you make a living that way.

You ready, bun?

I gotta flip over my shoes so they don't get rained on.

Okay, girls, let's go to the greens.

We can start with sour docks since the sour docks are ready.

[narrator] To harvest food sources that are essential to their diet

and unique to their native way of life,

the Hailstones depend on knowing when and where to find such foods

in an ever-changing landscape.

Well, you can spot these. Red stalks are up, and around them

there'll be nice, succulent greens.

And they're pretty tasty, actually. I like them.

[Agnes] You girls got to make sure you pick the right, correct greens

so we don't get sick.

One year we thought we picked all greens, and then

there happened to be a few poisonous flowers mixed in with those,

and I happened to eat them and I got really sick.

So it's very important for the girls to know what they need to look for.

It's important for them to know

where to go to pick these things and how to preserve them.

If they don't have this experience

and if they don't know what flowers to eat, they might go hungry.

Being out here, there's no reason to go hungry if you know what you're doing.

[Chip] I like taking my kids along, so they're not only seeing it,

they're gonna get to pick it,

then they're gonna get to cook it and eat it.

And that's the whole process from beginning to end.

But I want them to know where to find 'em.

You find them in these drained areas right next to lakes

and creeks and rivers and stuff. It's a good place to do it.

These are minerals and vitamins all winter long for us.

It's a lot of roughage for your guts.

And it tastes good, you know. Everybody likes a salad.

Let's go back towards the boat, ladies. We'll see what we can do from there, okay?

Well, I think we pretty well ravaged this area.

I have a lot of respect for animals.

Anything that can live outside 24/7's got my respect, because we can't.

When we write their names, we capitalise them.

Ptarmigan, Caribou, stuff like that. You got to be nice.

You have to think kindly of your food.

We're going downriver. We're going towards the ocean

to a place where there's lots of islands

where the seagulls like to lay their eggs.

We're trying to see if there are seagulls sitting on their nests.

Goal for the summer is to get eggs and save them up.

We like to eat the fresh eggs.

I wanna show my kids where to go get these eggs.

I want them to have the knowledge of where and when.

We just got to these mud flats, and my kids are all dispersing.

We need to go out here and go egg-hunting.

Really hope I run into something good.

[narrator] The Hailstone family employs the knowledge

gained from generations of native hunter-gatherers in the area.

Knowing the seasonal behaviour of animals is crucial to their diet,

and seagull eggs are a delicacy.

They can only be harvested this time of year.

Er, there's no nest here.

Probably one was making one,

but I don't think they finished through.

So, here's a nest.

It's still being worked on but there's no eggs yet.

Sometimes we have to walk for miles and miles just to find one nest.

[Chip] Seagulls like to be in these little patches in between here,

all this water, these mud flats. And they make their nest.

[seagulls cawing]

Oh, I can see eggs, Tin!

Six of them. Six eggs.

Oh, finally.

This is the first time Qutan's ever looked for eggs so, erm,

this is kind of a fun time for her.

Erm, I'm glad she found a few. [laughs]

We didn't count yet.

Come on over and count.

This is really exciting when everybody gets together

and we get to count everybody's eggs and see how much we come up with.

-I have eight. -[Chip] Yeah, I counted mine.

[Agnes laughs] Okay, then.

[Chip] I had 12, but one broke.

-We got 20! -[cheering]

When we wake up in the morning, we'll be having some real good breakfast.

Fresh eggs.

-Fifty-one. -Fifty-one eggs.

-Awesome. -Yeah.

[Agnes] Whoo, fun, good day.

[Chip] The value of being resourceful is it, erm, makes us rich.

We're resourceful in the food that we get

and then we also use the skin, and then we also use the antlers.

And our income is often taking, like, furs and making them into hats and clothing

and trading it off for stuff that we don't have.

And it buys us more gas to turn around and go do it again.

So, to us, it's a big circle.

Let's go, because she ain't gonna wait for us.

[narrator] The Alaskan tundra forces its residents

to learn unique skills in order to thrive in the harsh environment.

For the Hailstones,

employing native methods of utilising resources

and passing them onto their daughters

is a traditional way of life and means of survival.

This is how we used to put it when I was a little girl like you girls.

[Chip] I don't really know of a place other than northwest Alaska

where people actively learn their natural resources.

Kids elsewhere, I don't see that.

[narrator] As winter approaches,

Chip works on a necessary vehicle

that will help him and his family move across the frozen landscape of the Arctic.

[Chip] If I'm gonna get ready for winter coming up here,

I'm gonna need a sled.

Snow machine, it's a machine that meets the conditions that we have here.

They take quite a beating. You're going through

trails and places that have no roads.

You can rely on these to pull up to 1,000 pounds total.

So, this here makes my ride, or my wife's ride,

or my daughter's ride into a pickup truck.

There's a division of labour between men and women.

I'm taking care of canoe freight sled,

and my wife is making a sled bag out of caribou skins.

It'll be windproof, it'll be warm,

and she'll make it custom fit.

So right now we're just threading all the

needles we're gonna be using.

The more girls that sew, the faster we get done.

It's real important for these girls to learn how to sew.

It was real important that I learnt to sew

that I can pass this on to my girls and hopefully

they'll be able to pass it on to their daughters.

[Chip] Well, my runners are on straight.

My wife and me have been working on the sleds,

getting ready for dark winter to come.

And she's made a caribou-skin bag

that is specifically made for our basket sled

for the girls to travel in safely and warmly.

Ah, it almost weighed too much.

I held this side, so I get to sit here.

Wow, I really like it. It's just right sled.

It's not too big and not too small.

Feels real good to have the caribou pad on the sled and the kids riding in it.

Now they understand what it was all about

and what process we take to make it.

[Chip] We got the projects taken care of. Freeze-up is almost over.

So, it's time to bust loose.

It's not only using the materials.

It's knowing how to get it.

I don't want my daughter to be stuck.

I want her to be able to do whatever she needs to

with whatever she has at hand.

-Hi, Dad. -What's up, pie?

-What you doing? -I'm gonna make gorges

out of these antler pieces here.

Gorges are a traditional kind of hook.

And, erm, I'm gonna go set them down here on the river

for what we call Tiktaalik.

I'll show you how to make Tiktaalik traps.

Okay. My parents aren't gonna be here throughout my whole life, so,

as they teach me now, I'm gonna get hands-on experience

and I could teach my younger sisters or my kids

or anybody that's willing to learn.

That looks really good.

[Chip] What we need to do is make 20 more

and, erm, we'll go set Tiktaalik lines tonight.

What I want my daughter to do is know how to fall back on

the materials around her to keep her life what I consider above survival.

And, erm, I learnt it from the people around here.

And she's learning it from us.

So, we take a gorge

and put it in.

You just flip it down the deal there.

And you can leave it like this.

And then tink and jig.

Don't be discouraged, girls,

just 'cause we didn't get nothing in the last hour.

Sometimes you gotta wait for the next school to come.

But when the next school comes,

our lines will be in the water waiting for them.

[Agnes] We haven't caught any fish

so we're just gonna leave our hooks down here

and er, call it a night.

This froze at least a couple of inches since last night.

It is kind of like Christmas.

It's one of those things. You'll never know what you'll get.

You can't predict it.

Oh!

-Check that one out. -[girl] Oh, Dad's got one!

[Chip] The gorge more than did its job.

The gorge not only caught the fish, it killed the fish.

Give it a jerk. Pull out your bait.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

[cheering]

[Agnes] I think we have enough for dinner.

It's really cool that I learnt how to make something

and I actually caught a Tiktaalik in.

It was something I didn't think was gonna happen, but it did.

Ah. Two fish ain't bad. Two fish is real good.

Not bad for gorging, huh? Now you know how to make your own fish hook.

Yeah, and I did catch my own fish.

[Chip] Well, let's go eat 'em, huh?

We basically live a subsistence lifestyle.

It takes knowledge and then it takes hard work,

and we started out with limited knowledge, of course,

and we asked our elders, we asked older people,

"Hey, how did you do this and what was it like before this was going on?"

We asked that intensively.

We asked a lot of different people, "How would we do this better,"

and they're always glad to share the information.

And then when we'd go do things the wrong way,

we'd get corrected or laughed at or however mechanism

came along to make it better.

And the wisdom came after we learnt to do

things more using our head than using our backs.

I learnt from the guys that I was hunting with.

I learnt from the people I hung around.

I learnt from my friends. I learnt by going out and doing it myself,

repeatedly fucking up and learning from those mistakes.

But the fact is the wisdom comes much later

and it comes after many trials and many mistakes.

And we made lots of mistakes and we worked a lot for nothing.

So I've taken the worst of what's happened to me

and I've tried to make it into the best.

And the best is that I have to stand back and let 'em happen.

You learn when to stay home and not waste your time,

your gas, your ride, your... Your effort, maybe your life.

[narrator] Survival in the Alaskan wilderness

depends on gaining knowledge through trial and error.

Mistakes can have deadly consequences.

And the Hailstones are no exception.

To live and learn for another day,

they constantly fight to overcome the odds together, as a family.

[Agnes] Really have to know what you're doing in extreme weather,

in extreme cold, because it can get pretty dangerous.

Wow, it's gonna be an awesome day.

I'm gonna get ready and go out, Carol.

I just need that hook.

Carol picks up on anything and fortunately for her, the way that people

teach people around here is for them to observe and put hands on.

And now that she's old enough and large enough to compress the spring on a trap,

I got her traps, and I wanna go show her how to use 'em.

I have traps.

[narrator] Chip must teach Carol to trap for valuable fur

in the same places that Agnes' family

has been trapping for generations.

But setting traps in dark and freezing conditions

can be dangerous.

[Chip] Okay, bun, come over here. I'm gonna need your hands.

'Cause you got to put the safety on for me.

[grunts, sighs] I can't do this.

I'm gonna show you one more time.

[grunts]

These things are eating my hands up.

It gets pretty tough, having the strength to compress this fucker,

and hold it while someone's trying to put the safety on.

God damn it. Are you all right?

My hand.

[Chip] I'm sorry, bun.

-Are you okay? -Yeah.

Last thing I want to do is hurt you.

You just hit my elbow.

[Chip] I understand. I felt it go right out of my hand, look.

See my hand right there, same thing.

You wanna just call this good?

Let's call it good with that, okay?

Trapping is inherently dangerous, but, erm,

more than that, it's something that we want to teach her

and we want her to enjoy it,

because if you're not enjoying what you're being taught,

you generally don't stick with it.

I want her to stick with this, so no matter what,

I'm not gonna make an issue out of anything

that we do when it comes to trapping with her.

I wasn't trying to whack you, but look at me.

When it's that dangerous, and we're not in control,

we don't set the trap.

What I want you to learn is that sometimes

you can just say you don't have to do this.

It's okay when things don't work out.

I want my daughter to know when it's time to walk away.

Part of living out here is knowing when to quit or when to stay home.

Or knowing when to, er, stay on shore

or when to stay off the ice.

There's a lot of things you do that... That you learn that you don't do. [laughs]

It's all good. We'll set those traps tomorrow.

There's a lot of ways that things could go wrong out here.

I don't wanna die. I don't want my kids to die.

If you can't go somewhere safely, just don't go.

Maybe he stopped somewhere and for some unknown reason didn't say anything.

That wouldn't be him at all.

[narrator] Chip and Agnes' son Jon, and his young daughter, Avery,

have gone missing, failing to arrive from a trip across the tundra.

The dangers of travelling by snow machine are many,

and the Hailstones must keep their calm

as the search for their family begins.

[Agnes] It worries me a lot.

If something happens to them while they're out there and I just

don't know what's going on out there, but, er,

I try not to worry too much.

We don't like to go that route.

[Chip] When we're doing something like this,

first we cover where they're at,

we cover where they're expected to be

and then we cover the in-between.

If you start to panic, then you're not gonna do things right.

You're not gonna help anybody, you're just gonna add to the disaster.

Very common things up here are people get lost

or they go through the ice and are never seen again.

Huh, somebody's down right down there. I'm kind of hoping that's my son.

I see him, maybe.

Oh, thank God.

-Overheating, huh? Belt skipping? -Yeah.

Yeah, my belt was skipping from my secondary clutch and I was overheating.

When I pulled up to Jon, he had snow packed all around his engine

and in a glance that just tells me he's overheating.

Well, how long till this thing cools down to go?

-It's just about cool. -About cool?

-Yeah. -Are you sure you'll make it yourself?

-Yeah, I'll make it. -How are you, baby girl?

You want to ride to Noorvik with Ta-ta?

-I should take her, huh? -Yeah.

Come on, baby girl. I'll take you to Noorvik with me, behind my windshield.

Dad can row home all he wants.

-You ride in front of us, son. -Yeah.

You ready?

[Agnes] Oh, they're back.

-You make it home. -[Chip] Here we go.

[Agnes] Right on.

[sighs] Hi, sunshine.

[Chip] We use every reason to celebrate, you know?

And erm, a birthday party is a good time to celebrate.

So we make the most of them all.

-[Chip] Yeah! -[clapping]

When everyone's alive, no one's injured, it's all good.

It's stuff you can deal with. There's 1,000 ways to die out here,

so any time you can celebrate another birthday is a good thing.

Happy birthday to me.

We want our kids to have knowledge of the land,

have knowledge of the rivers, knowledge of the country

and still go to school

and learn medicine or learn to be a pilot,

and then have choices.

These are things that we teach our kids out here in the country

that they'll never learn at school, and we look at school as the balancing act.

And it gives them choices.

So, the more we can empower our children to do for themselves,

the richer we're all gonna be

in health, in happiness, and maybe in material objects.

Over here, sweetie pies.

This is a place that I like to set up.

Tin, you're in charge.

[narrator] The Hailstones have settled into their spring hunting grounds.

And today, Chip is allowing his eldest daughter, Tin,

to take the lead as they harvest waterfowl.

[Chip] Remember, safety first.

Watch your ammo, listen to your sister.

Anybody that's in their 20s and survived this long in the country has got brains.

All right, I love you. I got to go get firewood.

-[girl] Okay. -[Chip] Love you.

[children] Love you, Dad.

Okay, now all we're gonna do is sit here and wait.

But until then, we girls need to be quiet and sit still.

It's the waiting game.

I can see where all the birds are going to land.

[imitating bird call]

[gunshot]

Little high there.

So I didn't really get a good shot and I missed. [laughs]

There's Daddy's boat.

It's Dad.

Hi, girls. How's your day going?

-Good. -[Chip] You girls see many birds?

-Not really, no. -Not really.

[Chip] When I was getting wood, I saw lots,

so we'd probably have better luck this way if you girls want to give it a try.

Mary will take charge of these girls.

Take 'em back to camp and secure them in your sister's camp.

You two older girls follow me.

You're gonna need a .22 and you're gonna need your 12-gauge.

Okay, girls.

We'll be back.

[Chip] I see geese already.

I'll stay with the boat and watch it, and you girls just be careful.

So these geese are close. We'll try to walk wide so

if you happen to scare them, towards me, okay?

-Go, go, go. -[imitating bird call]

[gunshot]

Ooh, check it out.

I got it.

I shot a goose.

It's a good feeling to get my first goose of the year.

[Chip] We're gonna have goose tonight.

Ah-ha.

[Chip] I'm so happy right now.

Now, honestly, I can send her off to go goose-hunt that way,

while I go goose-hunt that way. [laughs]

And when you're doing that kind of stuff, somebody's gonna be productive.

And we're all gonna benefit.

So, I see this like another step in her life

that she's really taken up to really well.

[laughter]

This is kind of like having turkey for Thanksgiving.

Someday when me and your mom aren't here,

you girls will know how to do all of this no matter that the job is.

And the best part of that is that you get all hands-on experience.

Right.

[Chip] This is great. We've got all the basic things we need.

-Oh. -Whoa!

[Agnes] I try to live the most traditional lifestyle I can,

so I hope my daughters pick that up.

It's our responsibility

to our tribe, our culture and our peoples.

[laughing]

Even in the harsh conditions,

we're able to live together, work together,

and it just makes us even stronger.

[Chip] Someday I'll leave this earth.

But I want my kids to see no boundaries.

And my kids will have knowledge, she'll have experiences,

and I want 'em all to be happy.

What more could you want?

This is the place to be.

[laughter]