- Chris McGeshick: So, the Creator put these gifts
on Earth for us.
And we too are one of those gifts.
These are all lives that are being provided to us
so that we can continue to live.
But in order to do that, and to do it the right way,
we have to provide an offering to the Creator
and to the fish itself.
Everybody's putting out their tobacco.
It's called asemaa in our language.
And they offer this aseema and they pray to the Creator,
and they pray to that being, that life
that's about to give itself up.
You can now harvest and you can feel good about it.
The Creator respects that.
The animals respect that.
The life expects that.
Subsistence harvest is really, truly that.
It's so that you can survive.
It's part of our culture, it's part of our ceremonies,
it's part of our daily life.
We're looking to pass on those cultures,
those teachings, those methods of harvest.
With the tribe, what we did was
we put together all of the harvesters,
and we gave them the opportunity
to provide what their knowledge was
to share with the community members.
We're gonna be running some unattended lines,
some jig fishing,
and we'll also be doing some tip-ups,
and we'll be spearing through the ice as well.
And some of the kids are gonna be working tonight
on making their own decoys for spearing through the ice.
That's what we're gonna focus on,
as well as having really good food.
In this camp is nothing but fun.
Their first harvest, it's spectacular.
You see the smiles on these kids' faces
and these parents' faces when their kid's hugging this fish
and carrying it around and getting all slimy and wet.
Once that happens,
the individuals seem to get hooked on the practice
and they come back out,
and they'll do it from year to year.
Those kids that were there in 2014 are now adults,
and they're coming out
and they're teaching what they learn.
We're highly adaptive.
You know, if something comes out,
we're gonna try it and we're gonna utilize it.
If there's a new harvest method,
we're gonna try to encompass those within our camp.
We really wanna get 'em hooked on fishing.
And so, here at this camp, we're also gonna infuse
a little bit of that new technology
and bring the electronics out on the ice
so that they can work with it.
We want our family members and our youngsters
to learn how to take care of themselves.
Whatever we provide,
when you're provided this equipment
and you're provided this knowledge, you utilize it
so that you can survive in the event you need to.
I think it's important to thank our relatives
and our ancestors for preserving
and protecting these rights
for us and for the future generations.
We have that responsibility.
They had that responsibility.
They endured what they had to endure
to preserve the right for us to go out there and harvest.
And the subsistence harvest is just the next opportunity
for that next generation.
The tribe is investing in itself.
The tribe is investing in its future.
You can sit there and you can think sometimes
and visualize seven generations.
That first generation had the responsibility to preserve
and protect what that last generation that you see
is now able to enjoy.
[gentle music]