🇺🇸 We Are Still Here: A Story from Native Alaska l Al Jazeera Correspondent

[Music] [Music] in some ways Alaska is nothing less than it promises in the summer the constant Sun lights up a landscape so beautiful it seems a crime to look away from a distance the tundra looks like a muted patchwork only when you bend towards the ground to check if the berries have ripened or if the mushrooms have come up after rain can you see the spongy cosmos it contains in the river Simon move powerful we've liked together and in the times between night and day when even the salmon seems to still you are taken by the raw forests of the landscape stripped of its summer nostalgia my name is Sameera I am half Qatari half American and my mom's side of the family is Native Alaskan I'm an online journalist for al-jazeera my mom's village has one of the last subsistence salmon cultures in the world but their way of life could disappear for now it persists and I feel really grateful to be a part of it [Music] if people ask I usually say I'm from Qatar or the Middle East my dad says that when he was growing up the lifestyle in Qatar was very simple and sometimes I wish I could have seen what that world looked like the pace of life is slow everybody knew everybody and there's just one place to get your vegetables and fish down at the coastline but oil and gas completely transformed the country and even in my lifetime the city has dramatically changed there's this glittering skyline that developed almost overnight and we have all this wealth now people are usually shocked when I tell them that my mom is from Alaska my dad is from Qatar and they always always ask how they met but the story's pretty boring really they just met in University and at the time they still have to see if they can make things worse Oh coming to Doha for the first time I was excited to come and see the country because you know it was just someplace new and different you almost can't tell if someone is really wanting to adapt to a situation what do you think this is gonna be home for you or not and I think your mom was the type that wants to learn and hear about different cultures and religions Iran taking their only daughter away from Alaska all the way to the other part of the world they'd never been here and just lived on promises you're taking a woman thousands of miles away what did you promise the parents all the parents to bring help back every year yes I did do you remember taking dad back to him not for the first time I think I was probably pretty nervous about what he would think it was a great experience even landing at the airport you know look in that gravel one way you can see this huge like cross shaped runway and then you're looking all around the country to be like what what's here because I mean he was like from a urban situation and stuff and I just thought oh man he's probably gonna think that he's coming to absolutely nowhere yeah you know but um it all worked out in the end he adapted to village life easily you've just said a lot of you have to do it to yourself you have to go catch your own food you have to build your own shelter and I think that part was really amazing for me and then what parts of each culture agriculture an Alaskan culture did you want your kids to know every culture has a really good positive things and of course as parents we want the best out of both we just wanted you to be able to experience everything things that you didn't have a chance to experience here I mean formal education obviously you girls went to school here and then through the family you learned all the traditions you know of Eid and Ramadan and all the you know all the family celebrations whereas yes in Alaska you have got like 21 hours of daylight you were free to roam around and do things that you wanted to do feel more American here and then more Arab in the US [Music] yeah I think that's just the nature of being half of one thing half of the others you serve deal outside of things [Music] [Music] since I was born we've tried to fly back each year to help my grandma with the salmon run I just remember being so excited to go to Alaska every summer as an adult I forget how much I miss it until I'm there the only way to get to the village is on a nine seater plane flying 45 minutes out from Anchorage which is the nearest city the community that my grandmother lives in is actually two villages one is called Iliamna and one is called new healin the Heylin is at the mouth of the river that feeds into Lake Iliamna Iliamna Lake is part of this broader water system that produces 46% of the world sockeye salmon [Music] salmon return to the place that they're hatched so they're hatched they go out into the ocean and stay there for a few years and then fight their way back to lay their own eggs we probably should come to the back door can we just walk through oh yes because I want to see my grandma ran about a breakfast here for at least 20 years things are pretty much the same as you remember it you remember when you kids planted all those trees they got so big we couldn't see them wake hardly they're so scared of this I'd like run isn't this a room where we found the dentures yes oh goodness Emira here down here the memories here are so wonderful it's gonna be nice to stay in here again this place was so formative for me even though I only came here during the summers this is where I sort of envisioned a lot of my childhood you got to explore you got to make mistakes you get independence I come back here in the summer right this is a summer home for me but when this is a home home for people there's just such a fundamental attachment to the land for many including my family fishing and hunting is vital to survival here I think it's hard for people to envision places that do do this out of necessity so it's not just a cultural thing or a traditional thing people need to do this because flying out groceries or supplies is so expensive people need salmon and other above foods to have enough protein for the year no there aren't people out someone's smokehouse is going can I help with anything as a kid I really love the heart of the salmon when the heart comes out it's often still beating so I would take the heart and run around to nearby fishermen and show them the persistence of the salmon is incredible the current is going against them bears are trying to get them fisherman props nuts and then you finally catch one put it on the fish table its wriggling you kill it and its heart is still beating so how has processing first changed versus when you're going up or before [Applause] the freezers I put them in like a cache oh yeah there's just sort of this companionship around the fish table men aren't typically around because they commercial fish or work other seasonal jobs in the summer it's mainly women which yeah I really love you're talking you're gossiping joking making fun of each other that's just really fun you feel really supported yeah you do I think we say doing fish because there's so many things that you do to the fish as a kid I would help empty the gut bucket and hang fish up to dry and canned salmon but now I work at the fish table and even when the weather is bad and your hands are freezing and your back is tired there's nothing more satisfying than doing fish it's been really cool going to all the different fish tables and everyone's quite particular and maybe a little snooty about the way they do fish because I think everyone thinks they do they fish the right way when you have the counter full of water in these heavy tires yeah they tickle and they move and then they start they don't see it because they're crooked that little bit of salt or even fish slime if you leave it on here it won't it won't see them remember that remember you used to do this yeah I never your mom always taking plants home we travel with cans back home yeah just cuz it's easier where you come from I mean it's just a different life for me four six eight ten twelve fourteen sixteen eighteen okay time to pan just the knowledge you know how it takes a lifetime to acquire so when you're talking to an elder it's just like opening up an encyclopedia but the cool makes it good so don't get flour what are these for these are just the heart of smoke thanks nothing I used birch to smoke we cut it kind of early in the spring and let it so don't be so strong how do you start it so that it's smoking and not a fire I still haven't learned this art God was teaching me how to filet mmm which was rough at first you just feel like such a city slicker they sometimes I would die not very short amount of time don't ask me to live off oh this is blowflies see the eggs doing me got a knife to take exams yeah do I just smash them yeah yeah and then mm I think just a couple more hours there this one's out the fishable the other day and they kept the fins on because they said that the weight of it kept the fish open Oh the Eskimos and the Indians do things differently and of course as Indians think we know better but it's just the way things are these two villages are sorry about the interface of two different tribes one is you pick people on the other stem oh you know people laugh at least they're not you know what percentage of new Halen is native I got to say at least ninety oh yeah at least there's just you know maybe ten people here that might not be and what is the population of new hearing we're about 180 and right now we're just kind of having some problems with jobs but we have a lot of our people here new healing working and they're working at Pebble right now Pebble Mine is this proposed copper gold and molybdenum mine that would if approved to be located less than 20 miles away from Iliamna it's really valuable it could generate between 300 and 500 billion US dollars over its lifetime and provide jobs for the community but it could also pose serious threats to the ecosystem if it's pollutants got into the surrounding area they could possibly ruin the salmon run in a way of life that has been around for millennia you try if we have our contract with pebble there you're doing the studies here this summer it's providing jobs for our people it's short-term it might end next week it might end in August so it's just like everybody wants to work because this is the only place to make the money right now when they're not here it's pretty bleak do you want them to be around one turn right now the tribe is neutral fish is important to our culture fish is important for us to you know provide for our family but we still have to work what other way are we going to survive like you know we can't pick up our families and move to English or wherever the jobs are and we don't want to not people sports fishermen so you've been coming up for 15 years about 15 years why do you keep coming up it's a beautiful look around it so many places to go and and different style of fishing every place [Laughter] so funny how fishing can be so important to so many people but the way that it's important is so radically different there might be people who come up here every single summer for 25 years not really know a local name but still have the place be such a huge part of their life hi how are you guys thanks for agreeing to talk to me oh you're welcome how long have you been in the sports fishing and hunting industry no um no I started in the mid 80s and I've been doing that pretty much ever since four years ilium it was the best-kept secret there was only a handful of lodges in the area well the word finally got out it couldn't be kept secret lodges have gotten so exclusive with the flying very personalized high-end foods and everything a fishing trip at a premier Lodge in this area today that's nine thousand dollars for a week might have been you know three or four thousand dollars in the mid-80s they want the the big money people and they get it what's the relationship between lodges and the local community you know I think historically there was a lot of animosity between locals and that are struggling to make ends meet and then these high-end rich Lodge owners that come in for four months make a bunch of money and leave but it's gotten a lot better over the years they try to hire more locals and involve the commune anymore and I've seen it what is the argument that a long law jointer will give for not hiring locals because it seems like that would be cheaper than flying an entire staff in to staff the lodge every season I don't know if I'm if that no absolutely it makes nothing but since I mean they could they can go catch fish for themselves and hunt and everything but it's a whole different thing being a guide for paying us local natives they're raised to survive not to be a sports fishing guide somebody that you've brought in you know what they're doing every minute of the day they're not out drinking or getting in trouble the local person that works here might crash his Honda and break his ankle and can't come to work tomorrow somebody is saying if the lodge isn't going to do that [Music] substance abuse is quite foreign to me having grown up in Qatar where drinking is not part of the culture but it is a familiar story having gone back to Alaska year after year and has definitely affected my family here I think it's one of those things that can be quite baffling if you don't look at the bigger picture when there's no job to look forward to is you know the alcohol we haven't really heard so much about that drugs but we've heard them you know they're here everybody that's I know that's working they have a reason to get up they you know it's making them feel better they're doing something and not just staying home watching TV or you know not doing anything that's also the scary thing is having no law enforcement here yes what do you do if you need but I mean well we have we call we have an 800 number and he does respond he comes in from isola so so many hours away that's like the next flight the next morning but we've had to respond to a couple homes and we don't go by herself [Music] I work for the social service department it's called the Indian Child Welfare Act and that's helping our tribal enrolled members that are having trouble with substance abuse since we don't have a trooper or a vpso they call us for everything that happens like if somebody's drinking and driving they call us if somebody's fighting they call us I mean it doesn't happen that often but when it does you know where they call us first and majority of the time it's just my sister and I that run off to the houses what is it like working on this issue which can be sensitive in sort of a small community it's very hard time related to everybody here it's like one of the worst jobs to have in the village because they blame you first because you're the first one to respond hmm it doesn't necessarily need to be numbers but how widespread it's the issue in terms of substance abuse in this community for alcohol abuse it's pretty I like when I was younger I every time I came back I was like oh you know it's time to have a shot time to have a shot um I've been sober for about six years now and it's a whole different world for me just that people are sent out of their communities for treatment like that must also be difficult right like I said this is a very small community it kind of makes them feel ashamed of themselves that they had to leave the community you [Music] [Music] so we're going to iron which is the Liam no New Zealand and Dalton electric co-op it was started by a few of the residents here and now powers three villages around the lake it also provides some of the only steady jobs in the area during the winter in Alaska it can be so cold that not having heating can be really dangerous having some form of electricity is really important my dad so sad he couldn't make it up yeah it's been quite a few years he's been up here yeah that's the thing it's just where it keeps getting in the way that darn work I tell you what making a living yeah it really sucks until you get the paycheck a lot of people look at a hydroelectric plant and think oh that's super cool you're getting free electricity going over the falls how nice they don't see how hard of work it is sometimes to keep it going they don't see the two o'clock in the morning when the turbine shuts down or if one goes down they both go down and to keep from burning diesel fuel we saddle up and head up there and figure it out how much diesel does this plant save every year about if we were on full diesel power we'd be burning about a quarter of a million gallons a year so from 250,000 to 3,000 or 4,000 gallons yeah yeah yeah amazing how many people does electric co-op employ one two three four four total yeah yeah small bug lady so this is the intake all the water comes through here how big is the tube I want to say it's like four feet people came up here biologist to make sure that it wasn't harming any of the wildlife the fish of course I think there should be a lot more use in the world because we have a lot of water and instead of using whatever nuclear power and diesel and coal and all that stuff which is you know very polluting as you know it would be nice to use stuff like this I'm pretty proud I like my job I like that it's hydro it's earth friendly most natives we take care of the earth we take care of where we're from we take care of the fish in the water being able to do that and help my people I'm very proud to be able to work here there's a lot of people here that were born and raised here and don't want to leave you know I've lived in Hawaii I lived in the States I've lived in anchored well why would you want to live anywhere else [Applause] [Music] their parts about native culture that I don't really know about yet but I also don't think that's an uncommon thing and I'm trying to learn more every summer and here's my sewing room this is my happy place in the wintertime my mom did let a hand sewing this is what she used to do is this uh what is this calfskin this is the part that would be the hardest but used to use her some nail and her teeth how do you harden the leather like this this'll you don't hand them so much that they get soft they pretty who wears cuss bucks most women around here I feel like it's not just like a you pick thing or a deny anything or its yeah I think all of the people pretty much everyone in Alaska wears them now so I've always wanted to cuss puck I just didn't know if I was allowed everyone that one took us back even half Arabs your mom's from here you can wear two and if you have a sweater like a loose sweater you can bring it to me and I can make one really yeah I want to pick out some fabric okay where did you grow up I was actually born and raised across the river my mom was deceived salted eggs for fishing too the ice in the winter one night the dog started barking where took my dad had a dog team it was like 2 o'clock in the morning no I was so scared my teeth started chattering my mom says there's a bear down the beach was eating my mom some salted eggs my dad got his rifle and he killed that bear and then when I was 12 we moved over here the cuffs will be kind of loose you don't mind that your wrists for the pink they're so beautiful mm-hmm thank you FINA okay here we go I'm so excited here and I should have to stun before you leave if I'm not doing anything else my grandma grew up with her native language until she was about six but then she lost it and there aren't many native speakers left here the village is now fighting to get back its language and dance but there's still a lot of pain I think when it comes to what was lost when you hear someone speaking language that's dying it just feels so beautiful because it's so rare Church name's Ian he said- name Lisa I have Tania and you still speak you pick yeah-huh you still speak you pick yes who do you speak it with my grandkids she I born wizard and I never forget my language and when I went to school I didn't know one English word I was been using native words and then what happened every time I use my native my native language the teacher would say stand me right by her just to speak my own language it was not to speak our language is only English here with him even though English how we could use I get tired of standing beside the teacher in a corner one day I was just thinking I'm not gonna try to ever lose my native language again and I never did I even I could standing by teacher anymore and some kids take it down hit by a yardstick just to use our native languages you're laughing but that seems ha you're laughing but it seems quite sad mm-hm I never see your Walkman ladies dance I didn't see that when I was growing up father Shirky he said it to a Sun Devils worker yeah I don't go no good for church Russian Orthodox before they stopped it when would they do it oh when they gather you know like like carnivals you know just like that if you're gonna watch tape we're gonna watch tape carnival day up here with doctors you wanna see it [Music] come here are you alone are you in there yeah I mean there's all those people are not hearing me modeling you should see now there's hardly no people when they have dance [Music] [Music] I've watched a lot of young people stay or come back even if it is difficult because this is their home and there's just a different priority here hello so Kelsey hey how's the passier been since I last saw you [Music] no much is happy except that she goo and I got my job when did she start walking 10 months so remember if we played together when we were young all right I think I remember did you work at the school that's good I don't last year year before let me resigned why cuz I was pregnant and it was too stressful I just couldn't no more yeah couple I mean my job is permanent there's just only four hours a day right if you don't find a full-time job here do you think in a very I don't really like the city why not too many people ever since I got pregnant with her and had her wasn't it I'm like limited to what I can do oh but her dad like goes out and Hornets and provides for his whole family gets wood so how would you feel if this place was gone always sad cuz it's already grow up and like I don't know it just home where's the Honda by the ball [Music] batteries [Music] kids here are encouraged to go away to college but their families also hope that they come back home and if you go to college there's a chance that your classroom will be larger than your entire village that you grew up in which can be really difficult and overwhelming so sis he's working at pebble mouth yeah she's a helicopter coordinator so after you graduate after grad to me I plan to go to college and well right now I want to study wildlife biology if you wanted to try something new why didn't you go to a boarding school like edge comer in a city I don't really like being in a city I kind of like the low-key village yeah why don't you like being in a city I don't know it's just too busy for me and I've always liked wood and they quiet you can't really do this and see [Music] [Music] you know I do have a sense of belonging in terms of people but I'm sort of envious of people who feel like they undeniably without question belong to a place someone told me that you moved away last year yeah we went to a laconic that was it I didn't like it is it a big village yeah how many about 700 people what did you miss most from here the water the water is clear it's really pretty here are you working right now no don't think there's any job throughout only for pebble and I'm against pebble everybody got a job but they don't think of the long it's hard cuz some of my family members work up there I don't want to go against them I've seen that mine up and then that Red Dog mine I've seen what it did and I'm just scared together again our show it just leave I'd rather have no drop then kill all the fish I'm going to Pebble Mine tomorrow I'm nervous I just want to make sure I asked the community's questions directly to the mine I just hope we all have a clear understanding of what might be in store for us good or bad I think we're gonna go over on this side right yeah [Music] it's all route gonna be today today we'll hit up over to the deposit I'll land up a look at full shutdown pretty much every every stretch of ground in Alaska is pretty beautiful and our challenge as a state affects one of the arguments still allows to becoming a state in 1959 was how was such a fast state 365 million acres be able to support itself economically so the challenge for Alaskans is how do we continue to have an economy and they think aim is balanced with with the environment around us as out here what time but saw Wolverine and kind of trucking along on the top of the other Hill know you're out here huh well it's just kind of my area but I keep on going through I'll come to Pebble can you talk about what's under here under our feet yep under our feet there's a world class discovery of copper gold I lived in a silver rhenium and palladium many other states they have access to rail or power or roads we've got none of that here I get the product from where you will acquire it to a place where you can transport it to market is a big deal talking about a portage road yeah so one bridge crossing over uh portal ro that then extends down to the North Shore of Iliamna Lake will have a ferry terminal where we'll be able to load the concentrated minerals onto ice breaking ferry transport across the lake so it'd be along today yeah we'll have one crossing there but yeah it will go kind of a round tilt upper till our crystal eric is a spawning area for salmon it just happens to have more potential sockeye productivity than the other two drainages also for us is how do we get sufficient energy brought in so that we can run our facilities and in our case we're looking at about 180 mile natural gas pipeline that will then provide the power for a power plant here to generate electricity to support all of our our infrastructure out here it's a great challenge to ask people to look around them and identify the minerals that they use it's like to use the prop of the iPhone 52 different minerals and an iPhone have to come from somewhere [Music] [Music] [Music] the frustrating part about the tour is like we're all at fault you know there's a root problem and the mine isn't it the mine is a symptom of some very problem with the way we approach the land the way that we consume things Mike talked a lot about pebble being an economic necessity they also think they share an economic necessity living off the land is a necessity here we have fundamental issues with our relationship to the planet there have been lots of instances that I've seen where indigenous communities just have a better model just because it might be a smaller number of people it doesn't make it a less valid way of life I do really care about this place and my family's from here about the end of the day I am also another person that comes here during the summer and leaves so I feel like I take a lot but not really sure what I get back see there the eggs are kind of loose so when we start cooking and we just pull this stuff off I make my grandma happy when I come back I help her with fish so that makes me feel like I belong in that way [Music] little more so all right oh my gosh she picked the colors oh my god oh my gosh that's beautiful I feel like I'm gonna cry it's so pretty Hyuna Wow look at that and I'm biased but this is the prettiest customer get yours can I try it on [Music] I love it I'm glad you like it thank you how much do I owe you you can no we can trade fabric if you said you had fabric over there this is place called the souk which is like a traditional market and they have a bunch of different fabrics there and stuff so yeah yeah you can pick out fabric and send them to me we have a fun project to do back in Doha [Music] I feel like if you give yourself permission to care about a place you also need to give yourself permission to belong to a place and I have a hard time doing that but I also know what it's like to be repeatedly drawn to somewhere to love a community and a people and to want to honor their way of life and maybe I can draw others into this place too

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 76,493

Keywords: native alaskan, youtube, aljazeera.com, al jazeera, childhood, al jazeera correspondent, salmon, aljazeera, aljazeera english, doha, al jazeera english, qatar, aljazeera news, salmon fishing, aljazeeracorrespondent, alaska, correspondent, aljazeera live, tradition, desert, fishing industry

Id: QgcpNjcv8dA

Length: 47min 22sec (2842 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 01 2018