- 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]