Im glad ya like the show. I found both, so far, episodes on youtube and was amazed they were there.
The crew was seasoned, having done a gold prospecting show in Greenland and a filming drillers in Antarctica, it was the support staff with the $$ that held back a screwd the production with wasteing time renting junky rides and not getting stuff set up as we told them. Took awhile to get that straight, but were happy. Theres a learning curve for everyone, and I think theve been schooled
The money is pretty minimal, maybe more with season 2, we often refuse to do things as it would take yus away from our proper doings, but the guys asking arnt from here, so its no big deal, just "ideas" they run past us. There is a Major effort to keep this "REAL" and the wife and I are not actors, so , as someone whos being filmed and shown, I can tell you, its damn near documentary stuff. I signed up for "Documentry" and TV turned it into "Reality", but when you watch, its really us, no Drama or BS. One amuseing part was when were about to go to the river and when asked "Whos in charge?' my wife declared she was, so I said "I guess shes in charge, so I have to do as she says, so, I fish the Inupiaq way" and they cut it down to "I fish the Inupiaq way" ~~LOL!!~~(My wife is Kuuvanmuit Inupiaq, the Eskimo tribe here)
Agnes's tats are tradional, and her doings, they show she s Kobuk River Eskimo, as until the 1940's every woman here had them, not just a few dozen or so.
I came up this Arctic way to visit my mom and younger brother as they lived up here, don't belive the "show' advertizements. 25 years ago I came to Alaska's southeast just goofing off,and seeing relatives, then back and forth a bit, up the AK Highway on a return trip ,spent time at the ExonValdese spill, make a few thousand $$ and then arrived to visit my mom. Later I met Agnes, and weve been fine since. Basicly she took me along and its been work ever since........like the Nuge says "Lucky me, my work is play" ~~LOL!!~~
I don't Seal, its not legal, Agnes does, as do my kids. She'll be using that PU on the show soon enough, depends on the editors. When commercial Hunting of Ocean Mammels was banned in the 1970's "Save the Whales", the eskimo and most all coastal Alaska showed the need to eat and use the products from them, and the Native leadership showed customary and tradional use with no commercial outlets, so they were allowed to keep hunting them.
Being "white" the KKK, Aryan Nations and the Republican Party didn't speak up for baby me, and with only a heritage of Commercial hunting on the part of my ancestors, theres no Sealing for me.
Its kina the same for fishing; when theres lots, everyomne fishes, even commercial. When numbers drop, only subsitence fishing is allowed (for food), and hen its really bad, no one fishes.
That's how and why its that way, The natives never diminished the remaining stocks the commercial hunters were killing , numbers have rebounded from a low in the 1960's and the hunt contenuse. Its the lack of ice nowdays that threatens the mammles who live on th eice. Walrus, for instance, must haul out to rest, and since theres very few islands on th eAlaskan shores , they are crowding along the Russian shore, over eating there. The ice receeds so far over the Arctic Ocean that the waters below up that way are too deep for Mammles to dive and eat, no ice to rest on and they are diminishing. The Canadian Arctic Archepelligo's massive islands are the only safe haven left for Walrus, Seals and PolarBears that follow the ice to hunt and need to rest. The rising temps there have dropped their Caribou poulations by 90%, so the effects of this warming are on land as well.....Its a changing world, and hopefully , people will enjoy seeing whats there to do, as we adapt and carry on.
Im glad you all like the show