All language subtitles for Losing Alaska 2018 1080p RTE WEB-DL H 264-TLFS

(wind blows)

(sound of footsteps)

(engine starts)

# BOB DYLAN: "High Water"

# High water risin',
risin' night and day

# All the gold and silver
are being stolen away

# Big Joe Turner lookin'
East and West

# From the dark room of his mind

# He made it to Kansas City,
Twelfth Street and Vine

# Nothing standing there

# High water everywhere

# High water risin',
the shacks are slidin' down

# Folks lose their possessions
and folks are leaving town

# Bertha Mason shook, it broke it

# Then she hung it on a wall

# Says, "You're dancin' with
whom they tell you to

# Or you don't dance at all

# It's tough out there

# High water everywhere

# I got a cravin' love for blazing
speed, got a hopped up Mustang Ford

# Jump into the wagon, love,
throw your panties overboard

# I can write you poems,
make a strong man lose his mind

# I'm no pig without a wig

# I hope you treat me kind

# Things are breakin' up out there

# High water everywhere

# High water risin',
six inches 'bove my head

# Coffins droppin' in the street
Like balloons made out of lead

# Water pourin' into Vicksburg,
don't know what I'm going to do

# "Don't reach out for me," she said
"Can't you see I'm drownin' too?"

# It's rough out there

# High water everywhere

(sound of engine)

MAN: And my grandfather,
he used to say

this Newtok will become one big
island.

It's already an island.

We got river around us.

And when a high wind comes in,

it's like just one big island
surrounded by the water.

Water.

Feel like it's getting danger,
danger every time it gets close.

Who knows? This one big village
can come out.. snap.

Cos we're on the permafrost.
We're on the permafrost.

And this, Newtok, it's really
heavy you know.

This land keeps coming off the ice.
The land, you know.

It's on everybody's mind.

And everybody has realised
we have to relocate.

When I got here 10 years ago,
people were saying

we're gonna move within 4 years.

And that was an ambitious statement,

I've come to know.

The shoreline is gonna tell us
3 years.

I think.

In a very oral culture,

one has to be able to tell
stories.

Elders talk about you have to be a
thief of lessons from other people.

I would like to move across the
river because it's high ground.

I think people who are thinking
about staying here forget that

it floods here in the fall.

People who stay need to be prepared
to be devastated by some kind of
flood.

Not a safe place.

Yeah. There was a tsunami in
my dream.

Like a big flood.

It was scary.

Just recently, like last year.

Hello. My name is Bosco Charles.

I am 19 years old and I am from
a small village called Newtok.

I go to a school that has
137 students.

I am writing about our village
trying to move because of climate
change.

Newtok is a small place that
has about 350 people living here.

We are trying to move to a place
called Mertarvik.

That's about 9 miles
out of Newtok.

I have been in Newtok basically all
my life and it has always been

the same every year.

We lose a number of feet
of land each year.

What is not the same each year is
the extent of the erosion because

the weather isn't the same each
year.

Sometimes it cooperates with us
but most of the time it doesn't.

In 2013, we lost 150 feet of land
from water washing away land.

The nearest home to the water
is about 100 yards.

We are going to have a disaster
if we don't move.

We need to act as soon as possible
before the water gets to us or

it'll eat us like Cookie Monster
eating cookies.

It just falls. The land just
falls down and

it cannot pick itself up.

I strongly believe we can do this
but we will need help.

This place is very important to us
because of how much hunting we do.

How much we move around a whole lot.

But the hardest thing we have
to face is having no running water

or sewer lines.

We use honey buckets which is a
5 gallon bucket for human waste.

Then we dump it out into the
water when it is full.

According to the government,
it's about 130million dollars.

Climate change is like playing
chess and it has checkmated us.

Please, we need to make a move
because we have a possibility

we might lose this battle.

We just want to sit at
a table with no worries,

just like everyone else and
just have a cup of tea,

laughing away with our cousins.

Life is too short to see us
swimming to the nearest village.

That's about 40 miles.

And the water is too cold.

I'm done.

You know their early contacts with
Westerners were mainly for trade.

With that trade of course,
and governments.

So with the government came either
a post office or a school.

So wherever they placed those
structures is where these

communities were told that
you have to now live.

So regardless, if your main camp
which is probably your winter camp

is the most permanent structure
you'll have.

You can't go back there ever.

You have to relocate your
family here.

They were not a one location
people.

They were migratory.

And the way they were able to keep
them there was to

ship their children off
to boarding school

if they didn't live near
the school.

So the challenge began in that
initial contact.

I think we're a part of America
that the rest of America forgot

that you know, we're... we're here.

When you dig away the layers
of what started Newtok's problem,

it was a barge from the 1950's that
was bringing the school supplies,

but the river narrower and narrower
and the barge captain said

"We're gonna offload here".

Offloaded on the wrong
side of the river.

On this side.

He should've offloaded on that side.

So it was the old BIA School.
Bureau of Indian Affairs School.

Being dropped off here,
that started it all.

It's hard to understand what
the psychological impacts were

when they said " You no longer
can do that or that or that.

And if you don't come here,
we're taking your children."

So I would think that, I know they
talk about generational trauma..

When you have been doing this for
15,000 years,

and then somebody
puts the stop on it,

the consequences are what
we have today.

That permafrost is down there.

Now, what is happening to
the permafrost in Newtok?

CHILDREN: It's melting.

And because it's melting,
it causes erosion.

So how many people have gone and
walked along the edge of the river?

Lots of people.

< You might smell poop while
walking.

Yeah, because that's where you
guys dump your honey buckets.

But if you do walk along there...
Oh my God.

...what's happening to all
of the shoreline?

Disappearing.

My class last semester, in the fall
we went out there and measured

how much the erosion was.

How much do you think we lost
last year?

We lost about 35 feet.

> I was close.
You were close.

35 feet of ground in just about
3 months while we were measuring.

That's fast.
It is fast.

That means the river is 35 feet
closer to town than

what it was the year before.

So do you guys think that the
river is going to get to Newtok?

(distorted voice on radio)

It's getting awfully close
to Nathan's house.

you never know. Maybe the land
will break off and Nathan's house

will just go down.

Piece by piece.

Where's your pen?

To me, this feels like the last
year.

Last summer,

they said either we could trade
our houses in

to get a new house,

or we could just move out.

My house right now,
is closest to the erosion.

If I just stay and do nothing,

it's almost like as if I'm saying
I don't care about my house falling.

Of course.. I have a kid.

I'm a single parent.

I'm tryin' to be a good dad.

Hey, you're gonna cut yourself.

Don't play with knives.

As long as I have him,
nothing affects me.

He gets to see my heritage
and learn it.

That's why I brought him here.

I rescued him from OCS
and foster people.

Now that's a man.

Yeah, it's stressing me now.

Man.

It's here, man.

I got one, probably less
than a year left.

It's crazy.

It's a shack when it comes
down to it.

It's a third world shack.

It's basically the last resort for
people who want to live in Newtok.

It's created a lot of problems
health wise.

I know we've been to the clinic
several times in our family.

Strep throats, dysentery and
everything else.

This kind of runs rampant through
the village at certain times.

Newtok's been moving for
the last 10 years.

It's a stalled move.

The frustration level's fairly high
so...

So yeah, sometimes you wonder
if they're doing this on purpose.

Really when you come down to it,
this could be a foreign country,

ignored by any infrastructure at
all.
We live in The United States.

And this is home.
There's no running water whatsoever.

So.. It's a bureaucratic mess.

The bush is really not
for everybody.

A lot of teachers come for
one, two years and they leave.

They don't never stay.

I guess it's just a culture
shock to 'em.

We came in 2007, 2008.
School year.

We've been here since.

They was talking about moving
the village then.

Let everybody in the village smell.

You couldn't much see
the water from my house then.

You could look out like we
look out now,

you couldn't see the water.

Now, it's close.

We can see the waves
busting over the land.

When it gets rough,

before the ice-up, we can see the
land breaking away.

Back home, we have hurricanes.

They jump right in and help people,
move 'em, do whatever they gotta do.

It just seems like out here,
it's just takin' forever.

I guess that's just what
tears me up inside.

Thinkin' you know, come on man.

These people were just like us.
There's no difference in these

people and the people in
the Lower 48.

We're all human.

They're saying aw, it's just a
little village, 300 people.

That's what I'm thinkin'.
It's no big deal.

It is a big deal.
It's a big deal.

It's their lives.

# (electric guitar plays)

You see that!

The whole thing!
I know!

There's a big one. I know.
Everything bad's coming right now.

Hug?

Let's go outside.
My neck won't get cold.

# (music)

One day, when this erosion comes,

I promise you we'll have a house.

I'm working on something.

I always work on something.

(wind blows)

(dog barks)

(wind howls)

(seabirds call out)

(sound of plane engine)

That's a lot of water out there.

If it breaks over that land
and starts pushing stuff in,

and eventually it's gonna wash.

Cos there's nothing to stop it.

There's no wall there.

If they'd have put something up
a long time ago,

it would've slowed it down.

But yeah, it's eventually just,
eaten it up, eaten it up.

It's isolated.
It's really isolated.

I mean we're 90 miles from Bethel.

If something would like,
drastic happen,

it would take a while for them
to get out here to us.

Hi.

Bye.

CHILDREN: Bye!

If somebody can't get out to trick
or treat, they bring two bags.

So you'll have somebody come in
with two or three bags.

This is for me, this is for
my sister, this is for my brother.

He's at the gym doing open gym.

I say well if he wants candy,
he should come trick or treat.

Whoa!

Godzilla!

Come on up here!

Whoa!

They're supposed to say trick or
treat, right?

And then... you know,

choose to have them do a trick.

Like do a trick for me and you'll
get your treat. (laughs)

Aw you should tell one of 'em to do
that.

I should, one of the older kids.

I'll do it.
Who should we do?

Who would be a good sport about?
Uh, Murphy!

Yeah. Let's get Murphy.

(engine roars)

You know I can remember when it
would flood one time in the fall,

and one time in the spring. You know,
it'd break up. And now,

I mean already three times this year
they've had... you know, people

get nervous about the flooding at
their houses

and needing to stay at school, or
even getting out of Newtok

'cause they're worried about that
kinda stuff.

Yeah.

have taken so much away.

You know, people went and measured
that last couple storms

and they're like... it knocked off
ten, twenty feet in one weekend.

Yeah.

There's been more journals, I have
to do journals with the students.

And more often, the kids write in
their journals

about their worries about the
floods.

I don't think our house would catch
on fire, but if our house flooded...

that was the very next thing they
all wrote on their own. (laughs)

Was, if our house flooded, we would
grab...

and then they've got a plan on some
of them.

It was like, "The box of the
pictures by the door..."

(laughs) It's like, ah.

They've obviously been stressing
about it.

Maleficent, and..?

James Harden.

Okay.
What are you?

A burglar?

(laughter)

My first year here, which was 15
years ago,

I thought...

you see these commercials about, you
know, helping other countries,

and I'm thinking, "Look at this
place.

And why isn't there a commercial to
help the people here?"

Like there's not running water in the
houses, and... and there's...

so they still have this honey bucket
system.

They have to haul their water. Like,
this is not America anymore.

You know? Not the America I grew up
in, this is like "Wow."

(chatter)

Newtok is a very strong Yup'ik
community. With their language,

and their culture, and their
assistance,

it's really strong here still. And
that's a good thing.

But worst case scenario, my fear, is
that a couple of houses are lost,

families are displaced and have to
move to other communities.

Or Bethel with other family members.

And yeah, that new village doesn't
get built quick enough

for Newtok to move there.

And then the community ends up
breaking up.

(car engines)

(cars beeping)

You know what they say, the bigger
the truck the...

How many miles on it?

For folks who leave, that sense of
belonging is taken away.

So then you have to try to
re-establish that feeling of
belonging.

(knocking)

You're not thinking every day, "I
gotta haul water,

I gotta haul the honey bucket."

you lose is that access to food,

and the access to community. And
when you're part of a tribe,

feel a sense of loss.

See this gas station right here?

Some guy was shot here last summer.

He got killed right there.

The gas station up by our house,

somebody got shot and killed there
just last week.

Two weekends ago, another guy got
shot.

Um... there was a couple gun shots at
night time.

It sounded like a 44 and a Glock.
Glock 9.

They were... comparing I guess.

But no, it's a city. You gotta keep
track of your kids 24/7.

Ya can't just let them out in the
village like they do in Newtok.

It takes some adjusting, for sure.

Yeah, I used to.

(indistinct)

Tidal waves.
Tidal waves.

'Cause you used to stay in Nathan's
house.

Or whose house did you stay in?

(laughter)

Of course.

(laughter)

Donald Trump got taken off the stage
in Nevada.

Someone's trying to get him.

Somebody tried to kill him?

Probably. Something happened.

My opinion is I don't like the way
they're doing it.

They're doing what they call a
pioneer approach.

Which means that all the cost and
health everything like that

is born by the kids. So all the kids
are sick, all the houses are packed.

Five years later and they said...
could move five years.

So at 14 they said they were gonna
move within five years?

How old are you now?

25, yeah.

> From my perspective,

it's just become a milk cow for the
federal state agencies.

Where they say, "Hey let's do a
study. Let's do this.

And we'll fulfil our budget here in
Anchorage,

and Fairbanks and somewhere else in
order to make a living for us...

at the expense of Newtok people.

Just another study.

Oh shit.

I'm getting low on gas.

Get some gas.

If I had my choice,

we'd still be sitting there out in a
house in Newtok.

Even Kevin, Paula and Brandy,

they're leaving Newtok right now.

They've been there the last ten
years, they're part of Newtok.

So they're leaving, that's gonna...

it's going to be different for a lot
of the kids over there.

It's gonna be a loss for Newtok.
That's for sure.

May they have the best luck in their
move,

because we're not gonna be a part of
it.

We moved. We're moved.

And Kevin, and Brandy, and Paula,
they're gonna move too.

(laughs)

So... that's just the way it is.

You become a great hunter out there.

You always respect them.

I mean, one thing I'm gonna miss
about if I ever live in a city like
this; hunting.

Pulling that trigger, you know?

Us putting food on our tables.

(gunshot)

And the city life, you've gotta go
store, pull that trigger, you know,

to get meat, you know?

The biggest, humongous seal I ever
caught was six foot.

I remember it was the year 2004.

And that's when I saw my later
brother, that day,

I waved him goodbye.

He was going home to Newtok,

were coming home.

I thought he was gonna come over at
me but I waved him,

that was my last goodbye to him.

I waved him goodbye.

'Cause right there, he went home to
go kill himself.

I still remember it.

# (music)

(speaking a Yup'ik language)

um... signs of suicide.

Uh... if anyone is talking about
suicide,

(speaking a Yup'ik language).. you
have to tell somebody.

(speaking a Yup'ik language)

Even parents.

# (music)
(speaking a Yup'ik language)

# (music)

So it's been a bad year for
suicides.

And usually suicides occur when it
gets dark and gloomy.

But here we are in spring, and have
lots of sunlight.

This girl who committed suicide was
being bullied by other students,

and the bullies were saying...

"Just go ahead and do it. I mean,
you're worthless.

We won't miss you." You know, that
kinda stuff.

And uh, she posted on Facebook.
Isn't that illegal? You know,

something that effect. Cyber
bullying.

So I'm sure somebody will get in
trouble.

# (music)

(chatter)

(engines stops)

Have a good trip, man.

Don't text your number!

(laughter)

(chatter)

Love ya'll. John, take care.

(chatter)
Alright.

See you some day.
Good luck with the boardwalk step.

> I won't go to another village.

This is my village. I'm never going
to go to another village.

It'll be out, it'll be to a road
system.

It won't be never to another village.

Even though this one is washing away.

I guess because this village took us
in...

like, just took us in real strong.

Like I don't feel like they don't
want me here.

(distant chatter)

(engine roars)

> Other places around here, they talk
about teachers having hard times.

We never had a hard time here.

That's gonna be the hard part about
leaving here.

Sorry.

# (music)

# (chanting, drumming)

# (chanting, drumming)

We're gonna work on building things
across the summer.

And that's when, for me, it was...
"Oh, it's actually happening.

I mean, these guys are serious."

Finally people are gonna...

just in the nick of time too...

some of the houses are in danger.

Like you can breathe, I'd say.

Okay, we don't have to hold our
breath anymore.

(chatter)

Do you want a bag of cookies? No?

Here you go. You want one of those
ones?

That one?
Yeah, this kind.

Okay, you can have that then!

> The ribbon cutting at the new
site, Mertarvik,

was basically orchestrated to
celebrate

this 2017 construction season.

congratulate the tribe

and the community for persevering
through the process,

and getting to this point, but to
also help them recognise

is hope for their future.

And that they're not just being
forgotten.

Me, I am going to go across there.

And pioneer across there in fall
time.

I'm not gonna stay here.

I am scared for my kids.

(speaks a Yup'ik language) ...I am
scared for my kids.

The flood, the high wind,

The flood and the high winds...

(mic cuts out)

Right?!

Right.
Right? Right.

Am I right?
You're right.

We need help, we need help.

We need help.

(chatter)

Chucky Cheese.

Counting down...

# (piano music)

We used to walk to... somewhere.

Are people gonna be sitting out
front here?

(chatter)

People have been so excited about
progress occurring,

that people are saying, "Oh we're
gonna move."

I mean, there's no ambiguity
anymore.

This is Mertarvik, and welcome.

It's a very nice little village, so
you call it Mertarvik. (laughs)

# (piano music)

Okay, ready?

One, two, three, go.

So what this is, this is our notice
to proceed

from the United States Department

of the Interior Bureau of Indian
Affairs.

What we've got is, we've got four
house pads build right now.

The four of them are under
construction simultaneously.

We've got a crusher crew up at the
pit right now,

we've got Aaron and Louis up there
driving the trucks.

And they're coming down the hill
with the load.

We hope to have the load down to
here by October 1st.

Go ahead.

and then through the fall,

we're gonna be working on the design
for the community streets,

and then next year we'll be
finishing the four houses

that are currently getting started.

And then building one other house.
And hopefully more,

if we secure funding for housing,
for future houses.

> They've been planning for 20
years, so five years isn't a blink.

I think five years is realistic,

and it also allows the community to
gradually build,

um... as the infrastructure comes.

Food, water, shelter. They've got
the food,

they're 95 percent subsistence
lifestyle.

If they didn't have access to a
store, they'd still live.

Water, they have cleaner water
there.

Water has been a challenge in
Newtok.

Um... they've been on a boil water
notice for over ten years.

So having access to clean drinking
water is huge.

And then shelter. You know, the
homes in Newtok itself,

again, were not built for the
Arctic.

They were not built for that
environment.

Um... and they're aging and rotting,

because they weren't designed for
that place.