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I have made it to the most remote town in America. And that land right there that you can see just 30 miles away, that is Russia. I'm going to spend the next few days here with my local boy, Wallace. Sup, guys? Welcome to the edge of the world. He's going to take me around his village, introduce me to his friends and family. Let me try local food that I've never tried before. Oh, that's, that's different. And also take me on a walrus hunt on the Bering sea.
We're going to be really close to Russian waters. Good morning from Nome, Alaska. I'm all by myself here, in the westernmost part of the land of Alaska. But then there's an island called St. Lawrence where I'm flying to right now, which is where you could find Gambell. As I'm told by the people at the check-in desk, it's a gamble to get to Gambell. We got some overcast weather right now. If it's foggy, the plane will not take off.
You just kind of have to wait around and see. I also asked for my boarding pass and they were like, "Oh, no, you don't need one of those." All right, this is pretty awesome. Oh, this is cool. All right, we'll sit right up front. I met a new friend, Raina. How long have you lived in Gambell? My whole life. Whole life? Yeah. I'm not ready to move anywhere else. How old are you? 22. 22? Yeah. What's your favorite food in Gambell?
A walrus liver. Walrus liver? Yeah. With seal oil. You're going to have fun. I've been making videos for a decade now. I can tell when something's going to be good. You get that tingly feeling inside, you know? Right now I have that feeling. Oh, yeah. This is the closest airport. in America to Russia. Gambell, Alaska. Let's go. What up, dude?
What's up, dude? Welcome to Gambell. Thanks, bro. Pleasure to be here. You made it. Yeah, dude. How long is the ride to your house? A minute. I'm probably the only one with a tennis racket in Gambell right now. I think you are. So cool to be here. Like, the edge of the world. Is this how you dress? Yeah, but. Yeah, I'm gonna have to dress now. This is my neighborhood. Yeah, your hood, bro! Here we have polar bear, walrus calf. And you hang them because it's kind of a delicacy.
It tastes better over time. They age them for about a month before they eat them. Pretty cool. Look at the little flippers. So everyone's got their own meat rack? Yeah, each family has their own meat rack. But this is my buddy's meat rack. This is a polar bear hide, and he. got this two months ago in April, just right on the edge of town. He caught this polar bear right there. They literally caught a polar bear in the town? Yeah. So, you caught that polar bear?
Yes, sir. So I was throwing my home trash away to the dump. Just before I got to the dumps, all of a sudden I seen two black eyes and a nose. As I got to the dumps, I was like. I started slowing down. I was like, "don't freaking chase me." As soon as I turned straight, I. hauled ass. I. never looked back. And then you went to grab a gun? Yep. We found it eating my dad's whale head, and that, that's, that's where we shot it. Is that the first time you caught a polar bear?
Yes. How many times have you seen polar bears here. with your eyes? Three only. It's rare nowadays. And I think it's important to know because people in the comments are going to freak out. So, you guys hunt polar bear not for fun. It's for survival. We eat polar bears. But also this polar bear was so close to town that we had to put it down because, I mean, you got people walking around just. it's in town basically right on the edge of town. So, like, that's a danger for, like, the people. Oh, man! It's really, like, thick and dense. I mean, they have to have a really thick skin. Holy, bro. Oh, yeah.
It's like three inches thick. This is the only jail cell here in Gambell. We're gonna go inside and see if anyone's in it. Let's go. How you doing? I'm doing good. How about you? Yeah? Is this the jail? Yeah. Yep. Safety building. Is anybody inside? No, just me. I'm here by myself. I'm the prisoner.
You're the prisoner? Yeah. You're a prisoner? Yeah. Nobody's here with me. That's crazy. I can't tell if he's freaking with me or not. I don't know. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's nobody here. How come you're in prison? Family problems. Yeah. How long have you been in here for? Just a couple days now. You're sleeping in here? Yeah. What's it like to be in prison here? Boring. Rough? Quiet, nobody around in here.
Can you give me a quick tour of the prison? Yeah. You want to? Bathroom right here. Outlet. Cell. So, is this where you sleep? Yeah, one of these. Right here. Oh, small, though. They're all small. That's your prison room? Yeah, bro. Nothing. What do you eat? Oh, I had some breakfast and lunch and dinner. Made all food in here. Water. They stock that for you? Yeah. What's going on in here?
A real bad microwave. Real poor. Oh, man. So does it even work? No, it works. This, this one spins, but not this one. How long do you have to stay in here for? I got. I supposed to leave today or tomorrow, but the weather permitting. James is just hanging. He's the only prisoner right now in Gambell. Yeah. And he's been super kind to let me. check out the jail. Yeah. Hey, what's up? How are you guys doing? Hello, chat!
Yeah. That was maybe the most interesting encounter I've had in my entire life. We just rolled up there. We thought he was working there. Wallace thought he was working there. So did I. And he's like, "Yeah, what's up? I'm a prisoner. Check it out." That just goes to show how chill it is out here in Gambell. There's no official police officers here in Gambell. They just have volunteers. who help run the jail. It's pretty bizarre when you think about it.
Good morning! Hello! We are. at our family's whale bone yard. So these are whale bones that my dad's caught. He caught that whale. His uncle caught this whale right here. Really? What kind of whale? This is a bowhead whale. So these are like the jawbones, the head. We throw, like, all, like, the rest of the body. back into the ocean.
This is insane! It's huge! How long has this been sitting here for? This is a really old one. Maybe. 20 years, 20, 30 years now. Twenty years?! This one's more recent. This is the a -whale my dad caught, I want to say, in like, 2021. Unfortunately for this whale, his first whale that he caught as a captain, I was uh. down in school in Portland. Oh. The only time I'd ever get homesick when I was going to school in the Lower 48 was when I heard someone was catching a whale.
This is a. lower jawbone. This is a whale bomb. What's a whale bomb? It's the explosive that's used to. To kill the whale? That's how it was killed? Yeah Kill the whale. Whaling has been a tradition for the Yupik culture ancestors for, like. Thousands of years. Thousands of years? Yeah. That's how you guys eat. I think it's important to understand that you guys don't hunt whales for fun. It's not like a game or a joke.
No. You guys hunt for survival. I don't think you're going to find another animal in the world that sustains and provides for a whole community. A community of Gambell, like 700 people. One whale feeds the whole community for the whole year. Yeah. Right. It's crazy. The scale of this head, it's like. 12 ft long. and 6 ft wide. Been here for 20 years. I mean, you could just imagine how big this thing was and how many people it took in the village to. to bring on the shore. and how many people it fed.
Pretty cool, man. This whale is a more recent catch and it still has a lot of the flesh on it. This is gnarly, man. Oh, the smell! This boat here is. a Russian boat. When the. conflict with Ukraine started in Russia, two. Russian men came in this boat and deflected. from Russia and they were seeking asylum. So, they took this boat. and rode it over 300 miles across the Bering Sea. What happened when they got here? They uh. It was, it was kind of a big event. I mean, all the locals went up and they were really curious of what the Russians were doing here.
They picked them up and they took them to the public safety building and they gave them shelter until the National Guard came and picked them up. It's crazy to think that Alaska and Russia weren't always separate. During the last ice age, the ocean dropped so low that Asia and America became one continent. And the first people ever to reach the Americas walked across it right through here. Then the ice melted, the sea rose, and the bridge vanished, except for its highest ground, and that is this island. The direct ancestors of the Yupik Alaskans came by boat from Siberia about 2,000 years ago. And to this day,
they speak the same language as the Yupik people on the Russian side. Families used to paddle between the continents, until the Cold War shut the border and split them apart. But their culture survived, because out here, there is no other choice. There are no farms and no roads to anywhere. Everything people eat comes from the sea or the ice. The same food that their great-great-grandparents ate. And now, Wallace is taking me to his mom and dad's house to taste it. So this is your childhood home? Since I was 7 years old. These are one of the, I'd say newer houses in Gambell. Yeah. Alrighty. Let's take off my shoes.
Guess what those are. Yeah. Uh, walrus tusks? Dang, bro! Just, just chilling in your house. Hi, how are you? Hi. Nice to meet you. You too. Pleasure to meet you. Hello. Yeah. Give me a quick tour. This is your bedroom. Okay. Tour. parents' bedroom. Yeah. This is the bathroom. Nice. You're plumbing? Yeah, we have running water. Sweet. And then, this is your bedroom. where you're staying.
This is great, dude. Is this where you normally stay? Yeah, this is my bedroom, but you got it. Dude, thank you, man. And this is just the living area. Kitchen. I love how the fridge takes up like, a quarter of your. kitchen. This is one of the chest freezers. We have another one. Whoa, dude! That is incredible. How many different animals are in here? Three or four. We got some fermented. aged whale, muktuk, which is the skin and the blubber.
We have some walrus. meat. skin. How fresh is that walrus? Uh. last month. So. like two or three weeks. Still pretty good. Yeah. That's polar bear? What is. Nanuq. Nanuq meat. What is Nanuq meat? Means polar bear? Yeah. Wow, it's heavy. So, which part of the polar bear is this? Do you know? Anybody know? The. pretty sure that's the rump. How do you know, like, when it's time to eat it? When you start drooling for polar bear meat.
Do you like polar bear? When do you want to eat this one? Whenever she cooks it. I knew you would say that. That's cute. I've never in my life seen polar bear meat before. It was just caught six weeks ago. Pretty fresh. Taking a little break at Wallace's house. He's doing some house chores. And I'm outside just working on my ASUS ProArt GoPro edition. They got Starlink here, so I'm able to look anything up.
This computer is a great travel companion. I'm telling you. Lightweight, easy. You can whip it out anywhere. Get your stuff done. It's cold outside. I'm gonna go grab a jacket. Are these all bullets? Bought like $250 worth of um, primers and powder. Had my shipping to here was about like 300 dollar. How do you get most things, from Amazon? Yeah, some, some from. Yuka likes to order from Amazon. How many days, weeks does it take?
Uhm. Three weeks. I was going to. build like a little cabin, like a man cave. And I was going to get it shipped out here this summer. I got quoted for the material, like 15,000. The barge quote for the shipping was 28,000. So like 40 grand just to make a man cave? Yeah. I clearly didn't come prepared with clothes, so Wallace and his family have given me. some wool socks, gloves, jackets, ski pants on this beautiful warm summer day.
What kind of gun is that? It's a 12 gauge shotgun. Nice. What do you got over here? So I got the 12 gauge here. This one is a 6.5 Creedmoor. Then we have 2308 rifles. Got a little 20 gauge. Nice. This is a whale harpoon. Do you have a whale harpoon? Have you used it? Yeah. Rodney, what's the largest whale you've ever caught? About 56. 57. fifty-seven feet. What is in there? Fuel? Yep. A sort of gas. Dang. It never ends. There's things you got to do to get this boat out. Do you like the boat? Yeah, I used to go.
Not anymore? Uh. hardly. Women are busy at home. Cooking? Yeah. So how many years ago did you arrive here? 29. From Japan? Yeah. When you came here, did you know English? First time? Uh. barely, so. His parents gave me Yupik name, Kuklak. That means person who can understand. What was your original reason for coming here? Just a visitor. Um. just. interested in native way of life. And you stayed with his family?
Yeah. And then you married him? Yeah. So this is like the only time we can hunt because the weather is pretty calm right now and Wallace was saying that it's going to get windy, which is no good. Do you ever feel like, bored and isolated? No. I mean, after spending like seven years in the states, like, there's definitely a lot of stuff that I miss about, like, the city. And. It's funny that you said the states because. the states means the USA. Like, like when I'm. listen, when I'm overseas and someone says, "where are you from?" I say the States. But now we're in the states. And this guy goes, "yeah, in the States!"
I mean, it doesn't, there's a. So what are you doing? Turn the boat around, getting the boat ready. Just going to move this boat down to the shore. Get read, get it ready to. head out. Nobody has bigger boats here? Pretty much. Everyone's got the same 18, 16 foot boats. Everyone's a handyman here, yeah? Everybody can fix everything? There have to be. Yeah. That's how you do it.
Shit, bro. It's not so easy to get the boat out, huh? Nah. I thought it would be much easier than this. It's a lot, it's a lot easier like early in the spring when there's all, it's all snow. You don't have to use all these runners. Yo, this is a walrus brain. What the. Why is it here?! Yeah. It was a crew that just came. and got it. So why don't they want to eat it? Some people eat them, like usually the elders do. We usually throw them in the water, which I'm going to do now.
Get there. Nice. That's it? Yep. You brought a harpoon? Brought a harpoon. Why? If we catch a seal in the water, then. we go up to it and harpoon it before it sinks. Dude, I really hope we catch a seal. That'd be sick. That'd be cool. We might see one over there. Whoo! Oh, my God! Are you sure you don't want to come? I want to, but it's okay. Keep them safe. Keep who safe? Me? Yeah. Me keep them safe? Yeah. Okay. No, they need to keep me safe.
All right, Captain. I'm going to set up the. harpoon. This rope right here, is actually made by. young bearded seal skin. One of my grandfathers made this like. 30, 40 years ago. So a long time. And I'm just dipping it in water to make it move around better. All right, we have just left the shore. It's beautiful outside. The sun's starting to come out. This is actually my first time on the Bering Sea.
Ten miles in the other direction is the International Date Line. So, 10 miles that way. is tomorrow, towards Russia. These are all puffin birds? There's puffins, auklets. They have these, like, orange noses, right? The puffins? Yep. Yeah. Man, I love this stuff. This is so awesome. It's insanely beautiful out here. It's hard to put into words. Probably can't see on the camera, but we're surrounded by puffins and they make this beautiful little chirp sound. That rock that looks like a face.
Uh-huh. Like a mouth like that up there. It's named Iyekaq. And my youngest son, if he would have been born a girl. his name would have been Iyekaq. And why is it significant to you? It's just a. clan name. And that uh. triangle one right in the middle, it's named Patgunnaq. Uh-huh. My name's Patgunnaq. Your name? A little over 100 years ago, there was a huge famine and starvation that killed off a lot of people. What was left of the people that where, that survived that famine, they all moved to where Gambell is a settlement now.
Uh-huh. Every month there's a different animal to catch here. Crab season, whale season, seal season, walrus. Wallace's ready to shoot the birds. There's a specific kind of bird that he wants to get now that it's season. Don't you have to stop the boat? Yep. Just going to try to catch enough for one meal. for the four of us. You get it? Yep. Yeah. Dude, that was, that was easy. ridiculous how easy he made that look. One shot. You got him right in the arm. You get it?
Yeah. Dang, bro! You don't miss! What kind of bird is that? It's a crested auklet. We call 'em sukiqpak, in Yupik. Are they good? They're good eaten with a. seal oil. I guess we're gonna find out. Oh, you got it! Another one! Nice shot, bro. You're a freaking beast! Just a couple of dudes on a boat. Out in the Bering Sea. Do you find it strange that like 99.9% of Americans have no idea what your life is like?
No, I'm not surprised by it. I wish there was a lot more people that just kind of like understood that like, the world is so big and there's so many different cultures in the world and not everyone has the luxury to live like the same as everyone else, Well said. you know. Yeah. On my YouTube channel, I get a lot, like there's, for the most part I get some like good reactions, like sharing a walrus hunt or a seal hunt. But like there's some people that just like, Yeah. they just don't understand. It's like we don't have the luxury of like having affordable foods stocked on our shelves at the stores. And like, the climate we live out here, like, we can't raise cattle, Yeah. like cows and chickens and sheep and stuff like that.
So like we have to hunt our. subsistence food supply. For sure. Yeah. So, Wally, what's the best and the worst things about living here? The best thing, just the freedom to. travel. Out in nature, on land, out in sea. There's always something to do year-round. There's always something to harvest, to put food on the table. And that's something that I just grown up enjoying. The tough part about it is just how expensive everything costs out here, costs to live out here.
There's not a lot of job opportunities for. the locals out here. So, it's just a lot of people struggling to afford the food, afford to heat their homes, so. Yeah. Do people suffer from depression and anxiety? Yeah, suicide and mental health is a big, big issue out here. That's another tough part. Like. during COVID year. I was out in college at the time, but. in a span of four months. we had, I think it was five suicides by. young men. Really? And the youngest was like a. middle schooler.
The oldest out of the four or five was uh. He was 25, I think. One of them was my What? high school teammate that I was really close with. Oh, man. Another one was my brother's best friend. Yeah. Oh man, that's tough. So yeah, mental health and suicide is a big issue around here. I mean, five people. taking their lives is like 1% of the population. Yeah. And, and affects the whole community just because like everyone knows everybody.
You watch everyone grow up, you know? So like it affects the whole community. That's. crazy, man. It's, it's pretty tough. That's insane. You think you'll live here forever? I could see myself living out here, forever. As long as the YouTube channel does well and I can afford to live out here. The wind is picking up fast and out here, you don't mess with the Bering Sea. So we're heading back to Wallace's house to warm up.
Not with a heater, but with whale blubber and walrus. This is uh. aged mantak. How old is it? Months. Months? Months, four months. Does it taste better with age? To me, yeah. It's a. whale skin and blubber. Dried bearded seal meat. What is that one? It's uh. Rose bush fireweed Do you eat it? It's just for show.
Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Pray that bless and nourish our bodies. Just thank you for our friend Drew, allowing him to come and visit. Lord, we love you, Praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Finger food. Yep. You go first. This is a bowhead whale? Yep. And then this one's dried bearded seal meat. That one's good. How often do you eat this kind of food? We eat the native foods for dinner, every dinner. Is this a seal? Yep. Dried bearded seal meat.
Strong taste. Is it gamey? More than the whale. Actually, not that bad. The last time I tried this in Barrow, I didn't love it. Guys, it's hot. Oh, my God. This one is much better. Maybe I just. came around to it. What's your favorite on the plate? Probably the mantak. Apparently this is, like a really healthy diet. It's not processed in any way. Marine mammal fat is healthier than cow fat.
Is that right? Yeah, cow fat will kind of accumulate around your heart. Marine mammal fat, no. Interesting. Cut him a tiny piece of this. Yeah, I'll try it. What animal? Whale. This is a whale. Which part? Oh, it's a different part of the whale. Yeah, it's still the same skin and blubber. It's just aged, fermented. Got it. All right, here we go. Oh, that's, that's different. There's a fruit in Asia called durian.
It's really pungent, it smells really bad, and it has these, like, spikes on the outside, and the inside is, like, kind of creamy. Tastes like durian. It's got a really strong, strong taste. It's actually not that bad. Really? Yeah. Now that we've got warm and cozy at his house, Wallace is taking me into town to meet some locals so I can dive deeper into their beautiful culture. Only about 600 people live in Gambell, and the population is shrinking. So in a town with no restaurants, no hotels, no banks, and barely any jobs, our first stop is one of the few places that actually hires: the post office.
Got something in the mail. What's up, Mick? This is my buddy Drew. Drew, this is Mick. What's up?! What's up, man? Nice to meet you. Ring the bell. Freak you! Nice. I couldn't resist. It's okay. What's it like working at the post office? Ah, alright. It's a job. You know what I mean? When you're in a village. um. you're kind of dictated sometimes in nepotism with other agencies being family-run and hire friends and family. That happens. Happens in America all the time. But with the post, my boss is uh. freaked up retards out in Washington, so. So you're the only guy that works at a post office?
No, I'm a PMR. What does that mean? Uh. Postmaster Relief. There's a lady, Thelma, she's the postmaster, and I'm basically her helper. Helper monkey. Are you born and raised here? No, Pennsylvania. But I'm half. My mom's from here. My dad's from Pennsylvania. There used to be an army base, Northeast Cape. We're closer to Japan than Pennsylvania from here, Yeah. much closer. Wow. You didn't know that?
How you doing? Hi, Sal! Yeah. What's going on? Nice to meet you. Hey. I'm Drew. Pleasure to meet you. What's going on? You do shots? Hey! Ring the bell if you want to do shots! What's your name? JM. Nice to meet you. Yep. You're Filipino? I'm Filipino and I'm on the edge of the world. How long have you lived here?
Three years. Why did you originally come here? Uh. searching for adventure. So you came to Gambell? Yeah. Three years ago you said, I want adventure, so why did you come? Gambell is like so random. I. originally went for uh. Saudi Arabia and. South Africa and. I wanted to try what's up north. And this is where it brought me. So what's it like to. live here with the local people? They are. diverse. They are lovely. They're very powerful. They have very strong personality. And. I love these people. Yes. And how have they treated you, you being a foreigner? At first. they are. as cold as the weather, but. you get to know them.
They, they, they warm up on you, and they treat you. like a brother. Do you miss home? Sometimes. But. these people are. my home now. There's no Mama Mary here. No Mama Mary, no uh, Papa Jesus. No Jollibee. But, there's seals, and I like seals. How are you doing? What's your name? Malachi. Malachi? Can you bring us to my home? Yeah. So this is what Uber looks like in Gambell.
It's Uber. Yeah. They ordered an Uber. on the app, and this is what they got. Getting stuff. We got to get the five-star review. This is so cute, man. All right. Bye! Have a good day. Bye, guys. Bye! While I'm out here explaining remote Alaska, I realized how important it is to capture and share stories like this one. And that's why I want to thank ASUS for sponsoring this video.
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Thanks again, Asus, for sponsoring this video. And let's keep exploring. Gambell, Alaska. We're about to head inside the grocery store, which apparently is pretty new. We're going to go see what the crazy prices are like inside. Wait, this is, like, way nicer than I was expecting. Yeah. When did this open? I want to say like five years ago. Yeah, this is, like, I feel like I'm in a Safeway right now. Yeah. Pretty recent. Small peanut butter, six bucks.
A loaf of bread, $10. Half gallon of milk, $8.49. Dozen eggs is $5.50. Frozen pizza, $22. So do you just not eat frozen pizza because it's that expensive? I mean, that's, like, crazy expensive. Yeah, every once, I'll go for the cheaper ones. Fifteen dollars. for some ketchup. This bag of Cheetos is $10. Insane. But at least you guys have. anything that you want. You have access to it. You just got to have money.
$12.30 for some Oreos. So when you go in other states, you're like, damn, this sheet's cheap. Oh, for sure. It's like a third the price. Hi, Gem! How are you? Hello. Good to meet you. You enjoy life in Gambell? Oh, I do, yeah. Born and raised. Five kids. He's classmates. with uh. my baby girl, my youngest girl. Everybody knows everybody. If you want to have a birthday party in Gambell and buy a chocolate cake, it's going to cost you $38.99. If you need to buy toilet paper, would you buy it here?
Would you order it on Amazon? My mom orders, but there's a lot of people that might not have Wi-Fi or. like, something to order with. Like, they might not have a credit card, debit card. But Amazon's cheaper? Yeah. I've seen these prices. It's safe to say 2 and a half to 3x of what it costs where I'm from in Arizona. And that is why we hunt. for our native foods. Walrus, seals, whales. Yeah. With store prices like that, the people of Gambell need every dollar they can get. But they have something most native communities in America gave up decades ago. Their own land. In 1971, the US government offered Alaskan natives money in exchange for
giving up ancestral land claims. Most of them accepted. But here in Gambell and neighboring Savoonga, they turned down the money and kept ownership of nearly all of St. Lawrence Island. That's why I had to pay several hundred dollars to the tribal office when I arrived. And as Alaskan natives, they can hunt walrus for subsistence and carve the tusks into ivory handicrafts that only they are legally allowed to sell. What are you holding? Ivory. Where did you get that? Out in Bering Sea. Yesterday? Nope, uh. last week. What are you going to do with that right now?
I'm going to go weigh them out. And, and then what? I resell them. tomorrow So, how much can you get for one? Minimum. Maybe. 250 bucks. Really? Per piece, if not more. Still covered in blood. There's only a few stores in this whole town. Here's a native store which is attached to the one and only gas station. Whoa. What do you actually do with this? Tomorrow, we resell them. To who? China? To Ivory carvers, Ivory, Ivory carvers.
China will pay a lot for this. Really? I watch your videos, they're so awesome. Yeah. All the way from Gambell? Uh-huh. My name is Shanna. Nice to meet you. I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take. Let's take a picture. Quick picture. What do you think about here? It's pretty expensive here. I know, right? How can you afford to live here? They're gonna have Eskimo dance tonight. I'll be there. All right. Me too.
Nice to meet you. You too. You work here? Do you enjoy life in Gambell? Sometimes. Feels a little isolated sometimes. You feel isolated? Yeah. Sometimes. What was your name again? Lyda. And have you spent your whole life here? Yes. I've been out of town a few times, and I loved it. It was so different. It was kind of a bit of a culture shock. I do want to move. I mean, I love my culture, but sometimes it feels a bit. lonely. So what do you do for fun here?
Well, I help my siblings with their nieces and my nieces and nephews. That's nice. Yes. I live with my dad, my sister, her two kids, my brother, his girlfriend, and their four kids. You all live in one house? Would I be welcome to, like, see inside of the house, or is it too private? Yeah. Yeah, you can. Really? Yeah, yeah. You can do that if you want. Yes. I was just watching your videos two days ago. Yeah. Really? I thought, uhm. what if he came here and, like, two days later, here you are. That's so weird.
Surprise! All right, I'm gonna surprise Wallace's mom with. all these things because she's so nice to cook for us. The bill was $286 for just this and this. That's how we roll in Gambell. What's your name? Marjorie. Nice to meet you, Marjorie. I'm Drew. Pleasure. Nice to meet you. Can I see your tattoos? Yeah. Uhm. I have this island one. Wow! Is that St. Lawrence Island? St. Lawrence Island. Yeah. I just. Yeah. This means I have one child. So if you have two, you'll have two?
Yeah. What's your name? Harold. How old are you, Harold? Five. Five? Almost turning six. Really? Tomorrow. Tomorrow? Happy early birthday. What's the best and the worst part about living in Gambell? The lack of housing. Interesting. I mean, there's a bunch of houses. Yeah. But why do you say the lack of housing? You wish more people lived alone? Yeah. So you wish there was, like, more homes?
Yeah. And more jobs. What's your job? I'm a washeteria attendant and a caregiver. You're a caregiver? Cool. Yeah, but they both closed due to low funding, so I've been. looking for a job. So I noticed in the grocery store that you cannot buy any alcohol. Yeah. What's the deal with that? Uh, we voted it for, to be a dry village, meaning no alcohol. We have no bars, no liquor stores, no clubs, no nothing. But we do have an alcohol problem. You still have an alcohol problem? Even with a dry place. How does that problem get solved? Yeah. It's been like this for a long time with the alcohol problem. We've lost people. to it, and.
I don't know how we could put a stop to it. This is where we get our. gas and we call stove oil, but it's diesel. Stove oil is used to heat our homes. Fifteen stove oil for Wallace. Why 15? So I get 15 stove oil, these three tanks, 15 gallons of stove oil. During the summertime, it lasts us a couple weeks. A couple weeks, okay. Um, but during the winter time, it lasts us maybe. five to seven days. So every five to seven days during the winter, I'm getting 15 stove oil.
Why is there so many white tanks behind you? That's where the. fuel is stored. And we only get one. fuel shipment a year. So the barge that brings the fuel, it's got to bring enough fuel to last us the whole year. That's why there's so many. I can't believe that oil gets shipped in just once a year. So clearly, every drop counts. With our jugs filled up, we are hauling it back to the house and checking in with Wallace's mom and dad. All right, Wallace is pouring in the diesel fuel to heat the house. Meanwhile, there's just. antlers chilling here from a reindeer.
There's a couple of walrus tusks just chilling over there. And there's a bunch of seal being dried over there. This sucks doing this when it's like negative 40 degrees outside, your hands just get so cold. I got you a surprise. What'd you get? All of this. Wow! Thank you so much! You're welcome. It's all for you. Wow! Thank you. You're welcome. You know? You didn't have to. I know. But you're, you're cooking, like, non stop. So you got the meat in here. What is this?
Walrus. Yeah. Heart, tongue. and skin and blubber. Is it good? Yep. That's dinner. While Wallace's mom starts cooking, we turn on the NBA Finals, something that only became possible when Starlink reached the island about a year ago. It's been a game changer for the community because out here, basketball is a full blown obsession, especially for Wallace, who played Division 2 in the lower 48s. You can see the benefits of Starlink right now. We are streaming the NBA Finals live like it's nothing. And the other benefit to Starlink is that I can still get some work done even in the middle of nowhere.
This computer is extremely light, super easy to pack in the bag, whip it out anywhere. It's also touchscreen, press, and it opens. Perfect for just on the go. I think it's really cool that you just came from Japan and then you just are like fully immersed in the culture here. His mom. taught me everything. Really? Yeah. You want head? Yeah, we'll let him try the brain. That was funny. Your dad goes, he threw away the best part!
You like the head? Yeah. You do? All of them. Brains. Oh, man, that sound is. pretty wild. This is tongue. Walrus tongue. That is insane. That's tongue. Fermented baby walrus. Oh, man, the way that it just. opens up from the skin. Bro. The little knives they use, it's so cute. Are you worried or concerned that future generations are not going to continue your traditions because of internet, because of globalization, because of TV?
Not really. There's. quite a few kids that are. into our culture, that. likes to do things. It'll probably carry over. for another few generations. A lot of it depends on. ice conditions. If it ever. fades away, we won't be able to get any. walruses, probably. You think someday there will be no more walrus and bowhead to get, like in a hundred years? Maybe. I'm not. 100% sure. And your parents and grandparents here, did they struggle because they didn't have proper heating? And, it must have been way harder back then to survive in the winters?
Yeah, I believe that. They didn't have any, like, electricity or running water, and. no guns for hunting. How'd they do it? They used spears and harpoons. They were so. physically skilled and. so strong. They pretty much lived 100% off of the land. Would you agree? Yeah. Like literally 100%. Like whatever they catch, they eat. You think, like, okay, like, there's no stores or heating. fuel, none of that.
Like, you could think, oh, like, that must have been difficult. But I could kind of see them doing almost much better than us because, like, everything. costs money now, and there's a huge struggle for people to afford. Like, yeah, it's nice to have a store where we can go and buy groceries, or we can have houses that are heated from fuel. But then, that also comes with, okay, like, that costs money. As we adapted, like, that's. brought its own struggles. What does that mean? Thank you. Really? That's how you say thank you? Yeah. When the food's done, we say Nalnaqukut, and that means. we're going to eat.
Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Pray that it blesses and nourishes our bodies again. Just thank you for time with Drew today. I hope that he enjoys his time here, has great fellowship with the. locals here. Just thank you for our time together, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Just dig in, Drew. Yeah. Your dad's not shy this time. We got the. intestines. This is clam that came from the walrus stomach.
Raw, uh, defrosted walrus liver. Fermented baby walrus. We got the walrus skin and the blubber. Got the heart, tongue, meat. There's a lot of aromas happening on, on this. plate. A lot of different smells. We'll start with this one. What is this? The tongue. Walrus tongue. Taste is fine. It's just really chewy. Wallace, you just caught this walrus. a couple weeks ago.
How'd you catch it? On a really nice day, we usually head towards the ice, wherever the ice is. We had only caught this one only four miles out. We ran into a couple herds of walruses, but they went down before we could get a shot at them. And we just continued boating around. And. later that evening, we ran into two walruses in the water and. drove up right to them. And I caught, caught one of them. Damn. You shot it? Yeah, shot one of them. And then when it's caught in the water, you harpoon it to make sure it doesn't sink.
You got to drag it to a good sheet of ice, like a good ice that you can butcher the walrus on. You and your dad did that? Just you two? Me, my dad, my uncle, and my dad's uncle. We pulled it up with a come-along, got it butchered. And it was a young male walrus. And one of the things that we do, like during the springtime, is we always check the stomach from the male walruses because there's a good chance there's going to be clams in there. We opened up the stomach and sure enough there was fresh clams in the stomach. And the walruses. have a really unique way of.
sucking out the clams from the shell. The walrus swallow the clams whole. Clam whole? Cool. So we took a lot of these clams home. That's so awesome. Who did you give other parts of the walrus? Anytime we catch walrus, seals, from, from a boating trip, it's shared with like 10 to 15 households. Like extended family. We'll bring it home. My mom likes to work on it in here and she'll divide it up and I'll go and deliver the bags of fresh walrus meat. And you don't charge?
It's just family. Food is for family. Yeah. And a lot of these families that we're giving the walrus meat to, No. a lot of them don't have able-bodied men in their household for them to go out. So we're the ones hunting for them. To, to hunt? I'm going to try the clam that was inside of the walrus stomach. It's. good with soy sauce. Whoa, that's way different than I thought. It's actually really good. Yeah. That tastes like you dumped sugar all over it. Yeah, it's sweet, right? How is that possible?
It's got like a sweet taste to it. So a walrus ate that, swallowed it, you killed the walrus and now we're eating it and swallowing it. There it is. Oh man, that's dark meat. That's the best part. My dad was talking about. Yeah, your son's got an excellent shot. Sometimes. Here we got the. suqisqaq, the crested auklet that we caught just a couple hours ago. These birds were flying a couple hours ago, got it cooked up, and then what we eat them with is in this jar.
We have fermented whale oil. Drew's gonna like this. Oh, man! Oh, man. Look at the consistency. It's almost like butter. The consistency. And watch as it sits, it's gonna melt. Just dip it in. Take a bite. You shot that out of the sky. How was it? It's good. The meat is really dark. I've never seen meat this dark on a bird in my life. Let's try it. Watch out for BBs. That's the gun bullet? Yeah. What?! What if you eat it? You just. break your teeth. This is the bullet.
It was found inside of the bird. The taste is actually pretty good. Would you mind teaching me a couple of Yupik words? You actually did a really good job at that. That's for like two. You're saying to. two or more people. How do I say, "Hello, my name is Drew"? My name is Drew. Good enough. Somebody asks you in Yupik like, Kina-mi? You say, Drew-nguunga. Sounds like Chinese. Right now I'm taking a little break to transfer all of my GoPro footage from the day, onto my ASUS ProArt GoPro edition.
And then I'm going to let StoryCube organize everything for me. It's really one of the easiest platforms that I have used in my career of video making. Is it strange that you live so close to Russia or it's just normal for you? I mean, when you live here for so long, it's just normal. It's so interesting to me because they speak Yupik, but Russian. You guys speak Yupik in English. It's like completely the same culture.
It's just separated by a small water. Something like border. Yeah, it's so bizarre. Their family is there right now eating this exact food. Does it ever happen where families get separated somewhere in Russia? Somewhere in here, in Alaska? Yeah. There's some family members from. the same clan from both sides. But you can't visit each other? Not now. They used to every springtime. No, that was before the Iron Curtain. What's the Iron Curtain? That's after World War II. They. closed. travel from. here and there. So before World War II you could just go. So your parents could.
or your grandparents could? Not my family, not really. But other families. came up and down. Do you think you have any blood related relatives in Russia? A lady in Hawaii told us that there's some people of our clan that's over there. I didn't know that. You're not interested to meet them? I would if I.could go up there, or if they could come over. It's almost like, in North and South Korea. They have family members that are stuck in the other country, but they can't visit each other. But they have the same culture, same language, same food.
That's pretty much the same way as us right now. You don't even think about that sometimes? Like, wow, I wish I could see. Because there's probably people with a grandfather or a great grandfather that's there. Yeah, it's pretty sad in the way that you can't interact with family anymore. One thing that strikes me about Wallace's parents is how they're deeply traditional and totally modern at the same time. After dinner, Wallace and I are ready to blow off some steam, so he's taking me to play his favorite sport. Oh, a bucket! Again! Okay. All right. Hey, how windy is it right now? Super windy. Oh, three in a row! For the record, it's extremely windy right now.
Yo, tell me about basketball in Gambell. Basketball in Gambell? It's one of our biggest sports. Wallace was one of our coaches for the past two years. Nice. I was assistant coach along with him for one year. You like it, bro? Yeah, I like it a lot. Oh, no! Don't break an ankle. There's no hospital. Nice! You can ball! Well, I've been super hooked on tennis the last year, and I bring my racket all over the world, but there's no one to play with here in Gambell, there's no tennis court, so.
I found a little place to hit next to the polar bear. Do you think I'm the only one in the history of Gambell to play tennis here? You really might be. That's kind of epic. We're going to a place they call the donut. I don't really know what that means, but we're about to find out. Whoa! Oh, shit! Whoa! Oh, my God. Okay, a little slower.
I'm gonna fall off. So I guess this is what they mean by the donut. Bro, that looks awesome, man. You don't do this? Whose idea was that? I'm probably gonna crash. This is freaking awesome, man! Go faster! No, I'm gonna die! Bro! Who said you can't have fun in Gambell? Look at this! It's called The Donut!
Whoa! That was awesome, man. We made it. Just down the mountain a little bit. The town is just like, what, two miles that way? Yeah, a mile and a half. A mile and a half that way. And here we are. There's a stream. Look at that. Is that always year-round?
Just during the summer. This freezes over during the wintertime. So, during the wintertime we're more closer to home and we have to punch a hole through the ice. This is the best water you can get out here. Is it snow melt? Yes. And runoff from underneath. Underneath what? Just the hill. We do have running water at home. After spending, like, some time down in the States for. school, I would, like, come home for visits. And then after a couple years, I noticed how bad the tap water tastes.
I was like, yeah I, I can't be drinking this. So luckily enough, we have fresh spring water. All right, we're gonna do a quick little water test here. I'm gonna try it, my Dasani that I got from the airport in Anchorage. Standard. And the real water, from Mother Earth.
Not only is this water better, and trust me, I'm a water enthusiast, it's way colder! It's like ice cold! That's amazing! This is the only stoplight in town, and clearly nobody cares because there's a bunch of bullet holes in it. Yo, so we're driving through a different part of town. These houses look a bit older. What's going on over here? So, these houses are. This is like the old town. These were the first houses built a long time ago. And one thing about these houses is they don't have uh. plumbing, water and sewer.
They don't have running water in there houses. Whoa, people living in this right now? Yeah. This side of town looks completely different. These houses are really old. So would you say that's like a more impoverished area, because they don't have enough money to get a new house? No, I wouldn't say impoverished just because, like, it's more so, like, there's no housing available to buy. Yeah. Right.
Town's got almost 700 people, and there's 160 houses. So if you do the math, that's like five people per house. The day is winding down, but when you're this far north, approaching the Arctic Circle, the sun barely sets in summer. The village is wide awake. And tonight everyone is gathering at the school for a Yupik cultural dance. So we're meeting back up with Lyda, who we met earlier at the grocery store. She's kind enough to welcome me inside of her house, where 10 family members are living and getting ready for the event.
Hi. Oh, cool! Now I'm in your house. How does that feel? Awesome. You're in the way. I'm so sorry. Nice to meet you. How are you? We've entered Lyda's house, who I met in the grocery store earlier. These are the people that live inside. There's 10 of them. Hi. Hi! So what's it like living in this house together? Is it very fun all the time? No. No, it's not fun all the time.
It's not fun? No, it's not fun all the time. Is it mostly fun? Fun for me! You have fun. Especially with these two. I used to do this when I grew up. Like, the height. Which one's you? Okay, stand next to it. See if you grew since then. Okay, come. Yeah, you grew, like, this much. You have two kids, you said? I have four. You have four kids? Yeah. How old are you? Twenty-seven. I had her when I was 17. That's my sister. Wow. Nice to meet you.
You look nice. Thank you. These ladies are all dressing up for the. Yupik singing and dancing that's going to happen tonight. Lyda's going to give me a tour. This is my room. Oh, nice. It's very cute. A lot of stuff on the walls. Yes. Photos of your family? Mm-hmm and friends. That's so nice. Yes. That's my girlfriend, Samantha. She is. from South Dakota. Really? How did you meet?
Teacher. She was our teacher. Oh, cool. Where does she live now? South Dakota? Uhm, Teller So is it hard to see each other? How far is Teller from here? Uh, Nome. It's. We can drive to Teller from Nome. So, you have to go to Nome and then, or maybe you meet the. I mean the airfare is so expensive, so we haven't seen each other, like, a year and a half. That's so hard. This is really cool to get the full house tour.
Whoa! You guys are getting ready for the event tonight? Yep. You want to see all my medals? Yeah! Medals for what? Look that way. Wrestling. NYO. You wrestle? Yes. So I shouldn't mess with you, right? Oh, my God! I don't even know what's happening tonight. I just know there's a big, like, dance and celebration. What, whsat's actually happening? Native dance. Cool. How do you know, like, what to wear?
My mom. This was my mom's, but I claimed it. That's so cool. All the kids are in here? Uh, my brother, these two, Oliver and her. Oh, my God. That's the littlest baby ever. She's a new one. Two weeks old. Oh, you woke up. Two weeks old? And almost two years old. Where are they born? Uh, Nome. Anchorage. Anchorage in Nome. So they can't be born here? No. What's up, Sean Jr? So, wait, how many kids sleep in here?
Uh, four. Four? And my brother and him. The bed is definitely large enough. So what is that? What are you holding? Uh, drum. made, ah made with the samosu Warlus stomach. That's awesome. Yes. Wooden frame. It has walrus tusk ivory handle. Oh, nice. Do you guys feel. a connection to Russia because it's so close and it's similar culture? Yeah. We're the same. Like. We used to try travel back and forth. Do you wish that you could go there if like, there was no political issues between the two countries?
Yeah, that would have been awesome. I know there's um. some parts of Russia that. part we could see their beach that looks exactly like a rock. And they probably eat the same food you do. Yeah, they do. So, do you speak Yupik language? Yeah. You do? Do any of your kids speak it? Well. Yeah, a little bit. Is it important for you to teach them the language? Yes. So how many kids do you plan to have in your life? I'm done. I have two boys and two girls. That was the quickest answer I've ever received in my entire life. So how do you feed 10 people every day?
Like is it typical like rice and beans or? No, this was just a fast dinner because we knew there was a dance. What types of foods do you eat? They can range from our nokabik to. uh, store bought meat. Like pasta sometimes? Yeah, she used to have food stamps. I still have my food stamps but it can go. pretty fast. And so how much money do you get per month or per week? For the month I get $1,546. Fifteen hundred dollars. But that has to feed everyone or just so that runs out pretty quickly? Yeah, especially. if they want snacks or. drinks or.
Fastfood. sweets. Especially. Once everyone's dressed, we head over to the school together. People are showing up from every direction on their ATVs and I can hear the sound of the drums before I even get inside. It's 9pm but you never know because it feels like it's noon with this light. But we are at the school. for the big dance. This is what a parking lot looks like in Gambell. Everyone came to the auditorium and everyone's got Hondas. They call these Hondas because they're all made by honda.
They're just ATVs. Wow! Yo, this is so cool. They're doing like a whole dancing. Hi! What's up? You made it. Yeah. She made it. How are you? Good. Am I getting in your way? The coolest thing about being here. in this gymnasium is seeing the community, how now everybody is so close to each other. Everybody loves each other. They're all friends and family. They look after each other. What's up, little man? Not much.
You like PlayStation? Yeah. Me too. I like GTA 5 the most. Nice. I just met Paul here. Paul's eight years old? Yeah. Nice to meet you, Paul. Nice to meet you, too. When I met you, you told me right away that you've had some hardships. in your life? Yeah. What happened, Paul? Yeah. Sometimes there's just some hard points in my, in your life, but you need to achieve those moments. so you, so you could, like, get more crazy adventures.
You know? Like, you could go to, like, anywhere where you want, you know? You can meet someone marvelous. You could, you could. meet the love of your life. You could, like. There's lots of crazy adventures in life. So that's why you never give up. in fighting. Like, this ear infection called cholesteatoma. It's like a thing where it eats into the bone and skin and where it, like, gets to the brain. So that's why I have ear surgery in Anchorage.
How do you. Aww, you're very wise for your age. What? Why are you so wise? It's because I love life, man. It's crazy and fun. If you could say one message to everyone in the world, what would you say? I would say, I love you all. Achieve. Go achieve your goals. Achieve your dream. And achieve them no matter what anyone says. Just keep going to achieve your dreams. Wow! Thank you! The people of Gambell inspire me. Kids out here grow up hunting whales, dancing to their grandparents' songs, and dreaming as big as anyone, anywhere. But it's finally time for me to head home.
From Gambell, there's only one flight out to Nome, then onwards to Anchorage, and finally back home to Phoenix. A full day of flying domestically, but back to the world that most of us call it normal. Out here, I found a beautiful culture that outlasted the Cold War, kept its language, its food and traditions alive for over 2,000 years. They lived joyfully in one of the most remote, harshest environments on the planet. Now that the ice is thinning, it is up to all of us to learn about and help protect this land.
There is hope, because if there's one thing that the Yupik people know how to do, it is to find a way to survive. Huge thanks again to ASUS for sponsoring this video. Check out the ASUS ProArt GoPro Edition by clicking the link in the description down below or scanning the QR code on screen, and you are going to love it on your next travels. All right, guys, I love you all. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. Peace.
