[narrator] the people who live in nanwalek are known as the chugach eskimo. they are one of the most numerous and diverse of all eskimo populations. they occupy almost the entire south coast of alaska. they've sustained their lives and culture by gathering, hunting, and fishing-- hunting arctic marine mammals such as otters, which is the resource which first attracted the russians to the area. [woman] they're all russian trading beads, all found here in the village, and i do know that they traded the... like these... like these for sea otter pelts. [cook] the oral history that is passed between generation to generation in villages, especially within alaska, is the record that never got written. it's what's been associated and how people perceive the events within their own language, and if the historian is sensitive enough and willing enough to spend the time with the people, that story can be re-created and reexamined in a different time and space and told a different way from a different angle. hi, frisky. how are you? that's a good boy. juanita is one of th