says vin haakanson head of the community of indigenous people. takes a dim view of the desire to make more difficult. to see. as motorboats. thinks giving up the perks of civilization is a foolish thing to do. yet despite embracing the modern era inwardly he still remains committed to the simple principles preached by his ancestors. we were here for thousands of years. but you know we didn't have this system of paper saying that we can claim this land because in our philosophy in our worldview. you can own land the land owns you you know how can you say you own that when you're only here for a little bit and then you got it's a whole different philosophy of owning it versus living with it.

sven haakanson is steering his boat out of the narrow bay of kodiak island his ancestors have lived here since time immemorial. over the thousands of years they to solve this seascape each time they put out to sea to hunt. but they use narrow canoes with a couple of paddles instead of comfortable motor boats with powerful engines in the past yes it was very very difficult to hunt as an individual you need to group in order to. actually capture for example you look at the sea lions over here in order for you to hunt one of those in the several people. on a summer day and seven hundred forty one scores of natives of the land set out on a hunting expedition in canaries they spotted odd looking ships on the horizon. those big sail boats belonged to an expedition led by a russian explorers bearing and. that was how kodiak island made its appearance on russian maps the first colonists were. forty years later seventeen eighteen for the city of. st service a reminder of. the names of russian travelers and merchants. there. who are all founded to. tell us where we. russian permanent settlement in