02x07 - A Fireweed Feast/River Skate

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Hey, everyone-- it's me, Molly!

♪ Molly of Denali ♪

Let's go!

♪ She's Molly of Denali

(laughing): Whoo!

♪ By plane or sled or snowshoe ♪

♪ She is ready to explore

♪ From Kaktovik down to Juneau ♪

♪ Always wanting to learn more ♪

Yeah!

♪ Together with her best friend Tooey ♪

♪ Always by her side And Trini!

♪ Discovering the outdoors

♪ On adventures day and night

♪ Come along with Molly

♪ Molly

♪ Through fields of fireweed

♪ Come along with Molly

♪ Molly

♪ From tundra to the sea

Mahsi'choo-- let's go!

♪ Molly of Denali Yeah!

♪ She's Molly of Denali

♪ Come on ♪ Let's go!

♪ Molly of Denali

♪ She's Molly of Denali

MOLLY: "A Fireweed Feast."

♪

Do you girls have...

a two?

Nope!

Go Fish.

Wait, how do you say it in Gwich'in again?

Chihjal dhal'aii.

Chihjal dhal'aii.

♪

Do you guys have an eight?

Huh?

Yes, you card queens!

We just picked one.

We're out.

Yay, Team Trolly!

TRINI: That's Trini...

MOLLY: Plus Molly!

BOTH: Team Trolly!

(laughter)

A snack fit for the card queens!

Ooh, what is it?

Is it pink slime?

Way tastier than that.

It's fireweed jelly.

Wait, you mean it's jelly made from flowers?

Yep, a whole mess of 'em.

♪

Mm! It tastes as good as it looks.

How did you make it?

It's easy.

I could show you how, if you pick the flowers.

Molly, we have to make our own fireweed jelly.

Dad,

can we go fireweed picking tomorrow?

Ah, I know just the spot.

It's a little far away,

but we should be able to get there

and back in a day.

Be sure and thank the plants when you go out picking.

You bet.

Mahsi'choo, Auntie Midge.

I love this stuff!

I'm gonna put it on toast with peanut butter,

on pancakes, on top of ice cream,

on everything!

Mm...

♪

(sighs)

MOLLY: Shrôonch'yaa.

What a beautiful day!

Yeah, perfect weather.

We're lucky.

There's a big storm just east of us,

but according to my weather app,

we should be fine.

Go dad squad-- boom.

BOTH (quietly): Dad squad.

(bird squawks)

♪

Hey Molly, check out my new plant guide.

Cool.

My mom sent it to me last week.

It even has a section on plants you can eat.

WALTER: Just remember...

Always check with an adult before eating

anything from nature.

Some plants are not safe to eat.

BOTH: We will!

♪

(animal chittering)

(Trini gasps)

Look, it's huge patch of purple flowers!

Look at all this fireweed.

Hmm...

I'm pretty sure fireweed's a different color.

Let's look it up.

Dad showed me how to use this.

First you look for the habitat,

which is where the plant likes to live.

Oh, this looks like the right heading--

"Grassy Meadows."

Yep, we're in a grassy meadow all right.

Hmm... what now?

Now that you've found the right heading,

look for the right subheading.

See, below the heading are all different flowers.

Oh, yeah.

"Columbine, dandelion..."

TRINI: Here's the fireweed subheading.

"Fireweed blossoms are edible

"and can be turned into many delicious treats,

including jelly, syrup, ice cream..."

Molly, we can make fireweed ice cream!

So cool!

But this plant doesn't really look like

the picture of fireweed.

TRINI: You're right.

I wonder what it is.

I think that's it.

Lupine.

"Lupine are very poisonous plants.

DO NOT EAT!"

(gasps)

(rustling, bee buzzing)

♪

(gasps) Careful, bee!

Don't eat that lupine!

It's poisonous.

(Walter laughs)

Actually the Dena'ina word

for this flower is nantli'i'duna,

which means "bee food," so it's safe for bees.

Oh, okay, phew!

You're okay, bee.

Eat up.

We had better get a move on,

we still have a ways to go.

And the sooner we get there,

the sooner we have fireweed jelly.

On top of fireweed ice cream.

♪

(thunder rumbles)

MOLLY: Are we getting close, Dad?

Yep...

Um, I'm a little worried about those clouds, though.

Hmm... it looks like the storm has changed direction

and is heading right towards us.

You think we should turn back?

Turn back?

We can't turn back!

We're on a fireweed mission.

I think it'd be better to just wait it out.

Won't we get drenched?

Not if we build a shelter.

♪

Willow branches.

They're great for building because they're so flexible.

Baasee', willow tree.

♪

♪

Well, it's not a luxury hotel,

but it'll keep us dry.

I think it's amazing!

I wanna live here forever.

MOLLY: There's just one problem.

We didn't pack anything for dinner.

What are we gonna do for food?

Well, you did bring this handy book

that has lots of edible plants.

Oh, yeah.

I bet there's tons of stuff to eat all around us.

(sighs)

Well, we're not gonna be eating fireweed ice cream,

that's for sure.

We'll probably never find that fireweed.

Yes we will.

We're Team Trolly, remember?

And Team Trolly never gives up.

Yeah, you're right.

A little ol' storm can't stop us.

How about some fried fish for dinner?

I never go anywhere without my trusty skillet.

I'm on it.

There's a stream right down there.

Dad squad!

(thunder crashing, wind rushing)

Uh... you think we'll be okay?

I know we will.

It's just a little wind.

Oh, I brought the perfect thing for wind.

Bubbles!

♪

♪

(laughter)

Ta-da!

Nice catch, Daniel.

Thanks.

Hey girls, could you get us some

potatoes to go with that trout?

Um...

I don't see any potatoes.

WALTER: Uh, you see those tall pink flowers?

Look them up in your book.

The Lower Tanana call them troth.

And up north the Inupiaq call them masu.

Okay, so the heading is the plant habitat...

Which in this case is a forest.

Here it is.

Forest-- and look,

there's a subheading that's "wild potatoes."

Same pink flowers.

Nice work, girls.

Now you each need a stick to gently

dig up the roots of the plant.

♪

Thank you for sharing with us, wild potato.

Baasee', troth.

♪

This is going to be a feast!

(thunder crashes)

Wow.

I think that was the best fish I've ever had.

Yeah, I think I'll come back to this restaurant.

(laughter)

The land provides us excellent food and shelter.

It would've been a perfect trip

if we had gotten some fireweed.

(bird chirping)

You hear that? What?

The sparrow is singing.

That means the storm is passing.

(bird chirping)

Look, a rainbow!

Whoa.

What a beautiful shreevyaa.

♪

No showers, no shreevyaa.

Let's go!

♪

(bird squawks)

(gasps)

Is that what I think it is?

It's fireweed!

BOTH: Dad squad.

(makes expl*si*n sound) Boom!

We're gonna have enough fireweed jelly to last forever!

♪

Keep those eyes closed!

No peeking.

Okay, you can open them now.

BOTH: Ta-da!

Wow!

Look at all this.

These are vanilla cupcakes with candied fireweed on top.

And this is fizzy water with fireweed syrup.

Oh, oh!

And here's my favorite.

Fireweed ice cream.

This is so creative.

I think you girls have found even more

uses for fireweed than me.

TRINI: Which reminds me...

For you, Auntie Midge.

Team Trolly's very first batch of fireweed jelly.

♪

Hey, everyone, Molly here

to answer your questions about life in Alaska.

Anna from Kansas City, Missouri, asks,

"What's a land acknowledgement?"

Great question.

My friend can help answer it.

BOTH: Hi, Molly!

My name is Solstice.

My Tlingit name is Aantú.

I live in Áak'w Kwáan Aaní,

which means the homeland of the people of the little lake.

I'm about to call my friend Melissa.

I'm gonna tell her about Juneau and Douglas.

Ugheli dzaen, Solstice.

That means "good day."

My name's Melissa.

What is your favorite place in Juneau?

My favorite place in the world is Auke Lake.

I want everybody to know how special Auke Lake is.

MELISSA: One way we can share our favorite places

with others is through land acknowledgement.

These are usually done through words,

but can also be made into signs, so even more people can see.

What should I put on my sign?

You can do all sorts of things,

but it always has to recognize the Indigenous people

because they've been caring for this place

for thousands of years.

Good luck painting your sign.

I can't wait to see what you make.

Gunalchèesh, Melissa.

It's time to start.

I use a canvas,

glue, and a map,

but you can use anything.

This is my Great GiGi.

Right there is Auke Lake.

You know, your grandma's name,

Áak'w Da Sháa comes from that lake.

SOLSTICE: I'm writing Áak'w Kwáan Aaní.

♪

This is where we live, but this is where we're at right now.

Do you know what that is?

Auke Lake.

SOLSTICE: I'm putting my sign at the lake,

so everyone will know the traditional stewards

of this land.

Maybe you can make a sign where you live.

♪

Gunalchèesh, Molly.

Gunalchèesh, Molly.

MOLLY: Mahsi'choo.

Thanks for asking, and see you next time.

"River Skate."

Hey, everyone, it's me, Molly!

It's mid-January, which means it's time to tell you

about this totally fun thing we do!

(distant clattering) Wait!

Was that... a bell?

♪

A bell, a bell, a bell!

Oh...

(sleigh bells jingling)

Whoa!

It's only Tooey.

Well, hi to you too, Molly.

Sorry, I thought you were a bell.

The bell.

I know what you mean.

I've been listening for that bell all week!

I was just about to tell everyone about it.

Let's do it together, okay?

So the most fun thing to do in Qyah is...

BOTH: River skate! Ah!

Trini!

Surprise!

If you're looking for skates,

we keep a ton that people outgrew.

TRINI: Yay!

And I want to know everything about river skate

because I've never done it before.

It's just the coolest, Trini.

Once a year, Auntie Midge chooses the perfect day.

When the river ice is solid and the weather's good.

And she rings the bell at the tribal hall.

And it's always a surprise

because no one knows what day she'll pick.

(Trini grunting)

(struggling): My foot won't...

go in!

Uh, those are too small.

(grunts)

(sighs)

Oh...

So Auntie Midge rings the bell

and everyone drops what they're doing

and grabs their skates.

Then we all skate down river

three whole miles to the lake.

Where we have a big bonfire

just after nightfall, and hot cocoa!

Which is absolutely the best part!

TRINI: What about these?

♪

They look perfect.

Um, how hard is it to skate?

It's my first time.

I don't know.

I can't remember when I didn't know how to skate.

I skated before I could walk.

My dad says it's as easy as falling off a log.

Oh good, 'cause I've fallen off lots of logs!

(grunts)

Whoops. (chuckles)

(giggles)

(bell ringing)

(all gasp)

Woo! Woo! Skate! Skate!

The bell! It's time!

It's river skate!

(bell ringing)

See you at the river, everyone!

(horn honking)

♪

Molly, when we get on the ice,

can you show me this

"fa-lutz-ee" thing?

This what?

May I see?

That's pronounced "flutz."

F-L, "fl,"

and U-T-Z is "utz."

Flutz.

I still don't know what it is, though.

It says it's actually an accidental move.

It's when skaters land their flip

and lutz a little crooked.

Oh... I get it.

A flip and a lutz.

Put them together-- flutz!

I was thinking it would be fun to do tricks.

Maybe this "a-ex-ell" one?

"A-ex-ell"?

Oh, you mean axel--

a forward edge jump using bent knees.

I'm pretty good, but I can't do that.

(sighs)

I think you'll have a lot of fun just gliding down the river.

I'd join you, but Dad and I are

getting the bonfire ready for everyone.

(all chanting): Bonfire, bonfire, bonfire!

Woo!

♪

TRINI: Come on, come on, come on!

MOLLY: Bye, Mom! Nenahaal'yàa!

Thanks for driving us.

Nenahaal'yàa.

See ya later, kids!

Tight enough?

Feels great.

Let's get skating!

MOLLY: Small steps, Trini.

You good?

Good?

I'm great!

Okay then.

Race you to the bonfire!

(groaning)

Ah!

I love skating!

TOOEY: I love it more!

How about you, Trini?

Trini?

Help!

(grunting)

You said skating was easy.

It's not!

How do you even do it?

Um... you kind of move your feet

forward and go-- fast.

I move my feet and...

(all yell)

Maybe it would be easier if I pushed you.

Isn't that cheating?

There are no rules in river skate.

Well, let's get pushing.

♪

TRINI: (shouting)

Whoa!

(laughter)

MR. PATAK: Whoa, there.

You okay?

(giggles) Yeah!

Spin me more.

(chuckles)

I'm too dizzy.

Why is Tooey pushing you?

It's my first time skating.

We thought it'd be easy to teach her.

It's not hard to learn, but it does take practice.

I don't have time for that!

We have to get to the bonfire.

Hmm...

♪

TRINI: Whee!

(giggles)

Uh...

Ah!

(shouting)

(grunts)

Trini! Trini!

(sputtering)

(giggles)

That was great.

Only...

I ripped your scarf. Sorry.

Not your fault.

It's an old scarf.

(grunts)

Skating was supposed to be as easy as falling off a log,

but this is much harder than falling off a log.

Mm-hmm.

How about I give you some basics?

Yes, please!

Oh, could you also teach me to "salchow-chow"?

What?

"Sal-chow."

See?

It's this girl right here,

and she's jumping, so it must be a jump.

Ah-- that's pronounced "salcow,"

which looks something like this!

♪

ALL: Ooh...

Teach me that, please!

Tomorrow.

Right now, we've got to get you to the bonfire.

Oh, I should be on my way.

I'm the honorary bonfire starter.

(chuckles) See ya there!

♪

She's getting it.

I know.

It's just...

The bonfire's probably started already.

Oh, well.

There'll be another one next year.

days from now, give or take.

AUNTIE MIDGE: Trini's done very well.

She's got the basics.

(grunts)

(chuckles)

And is an absolute master at falling.

Woo, woo!

Fall master.

Do you want me to skate with you the rest of the way?

We're good.

No, thanks.

That's okay.

Okay, I'm on cocoa duty,

so I should get going.

Mahsi', Auntie Midge!

See you there!

♪

I'm good, huh?

Lyaa gwinzii.

Really good!

You learned so fast!

♪

What's wrong?

You'll never get to the bonfire like this.

I'm too slow. (sniffles)

You should just go on without me.

No way.

We like the bonfire, but we like you more.

You'd wait for us, right?

Of course.

See, we're a team.

One for all, and all for one!

♪

♪

Are we almost there?

Almost.

This is Lake Qyah here.

That means the bonfire should be

right... there?

It's over.

I'm sorry I made you miss it.

It's okay, Trini.

We stuck together and we made it.

(gasps)

Is that what I think it is?

Mm-hmm...

looking good!

WALTER: Whoa, what a fire!

MAN: Who wants marshmallows?

KIDS: Bonfire, bonfire, bonfire!

Woo!

That's them, all right.

Hey, kids, over here!

Come and get your cocoa.

Yoo-hoo!

♪

(all cheering) You made it!

We thought the bonfire was over.

Nope.

We knew you were trying like crazy to get here,

so we decided to wait.

Oh, I'm proud of you three.

You waited for us?

This is the best village ever!

Also the best cocoa.

(laughter) That's right! Congratulations!

Yeah! Great job, everyone.

♪

♪

♪