The mountains of Alaska from a bush plane approaching Arctic Village.

Stunning, bare peaks of mountains deep in the Alaskan wilderness approaching Arctic Village, on the southern border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Sarah James has been advocating against drilling in the Refuge since the first Gwich’in Gathering in the late 1980s. Here, she’s showing off photos of her family and travels, along with awards she’s received for her activism.

When Amy visited Sarah, a young man in the village had just shot his first bull moose, and he’d distributed the moose throughout the community. Sarah divided her share into smaller portions to share even further. Amy mentions this scene in Episode 4 of The Refuge: “As we sit down to talk, all of Sarah's tools from this work are still out,” Amy says. “Knives, bowls, a blood-stained piece of cardboard laid on top of a low table. And a big rock, which she says she uses to break the bones. Using part of the Earth for cleaning the animals they hunt is a Gwich'in value, she says.”

Sarah James slicing up more meat.

Gideon James, as Amy says in part 2 of Episode 4, “is a maker and a fixer—in one room of his house he's repairing a boat motor next to a table where he's making delicate jewelry. It seems like there's nothing he can't do. A hand-painted sign over his workbench says, ‘Think patient, don't rush, and understand your work.’ And another hand-made sign, with a drawing of a drum, says, ‘Save Arctic refuge!’

A sign in Arctic Village, Alaska

Gideon James paddling with Amy to catch Northern Pike

Sarah James on her four-wheeler in Arctic Village

Gideon James pulling a pike out of his net

Gideon James paddling with Amy to catch Northern Pike

Robert Thompson, polar guide and long-time anti-drilling activist in Kaktovik, Alaska

Early on our first morning in Kaktovik, Robert Thompson spotted some bears close to his house across the village and took us to get a look. As Amy says in Part 1 of Episode 3, “He drives us slowly along the gravel roads scanning for bears, and then parks on the edge of town facing out toward the ocean. He thinks we have a good chance of seeing a bear here.” This is the first bear we saw, walking along a collapsing fence on the shoreline of the island.

A polar bear going for a swim in the icy, Arctic waters off Kaktovik

Polar bears frequent a pile of old whale bones just outside the city of Kaktovik in the late summer, when the waters are ice-free. This one was walking the spit of sand leading up to the bones to find treat.

A polar bear takes a whiff of the salty air outside Kaktovik, looking for food

A polar bear cub finds a tasty morsel in the gravel outside Kaktovik

The cub’s mother scavenges for food

A polar bear looks right at Robert Thompson’s SUV

A polar bear cub digs through the gravel in hopes of finding some grub

A polar bear pawprint

Mother and cub outside Kaktovik

Next several photos: A polar bear wanders towards Robert Thompson’s SUV as Nick snaps photos. Robert honks the car to scare it off.

A “polar bear cuddle puddle” as Amy, Nick, and Vebjørn Aishana Reitan take a boat to the coastal plain.

Two-photo sequence: Polar guide Vebjørn Aishana Reitan checks his boat before setting off on the coastal plain.

Vebjørn on the coastal plain. “I don't think we should sacrifice our land that makes us who we are just so we can have a stake in a industry that's ultimately going to lose I think. I don't think we should sacrifice what we are just so they can drill oil,” Vebjørn says in Episode 5 of The Refuge.

Vebjørn checks a map as he explores the coastal plain. “I don't think people think of it as a refuge even,” he says in Episode 1 of The Refuge, “We just think of it as our...that's where we come from, kind of.”

Vebjørn at the helm of his boat on the way back to Kaktovik from the coastal plain

Matthew Rexford, tribal administrator and a staunch supporter of drilling, walks the edge of the island. In Episode 2 of The Refuge, Amy asks Matthew how it felt when Congress opened up the Refuge to drilling in December 2017.

“Oh, it felt like a blessing,” he responds. “I mean, the opportunities for our people have been opened up and if any development does occur in and around our area we want to ensure that it is done right.”

A polar bear on the tundra near the tiny Kaktovik airport. The Brooks Range, which bisects the Refuge, looms in the background.

Two photos: The coastal plain, calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the area directly under threat of drilling.