Joe Beetus lived in Hughes, a village on the Koyukuk River between Allakaket and Huslia.  It’s country he’s known all his life, working for miners, riverboats, hunting and trapping.  Joe has gone to Hog River since the 1930s and figures he knows nearly every tree by now.  That is where he spends most of his winters trapping.

Joe Beetus is one of the few people who knows how to make Native songs and gives speeches in the old way.  He talks of teaching his kids; telling them stories of the old people and stories of how he made a living.