Kiliii Yuyan Photographer

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Billy Okpeaha, a 15 year-old aspiring whaler, throws a hunk of ice out of the path of his crew's skinboat. For the young people of town, whaling is a sense of identity and purpose. It also keeps them out of trouble. The public defender for the Alaskan Iñupiaq villages notes, "During the whaling seasons, probably four months of the year, crime becomes nonexistent. All the young men are out whaling."

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