The family just went out for a day of fishing together as many families do, especially in the southeast, and especially when the fish are jamming the streams trying to swim home. They were walking back on an established path from Game Creek, a popular spot for summer recreation. There they met with a life or death attack that forced 11-year-old Eliot Clark to defend his family.
The Clark family was fishing in late June 2017 in Alaska. They were in Hoonah, a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island in the Alaska panhandle.
The four were walking in a line and 11 year old Eliot Clark was third. He didn't have a strap for his pump action shotgun, so he was carrying it in his hands loaded with birdshot.
Out of nowhere an Alaskan brown bear appeared. The animal bounded through the party and pushed the two men in the front of the line off the path on either side leaving Eliot and his cousin exposed. Eliot shot the animal in the shoulder and the animal continued forward unfazed.
Eliot fired his pump action shotgun again and he got the charging grizzly right in the face with his birdshot. That shot caught the animal in the nose and the next stopped him in his tracks.
By that point, the uncle who was the first person charged had gotten his rifle in position to help the boy finish stopping the attack. This was listed as the first Defence of Life or Property killing in Hoonah this year.
When hiking in wooded areas, you have to worry about bears charging seemingly out of nowhere. This incredible story of bravery can remind us all to be alert when hiking in Alaska, especially when the fish are running. Keep singing and talking while in the woods to alert wild animals to your presence.
