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00:00Alaskan Bush People has remained a reality show staple of the Discovery Channel since
00:05its initial 2014 release.
00:07The show took viewers through the Brown family's forays into the wilderness of Alaska.
00:12Of course, there have been some huge scandals along the way.
00:16Alaskan Bush People follows the premise that the Brown family lives a rural life, removed
00:21from technology and city amenities.
00:23In the early seasons, they did this near Hoonah, Alaska, and on their official Discovery website,
00:29the Brown family claimed they had lived in the wild for the last 30 years.
00:33While this all makes for a compelling story, scandal hit the show when Radar reported some
00:38shocking information.
00:39Hoonah locals told the outlet the Brown family was often seen coming and going from the Icy
00:44Strait Lodge.
00:45The source told Radar,
00:46"...all of the boys have their own rooms."
00:48While this sounds fairly normal, the issue viewers took with the information is that the
00:53Brown family curated an image that they rough it in the wilderness and their digs in a hotel
00:58felt disingenuous.
00:59Anchorage Daily News adds another interesting element to the scandal of feigned remoteness.
01:04There is a pizza shop about a half a mile away from the Brown's allegedly rural land.
01:09While no one is surprised anymore that reality TV might not be as real as it would seem, the
01:14proximity to civilization certainly breaks down their facade of roughing it in the wild.
01:19So what does this have to do with their property, Brown Town?
01:23Their compound, fondly called Brown Town, is one more potential façade in the Brown's
01:27curated image of being an anti-technology, rural family.
01:31With radar-breaking news that the Brown family allegedly opts for spending their time at
01:36a hotel nearby, a related scandal that surfaced was that Brown Town was more of a prop than
01:41an actual permanent home for the family.
01:43I want to see the town grow, I want to build it.
01:46This is where we live, this is where we make this stand, this is it.
01:49But that's not all.
01:50The late Billy Brown, father of the Brown clan, claimed to have built Brown Town with his
01:55bare hands, according to In Touch.
01:57And while this is another touching detail in the growing narrative of the Brown's resilient,
02:02nature-loving personas, this might be an embellishment.
02:05Billy Williams, owner of Grizzly Pizza, told Anchorage Daily News that his wife saw a group
02:10of people join the Browns on their property to offer assistance in building their family
02:15cabin.
02:16While scandals crop up around the Browns' Alaskan property, there are also plenty of scandals
02:20surrounding individual family members, particularly their behavior on social media.
02:25On July 17, 2018, Bear Brown used Instagram to state that he had died.
02:31As In Touch reported, the cryptic post read,
02:34RIP 1987 to 2018.
02:37Loved son and devoted brother.
02:39He will be missed.
02:40Bear has since deleted the post, but not before making fans really worried.
02:44In response to the feedback he received, Bear offered a follow-up explanation.
02:48He wrote,
02:49"'Hey, everybody.
02:50Sorry about the confusion.
02:51Death very serious.
02:52It's definitely not a joke.
02:54Those posts are from a project.
02:56I thought I made that clear.'"
02:58It seems like the Browns just can't stop getting attention on social media.
03:02In 2017, Rain Brown got slammed by fans for posting selfies.
03:07For a bit of context here, Rain's mother, Amy, had been diagnosed with stage 3B lung cancer
03:12that year.
03:13The diagnosis forced many members of the Brown family to head to California, while Amy underwent
03:18treatment at the UCLA Medical Center.
03:21During this period, Rain posted several selfies, one of which looked like it was taken at a medical
03:26facility.
03:27The issue, as InTouch notes, was that some folks felt that the selfies were too self-indulgent,
03:33considering what her mother was going through.
03:35However, several other fans jumped in to defend Rain.
03:38Rain seemed to respond to the criticism in one of her captions, which read as a bit defensive,
03:43"'You gotta love yourself, kids.
03:45No matter who tries to push you down.
03:47You wouldn't believe the people I've had trying to make me mad and a bad person, but I just
03:51throw love their way.'"
03:52Despite their alleged removal from civilization, the Brown children did quite a bit of dating
03:58throughout the seasons of Alaskan Bush People.
04:00While this is all well and good, one situation involving Noah Brown made viewers question
04:05the authenticity of the show once again.
04:08During Season 4, Noah wooed a young woman whom he claimed to have met while he was away
04:12from Alaska.
04:13The brunette woman joined Noah on the episode as he followed his wilderness routines, and
04:18it was the channel guide that first pointed out that Noah's potential romance was actually
04:22a working actor named Karina Kaufman.
04:24The reason fans found the situation disingenuous, as Parade points out, is that in the episode,
04:30Noah gave the impression that his connection with Karina was unplanned.
04:34When it comes to girlfriends, Alaskan Bush People faced ongoing scandal thanks to the relationship
04:39between Bear Brown and Raven Adams.
04:42The pair met in 2018 when Raven arrived at Noah's wedding to help her mother, who was working
04:47at the event as a photographer.
04:49Bear and Raven hit it off, and both parties publicly gushed about the new relationship.
04:54Bear told People,
04:55She is truly the full package.
04:57She is, like, beauty in every sense of the word, inside and out.
05:00And she is the most awesome and extreme woman I've ever met.
05:03I adore her, honestly."
05:05The couple got engaged in August 2019, however, two weeks later, they announced their separation.
05:10One day after that, they announced that Raven was pregnant.
05:13This was followed by them reconnecting and splitting up until Raven filed a restraining order
05:18against Bear, according to The Blast.
05:20In it, she claimed that he was verbally abusive towards her and would prohibit her from leaving
05:25certain rooms.
05:27In Raven Adams' restraining order against Bear Brown, she claimed that the Alaskan Bush People
05:31star was behaving erratically because of a cocaine addiction, according to The Blast.
05:37Raven claimed that when she called Bear out on this, he would threaten to kick her out.
05:41On the domestic violence protective order, Raven also claimed that Bear would bring his guns
05:45out while around her in a manner that she perceived to be threatening.
05:49Raven also claimed that Bear deliberately left propane on in their home.
05:53She wrote,
05:54"'I fell asleep on two occasions shortly before separating permanently.
05:57Both times I woke up to propane left on in our trailer.
06:00When I expressed my concerns, he laughed as if was a joke.'"
06:04In the report, Raven stressed that her concern also had to do with their child, who was expected
06:09shortly.
06:10Their son, River, was born in March and the couple did end up getting back together, as the
06:14Sun reports.
06:15But following the death of Bear's father, Billy Brown, the couple split again.
06:19Raven Adams had a lot to say about the Brown family.
06:22To be fair, she made a statement about them during one of her splits from Bear Brown in
06:27August 2020, according to The Sun.
06:29But what she had to say wasn't pretty.
06:32Raven's statement only amplified a common theme in scandals aimed at the Brown family, namely
06:37that Alaskan Bush people isn't what it seems, and, as such, she stressed that she doesn't
06:41want her son, River, to be part of it in the future.
06:44She told The Sun,
06:45"'About 10 percent of it is real.
06:47My son is not going down with the show.
06:49This show is not real.'"
06:51Of the many siblings in the Brown family, Raven alleged that the majority of them don't feel
06:55close in real life, save a few.
06:57She said,
06:58"'The only siblings that get along are Bird and Rain.'"
07:01Raven then added to the claim reported by Radar that the family doesn't live in the wild.
07:06She told The Sun,
07:07"'When I was there, the only person who lived on the mountain was Rain and Bird, and they
07:11were living in trailers.'"
07:13Another major scandal to hit Alaskan Bush people involved the late Billy Brown and his son,
07:18Joshua Brown.
07:19In 2016, an Alaskan judge sentenced the father and son to serve 30 days in jail for permanent
07:25fund dividend fraud, according to the Juno Empire.
07:29Billy and Joshua pled guilty to unsworn falsification in the second degree for claiming they lived in
07:34Alaska from 2010 to 2013, when they were, in fact, not living in the state.
07:39During this time, they continued to fill out the application forms, which made Alaskan residents
07:43entitled to oil money.
07:45Billy also filled in the applications for three of his other children, minors at the time.
07:50As CNN notes, Alaskan residents must live in the state all year to be eligible for a
07:55cut of the oil revenue.
07:56The outlet also notes four other members of the family were charged without stating the names.
08:02Billy and Joshua Brown pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January 2016.
08:06"'Now in about four, four and a half months, I'll be going to Juno going to jail.'"
08:11Part of their sentencing included financial restitution for the over $20,000 they claimed
08:16from the Alaskan state's oil funds from 2009 to 2012, years when they were not living there.
08:22While the charges became a major headline for the family, the outlet notes the falsification
08:27of records occurred before they started filming the show.
08:30Billy said about the guilty sentence,
08:32"'Because of the way we live our lives and the way we often unconventionally travel,
08:36I didn't keep good track of our movements.'"
08:38In the statement, he accepted full responsibility for filing for benefits without confirming that
08:43they met the requirements.
08:46Matt Brown actually left Alaskan Bush People in 2019, but that didn't stop him from sharing
08:51a video on Instagram in April 2021, alleging his family's show was fake and that his late
08:56father, Billy Brown, funneled the revenue from the show away from the rest of the family.
09:01As the son notes, the show is inspired by Billy Brown's book where he said that the family
09:05lived without any modern equipment and used candles instead of electricity.
09:10Matt said on Instagram,
09:11"'I loved filming the show, but I didn't like lying about the way I live and the way things
09:15are in life.
09:16We made a lot of money off the show, and because my dad controlled everything, all the money
09:21went to him.'"
09:22Matt has also been candid on social media about his journey with addiction and sobriety.
09:27So while representatives for the show didn't comment on Matt's claims, Noah Brown said,
09:31"'When you pair addiction with mental illness like paranoid schizophrenia, it makes things
09:36not only significantly worse and more extreme, but also dangerous.'"
09:40Far from a scandal, tragedy hit the Brown family when Billy Brown died in February 2021 at the
09:47age of 68, after suffering a seizure.
09:49His daughter Snowbird described the loss, saying,
09:52"'Life now is unlike anything we faced before.
09:55We'll never give up our fight for total freedom, but can we do it without Dad?'
09:59By the time of his passing, Alaskan Bush people had been on the air for 12 seasons and had 90 episodes
10:05under its belt, so it obviously had become an entity of its own."
10:09Nevertheless, the loss of the Brown patriarch made fans wonder if a new season was out
10:14of the question.
10:15Billy was, in so many ways, the glue that held the family together.
10:18However, the family decided to continue the show with a dedication to their father and
10:23husband.
10:24"'His dream is as well to have us and future generations to be able to live free and off
10:30the land.'"
10:31According to The Sun, two women, a manager on the show and one who worked in production,
10:36said that in 2018, Matt Brown sexually assaulted them.
10:40They came forward to the outlet with their stories and identified themselves, claiming they
10:44reported what happened to the Los Angeles Police Department's Topanga Division, which was then
10:49handed on to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
10:52The Discovery Channel was also notified of the accusations and gave the following response
10:57to people.
10:58Discovery Channel was approached several years ago regarding the allegations, finding them
11:02disturbing and very serious.
11:04They added that the accusations should be dealt with by the authorities.
11:08However, the DA chose not to move forward with the case, and the LAPD responded with the
11:13following.
11:14Both cases were investigated in 2018 and presented to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office,
11:19who declined to prosecute.
11:21If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
11:26Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
11:32at 1-800-656-HOPE .
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