| About Me |
My Name is Ricko DeWilde, I am an Athabascan Indian from Huslia, Alaska. I come from a family of fourteen siblings (nine brothers and five sisters). I was raised in the wilderness on the North Fork of the Huslia River, about 40 miles as the crow flies from Huslia, Alaska and 100 miles by a winding river. The log and Sod roof cabin that I was rased in is three miles from the Debadl'aa (Who's) mountains. The Koyukon Athabascan ancestors gave the mountain this name because it's an old Indian/Esk imo border, old war lands. The Eskimos and Indians are very cool with each other today. There wasn't much left to war over after the U.S. government made their first major appearance in the 1800s. I learned all the tricks to live in the woods in the early years of my life. Water from the river frozen or thawed, trapping and hunting everything from moose, caribou, ptarmigan, rabbits, beaver and fish under the ice to bears in there den. My mother, Amelia DeWilde, was a tough athabascan woman, and she taught me everything from snaring rabbits to cooking for the family when it came my turn. She knew how to make fish nets from twine and sewed/knit ted everything for our family. Some of the things she made were wool sox, cloth pants, animal skin parkas, mittens, and our canvas mattresses filled with moose hair. My father, Lloyd DeWilde was a very strong welled man. He played the biggest part in teaching us the skills of hunting, trapping, gardening vegetables , correspond ence studies, building wooden boats, canoes, snowshoes, fish traps, log cabins, etc. Every season was a different time of learning and practicing these skills depending on what was ready or available to be harvested, hunted, or gathered. After my mother and father passed away, my family had a traditiona l memorial potlatch to honor them and to thank the people that were close to our family. Aside from traditiona l sewing and beading, a thing that is common in modern potlatches is to make cups, shirts, sweaters, etc. with some type of designs in memory of the deceased. I wanted to make some memorial hoodies for people to wear, not because they felt sorry for the death of my late family members, but because it spoke so heavily to the strength of native culture. I put much thought and effort into the designs and knew what I needed. A friend of the family is a master of tattoo art. I visited him and gave him some ideas on what I wanted. From there I had hoodies made from the art that he created. At the potlatch in June of 2007, twenty-fiv e hoodies were handed out to friends and family. After the potlatch I began to get requests to produce more hoodies. In response to this I had about eighty sweatshirt s and T-shirts made to sell at the 2007 Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention . I sold out in four hours. From this, the idea of starting a clothing line was born. The inspiratio n to name the line Hydz came from the importance that animal hides has had in my life. Hides is also a signature term for the traditiona l clothing of Native Americans and has played one of the most important roles in the survival of all mankind. HYDZ designs is made with quality art with a solid meaning. I do stray from one hundred percent traditiona l meaning at times because I feel it’s important that I can continue designing without worrying too much about what is politicall y correct and also to keep the HYDZ designs fresh, fun, and clean. I stress the quality of the garments used to be heavy weight and free of the burdens of shrinking or fading. Currently I am seeking to find solid manufactur ing, marketing, and distributi on for HYDZ. This would allow me to work on a larger scale as a wholesaler and expand my ability to create more designs and products.
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