Ricko DeWilde is a Native American rights activist, entrepreneur, former addict, as well as present reality television personality. He shows in the National Geographic Channel reality show Life Below Zero.
DeWilde takes a compelling new perspective to the already valid and expert casts of Life Below Zero. Ricko DeWilde, one of the casts of Life Below Zero, completely lives a life worth documenting.
DeWilde’s heritage is Alaskan Athabaskan, and he has learned numerous hunting and survival traditions from his relatives and fellow community members. In the series, he not only displays as well as explains these ritualistic practices but also enacts them down to the next generation: his children.
People close to Ricko DeWilde interpret him as lithe and powerful from the decades he has spent carrying animals out of the woods. Read more regarding his wilderness lifestyle as well as some additional facts in regards to his upbringing, his personal life, as well as much more.
Ricko DeWilde Siblings
The now 46-year-old named Ricko DeWilde was born on 4 July in the year 1976. Ricko DeWilde was raised in the traditional subsistence-hunting way of life. The remote cabin Ricko grew up in with his 13 brothers as well as sisters was 100 miles by river from Huslia.
Ricko DeWilde’s father, Lloyd, was a white man of Welsh descent from San Francisco who walked to Alaska in search of a unique way of life. Ricko’s mother, Amelia, was a Koyukon Athabaskan, from the North Fork of the Huslia River, born as well as raised in Alaska.
Koyukon Athabascan is a group called after the territory its people occupy along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers. Ricko DeWilde’s parents home-schooled him as well as taught him the traditional Koyukon Athabaskan lifestyle.
Much of what the northern native talks regarding from those years revolve around learning how, and how not, to hunt. When Ricko DeWilde was a young boy, his mother taught him to trap rabbits.
His father and mother built several cabins along the rivers outside of the village where the family lived in summer as well as winter, moving from one site to another, keeping up with the prosperity of the land.
Ricko DeWilde now lives in Fairbanks and often returns to Huslia (population 275). He still calls it his hometown. The man who grew up in the hinterlands of the Yukon-Koyukuk also periodically speaks for the Native Americans. He also cares deeply about the informal economy of his Koyukon Athabaskan community.
Ricko DeWilde Become A Star
Ricko DeWilde has been a member of the great Life Below Zero team for few times. He came to the awareness of the television producers at BBC Studios in Los Angeles after they found him on video postings he accepted to YouTube of his adventures in the wilds of Alaska.
Ricko DeWilde officially joined the cast of Life Below Zero in November in the year 2018. His time on the show mostly includes his Athabaskan traditions of hunting moose, a frequent activity Ricko DeWilde partakes in on the hit reality series.
The modern-day frontiersman mostly hunts hundreds of miles from Fairbanks. Moreover, the native American rights activist named Ricko DeWilde typically traverses the indigenous lands of Huslia, as well as Alaska alone.
Some of his top caliber and gauge selections encompass .22 for small game, a shotgun for waterfowl, .308 for nearly all big game in the open areas, and the .375 Ruger for the dangerous moose/bear encounters.
Ricko DeWilde still adheres to the traditional Athabascan way of life which he says is very demanding, and, at times, an extremely harsh existence, but he however finds it far more fulfilling.
One Of Ricko DeWilde Brother Died In The Wilderness
One of his brothers, named Alan died from one accident when he was so young. Ricko DeWilde talks about his brother’s passing in one of Sep in the year 2020 episodes of Life Below Zero. During the episode, he visits the very cabin where his brother named Alan passed away.
He was all by himself in the wilderness while the time of his death. He had temporarily left the society to live in intimacy for a while.
Ricko DeWilde Has A Clothing Line
Ricko DeWildealso has a clothing line named HYDZ. Ricko DeWilde came up with the idea of launching Hydz when he had to give away some hoodies as well as sweaters at the potlatch, a traditional Athabascan memorial.
The clothes he invested in at the potlatch had arts from one of his friends and thereafter contained images that showed beauty and strength. The reaction to the apparel was so strong that Ricko DeWilde eventually started Hydz and began selling them.
Ricko DeWilde says he wants his clothing line, his activism, and his life to reflect the strength and beauty of the Native American lifestyle. HYDZ means the animal hides that are the clothing of all types of human beings’ ancestors.
Ricko DeWilde Battled Addiction
Ricko DeWilde struggled with loneliness in his youth. With growing anxiety that he would be stuck in the airport forever, Ricko evolved a substance-abuse problem with oxycodone as well as felt trapped.
He can do something with his life, but this thing’s got him. But It’s a very defeated feeling,
Ricko DeWilde said of his addiction in Jan in the year 2019. One other thing which led him towards addiction, Ricko says, is the death of his brother, named Alan.
Moreover, He spent around two years in prison on cocaine-possession charges. Ricko DeWilde, however, says that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Because of that, he quit drugs and now says he has been clean for more than 15 years — and has turned his life around.
Ricko DeWilde’s Sister Was Killed by one Family Member
In the year 2016, Ricko’s sister, Riba lost her life in a tragic homicide incident. What’s more dreadful was that her killer was none other than her son, Eli, then 21.
The killing took place in Riba’s Tok home. Before her death, she was in the hospital getting treatment for her mental illness. She was known for producing aesthetic works of Athabascan art out of beads, bone, as well as fur.
Just before the incident Riba and her son Eli had gotten into a heated argument. Eli had shifted with Riba to help her during their fall months.
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Afterward, Riba’s son acknowledged shooting his mother with a Winchester .338 rifle. He though said of doing so because of self-defense. Eli told police that many years of emotional abuse from his mother made him do the killing.
He also impeached his dead mother for sexually harming him when she was alive as well as he was a kid. Riba’s other son, named Brian later on reported Something made him deep down flip.
One of Rick’s brothers, Victor, however, denied the aforesaid allegations and said he and the rest of the family were closely following what was going on with Riba’s mental health.
Who Is Ricko DeWilde Wife?
It’s unclear whether Ricko is married or not. Moreover, he is a father of 5 children with a woman called Rona Vent.
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Though it is confusing if all of the kids are from Rona and DeWilde’s relationship or if the latter had a wife/wife in the past. Rona too seemingly is a Koyukon Athabascan.
She and her hunter and trapper partner are parents to daughters Simone, Skarlett, and Maya, and sons Skyler as well as Keenan.
Though worth noting is – that it’s been a while since Vent and Ricko DeWilde appeared by each other’s sides and it has led some to wonder if the couple is still together or not.