Lee Ray DeWilde
Season 10Age: 59
Hometown: Huslia, Alaska
Profession: Pilot
Lee is one of fourteen children raised and homeschooled in the wilderness by his Caucasian father and Native mother along the Alaskan waters of the Yukon, Koyukuk and Huslia rivers. Born in the woods of the Yukon with his father acting as midwife, Lee did not see another community until the age of 15 when he first flew in an airplane. His family moved amongst several camps on the rivers throughout the year for trapping, spring hunting/gardening, lumber milling, and seasonal work in the village of Huslia.
As a young man, Lee followed in his father鈥檚 footsteps, doing seasonal work in the village during the summers and spending winters trapping north up the Huslia River and its tributaries. Later, he left the wilderness to continue his education, earning his aircraft maintenance and pilot licenses, and a mechanical engineering degree. After he and his wife, Lilly, raised their children in Fairbanks and at their fish camp downriver, they moved back to the villages where he started an aircraft charter business and his wife became a high school principal.
Living and serving his people back home in Huslia reconnected Lee with the life and people he grew up with. It inspired him to both learn more from the elders of the land and his ancestral roots, and to educate the younger generation with what he knew.
Participating in the Alone challenge will provide Lee the opportunity to push his Native woods knowledge to new limits. His hope is to win the half million dollars and use it to purchase a larger airplane that will better serve his people.
Here聽are聽the ten items Lee selected to bring on his survival journey the bone-chilling temperatures of Northern Saskatchewan, Canada:
1. Paracord
2. Sleeping Bag
3. Cooking Pot
4. Ferro rod
5. Fishing Line and Hooks
6. Bow and Arrows
7. Snare Wire
8. Multitool
9. Axe
10. Saw
