FOSTERING THE PEOPLE

BY ADRIAN GOMEZ

FOR THE JOURNAL

Growing up on Santa Clara Pueblo, Vidal Gonzales grew up in a traditional way.

His great-aunts were always around as he was taught to nurture himself through nature.

This is a reason why he spends a lot of time outdoors.

Though, when inside, he’s focused on his creative side, which includes his clothing brand called The Uncivilized Outdoorsman.

The Indigenous-inspired brand is sold at REI stores in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

“I was getting ready to graduate from my undergrad and there weren’t outdoor brands that spoke to me as a Native American,” Gonzales says. “Growing up in the outdoors and being intimate in the cultural landscape, I started doing some word play.”

Knowing the history of how his ancestors were treated by being called savages or uncivilized, he wanted to take back the narrative.

“I thought to myself, ‘What could be thought-provoking,’ ” he asked.

Gonzales went with The Uncivilized Outdoorsman.

EDDIE MOORE/JOURNAL

The first design he created was a Native American sun and a fish over the mountain with the avanyu inside the state of New Mexico.

“I started making stickers and growing the brand from there.”

April 2022 rolled around and Gonzales says that’s the time he went legit with the business.

REI found out about the clothing line and picked him up.

“My dream is to have the brand in REI’s throughout the country,” he says. “I work towards that goal every day.”

Gonzales finds balance in everything he does. He makes time for family, has time to create for the brand, as well as leading fly-fishing classes for youth outdoor education with Trout Unlimited.

In 2022, he started leading Indigenous and Hispanic youth with those classes.

“We had elders come out and talk about the cultural landscape and what the history means to us.”

The program has grown so much that there is now a three-day camp.

“We are catering towards disadvantaged youth,” he says. “Growing up on the reservation, I grew up in a single-mother household and have gone through different trials and tribulations. But I was always connected to our people. I learned the old ways by being in the elements. The elders have taught me to keep myself grounded, and that’s what I’ve done with my program.”

Gonzales also has a contract with Friends of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, as well as River Source in Santa Fe.

“We took a youth group out to Santa Clara Canyon, which was devastated by the Las Conchas Fire,” he says. “The younger generation hasn’t had the opportunity to be outdoors and learn about how nature heals itself after devastation.”

Through all of his work, Gonzales is trying to bring back the time of interconnectedness — before Colonialism.

“We’re trying to bring back the concept of that place and time where we nurtured ourselves and each other,” he says. “With climate change, we’re facing drought, fires, and we’re trying to foster relationships that are much more complex than those on the surface.”

One of his designs is called Indigenous Waters.

“The rains bring everything to life,” he says. “With the designs, I’m trying to foster conversation about what it means to be alive in this world today. We need to continue to learn from the land.”

Gonzales is looking forward to getting out into the community more and fostering those relationships through his work in fly-fishing and camps to his clothing brand.

“We need to come together to foster the next generation of leaders,” he says. “Another goal is to craft a lot of this into a year-round program. I want to continue to push the box as far as I can.”

Santa Clara Pueblo.

EDDIE MOORE/ JOURNAL