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[Bytyan]

     Hill dwarves are an idea that toady talks about a lot but I don't fully understand, which I take to mean abstract populations in the surrounding area which can be tapped into and manipulated, but don't "exist" in the sense most dwarves exist (that is to say, maybe they are tracked closely enough to know there is a small metal industry somewhere around, but not tracking exactly where the metal shop is or what style of braid the armoursmith's beard is woven into). Logically, sieges, wildlife and ambushes would have to pass through the hill dwarves territory in order to attack your fortress.
     I propose that you should have the options of building theoretical walls around your territory. The exact specifications of these walls would not be tracked, but from your fortress you could dictate their size, composition (where the materials are drawn from), garrison, and which tiles they would occupy. Stone/wood could be drawn from designated quarries, trade agreements, or material on your site. Labor would come from either the hill dwarves or masons you designate.
     The wall would be mapped out from the world map, with gates to allow traffic from merchants and towers to house dwarves not on patrol. Gates and towers would require more building material and more dwarves to run effectively- all dwarves manning the wall would need to be fed by either the hill dwarves or shipments from your site.
     Walls would require any wildlife the game tries to generate on your map to undergo a check; if a grizzly bear can make it past your garrison undetected, then it is free to roam. Birds wouldn't be effected as consistently. Orders could be set for how the garrison deals with various threats. In case of a siege, they may abandon the effected section of the wall and report to the site rather than fighting. If the garrison fights, a world gen battle would be rolled, with losses on both sides and a guaranteed delayed report if you win, and a chance of one if you lose. Choosing not to fight would grant a report on enemy numbers. Dwarves for the battle would be drawn from towers within range.
      The more resources you draw from the hill dwarves, the more their economy will be impacted. A wall being supported by an insufficient population could cause widespread poverty and emigration. A lack of protection from surrounding threats could have the same result.
The reason all these element would be abstracted is so that you don't have to use much CPU to protect your territory. Theoretically, the wall would require no more resources from your computer then any other string of sites on the world map. A battle taking place on your wall would take at most the memory it take for one year to pass in initial world gen.
       If your site was abandoned or sacked, your wall would be fully generated in the postgame. Hill dwarf populations would have to support the wall without the help of your keep. Adventurers could visit your gates and towers and find the patrols still running; if your adventurer is friendly with your forts civ, they would give you quests to explore the abandoned keep and search for nobles, loved ones, and items of particular value. If you are enemies with the walls civ, they would attack you and your party with the resources you allocated them in fort mode.

[GreatWyrmGold]

The way I understand hill dwarves, they're mostly going to be a worldgen thing--dwarves who move to the hills for whatever reason. Maybe they're criminals, or embarrased, or just want to escape the hustle and bustle of the Mountainhomes. For whatever reason, these outcasts move to the hills, living mainly on or near the surface--close enough that they can trade with the Mountain Dwarves, but far enough to avoid whatever it is that drove them out.

This idea could be interesting, regardless of if it involves "actual" hill dwarves or not. I'd imagine you'd need to pay them somehow, like in crafts, food or coins; and you'd probably need to provide them with the building materials.

[Carp McDwarfEater]

I thought that "hill dwarf" is simply the term Toady gave to dwarves that you send to live or work in the "hills" around your fort (as opposed to "the mountain" which is your fort) and do stuff, like bring materials from off-site.

[Bytyan]

The way Toady was talking about them in the last dwarf talk, I thought they were like citizens of a county which your fortress administrated. Hopefully Toady clarifies his terms.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I always thought of Hill Dwarves as the "rustic" population outside of your "city". The farmers, miners, outdoordwarves that got the resources that your embark either needs or has depleted.
I also assumed they would have a lower social class than that of the Dwarves living in the Mountain Halls since they're isolated and doing the lowly "undwarven" jobs.

Much like how human cultures have the separtion of "Villagers" and "Townsmen".