Native Skateboard Culture

Skateboard Culture: An Extreme Sport Helps Native Americans Soar

Athletes say sport promotes courage, resilience, strong work ethic

Members of the 4-Wheel Warpony skateboard team pose in traditional 19th-century Apache scout dress.

Members of the 4-Wheel Warpony skateboard team pose in traditional 19th-century Apache scout dress.

By Lauren Monsen
Staff Writer

Washington — A skateboard, symbolic of youthful risk-taking and fearlessness, might seem an unlikely route to responsible adulthood. But because it promotes self-discipline and perseverance, skateboarding — among the most popular sports on Indian reservations across the United States — is a transformative experience for many indigenous athletes, according to a new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).

Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America (on display through September 13, 2009) showcases the vibrancy and creativity of American Indian skate culture, while also tracing the sport’s evolution and highlighting the achievements of tribe-affiliated skaters. In a recent interview with America.gov, Betsy Gordon — NMAI’s project manager for the Ramp It Up exhibition — explained that skateboarding affirms the importance of “courage, strength and resilience,” facilitating “the passing of Native values in a modern medium.” It also has spawned its own genre of popular music, graphic art and design, photography and filmmaking, and entrepreneurship that revolves around the competitive skateboard circuit frequented by young athletes on and off the reservations.

BASIC FORM SKATEBOARD TEAM

11.12.08Native American Skateboard team

Brendan Moore's photos of "the all Apache Skateboarding Team" popped up in my email inbox yesterday. Usually I delete all the promotional crap that passes by my spam filter but the Native American Skateboarders headline grabbed my attention. Brendan's photos turned out to be very clean, commercial looking, and do a great job of subtly capturing the subjects essence.