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Taking It to the Streets: Apache Pride
Skateboarding
is providing a launch ramp for Apache pride through the diversified
artistic and athletic initiatives being directed by
Douglas Miles
(San Carlos Apache/Akimel O’odham). The endeavors were launched some
six years ago when Miles, an illustrator and painter, began decorating
his three kids’ skateboard decks with original art based on their
Apache heritage. He and his son, Doug Miles, had tried looking for a
board that represented their culture, and could find none. This led to
his organizing and sponsoring the Apache Skate Team, which travels to
competitions in his native Arizona and other states.
Today he
continues to produce original and limited-edition board designs,
working primarily with spray paint, X-Acto knives and stencils, No. 2
pencils, acrylic and ink. Images range from Geronimo, Cochise, Lozen
and other historic figures to contemporary, unmistakably Apache
characters, bringing a new streetwise Native aesthetic sensibility to
skateboarding. Also notable are Miles’ works on found materials, such
as a ’64 Chevy Impala hood or old gas cans, and his mixed-media works
on paper. In the last five years, his work has been seen in museum
exhibitions, the traveling Artrain USA project, select art galleries
and select Indian art festivals.
Miles also oversees an annual
March skate and music festival in San Carlos, Arizona titled Apache
Skateblast, and is collaborating on several other projects. In June,
IPATH Footwear
released a skate shoe based on his designs and decorative motifs,
followed by a t-shirt and cap in June, and he is exploring other
clothing concepts with other companies. Also in the works is a
limited-edition vinyl toy and a 45-minute documentary film titled
Walk Like a Warrior
portraying the evolution of the Apache skateboarding movement. Miles
expects it will start on the film festival circuit in late fall 2008.
“I never set out to cross over into all these projects, [just] to make
the best art possible, but it’s grown from there,” he notes.
In an interview in
Vapors
magazine by Maurice Pendarvis, Miles explained, “My whole thing is to
just bring people up. What we’ve really done is combine music, film,
photography, art, skateboarding and Native culture, and put Native
culture on the radar of the skateboard industry.”
IPATH will
sponsor a public event and exhibition of Miles’ work in Santa Fe at the
Humble Gallery during the 2008 Santa Fe Indian Market. Miles will also
show at Indian Market.
Details: excellent video & photos under Apache Skateboards at myspace.com and at www.apacheskateboards.com
Music Notes
Here are some brief notes on the latest batch of CDs to reach our mailbox. As usual, there’s a slew of flute-based recordings.
Aarnaquq (Sun Valley Recording Co.) features the compositions and work of
Phillip John Charette
(Yup’ik), better known for his amazing masks. Seven different flutes
used on the 11-track CD provide a beautifully and subtly shifting tonal
range, as on the traditional Yup’ik healing song “Tarvarnauramken,”
performed with a myrtle wood flute …
Prophecy 2 (Valley Entertainment) is a compilation of instrumental (with some chanting) songs by 10 different artists—including
Joanne Shenandoah, Johnny Whitehorse (R. Mirabal),
Mary Youngblood and Carlos Nakai—that grew out of the popular NPR program
Hearts of Space. One of the non-Native duos on the album,
Coyote Oldman, also have their own CD out,
Under an Ancient Sky
(Valley Entertainment), which features the sound of the Anasazi flute,
recorded for the first time ever. The flute was reproduced from
portions of prehistoric Anasazi flutes found in Arizona … Another very
impressive release that relies heavily on the flute is
Works by Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate
(Thunderbird Records). The nearly hour-long CD of classical music with
a distinct American Indian soundscape, written and composed by the
Choctaw musician, was recorded with the San Francisco Symphony and
Symphony Chorus … ksa (ghosthorse.biz), by the trio
Ghosthorse,
uses cello, diverse percussion, slide guitar, piano, dulcimer, sitar,
several flutes and other instruments to create a shifting panorama of
sound.
Several new powwow recordings have also popped up, notably a batch of round dance songs,
Dancin’ Til Sunrise (Canyon Records), from Canada’s popular group
Northern Cree;
The Elk Way (Canyon), by Northern-style group
Elk Soldier; and
Scouts (Canyon) by
Warscout, sung in Plains Cree.
In the contemporary school, we note the recent release
Phoenix (sonicbids.com/farapalmer) by the lovely Canadian Métis musician
Fara Palmer.
The pop recording has some catchy hooks and lyrics, as in “Blah, Blah,
Blah,” and competent backing piano, guitar and other instrumentation …
Nations Rise (myspace.com/n8vz), from the young Seattle-based four-member band
N8V, dishes up some excellent hard rock with raging vocals, pounding bass and smoking guitar work …
Dirty South Native Style, from the duo
Lil Mike and Funny Bone
(myspace.com/mikebonemusic), is a well-done, unlikely melding of Native
hip-hop and Christian morals from the Oklahoma-based boys … Far more
hardcore are
Loved & Hated (Night Shield Entertainment), the third solo release by the hard-working South Dakota Rosebud Sioux rapper
Gabriel Night Shield, and
Paranormal: The War Within (Night Shield Entertainment) by
Maniac The Siouxpernatural.
Shards
Mary Kim Titla
(San Carlos Apache) is in a tight Democratic primary race in Arizona
for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her main competition
in the primary vote, to be held Sept. 2, is Ann Kirkpatrick, who was
born on the White Mountain Apache Reservation but is not Indian. Titla
is well known in Arizona for her quality work over two decades as a
television news reporter and founder of the online ’zine
Native Youth Magazine, nativeyouthmagazine.com.
On July 26, the city of Pocatello, Idaho will dedicate a 16-foot tall statue of
Chief Pocatello–the
great Shoshone leader of the 19th century–with a sunrise service, a
flute song by Hovia Edwards, relay races, a parade, arts and craft
sales and other activities. The statue was carved from Idaho travertine
by J.D. Adcox and is based on written descriptions of the man, as no
photos exist of him, and conversations with his descendants.
A new online collection of notable films by Arctic and other Indigenous cultures,
Isuma.tv,
provides a terrific portal to contemporary portraits of Native life up
north and elsewhere in the world. Live performances, archived short and
long films, traditional verbal stories, blogs and other components make
this a great resource and fun visit. It was founded by the producers of
the film
Atanarjut: The Fast Runner, Nunavut Independent TV and other parties.
A rare white male buffalo calf named
Dakota Miracle, born to the albino female
White Cloud
in 2007, is approaching his first birthday on Aug. 31, while White
Cloud herself marks her 12th birthday on July 10, kicking off a
three-day festival at the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown, North
Dakota. Details: buffalomuseum.com
BuyIndianCountry.com
is a new, free online registry that encourages tribal governments and
Indian-owned businesses, non-Indian governments and corporate America
to buy supplies, services and raw materials from Indian-owned
businesses.
Artley Skenandore
(Oneida), CEO of Nature’s Way Tissue Corporation of Wisconsin, who is
leading the endeavor, notes, “Our mission is to serve as a resource
bridge to connect consumers and businesses to the wealth of
opportunities that exist within Indian Country.”
Sales of Minnesota-based
Red Lake Nation Foods
products (redlakenationfoods.com) have taken off with Internet
exposure. Online sales have jumped from $10,000 four years ago, when
the firm launched its Web site, to $250,000 in 2007, with buyers
predominantly in Canada, the U.K. and Germany. Wild rice is the best
seller, but also popular are homemade jams and jellies, maple and berry
syrups, dried mixes and soups, and birch tree craft items. Coming soon
are sales of walleye and yellow perch from its own lakes.
Timothy Bennett
is setting off on mission to “Swim Across the Nations” to raise
awareness for creating a national holiday honoring American Indians. He
will begin on July 4 at Venice Beach in Los Angeles and, if all goes as
planned, end on Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C. He hopes to generate 20
million e-mails to Congress and the president-elect. He will actually
swim in a tank mounted in a truck as it drives across the nation,
including stops in Alaska and Hawaii—where it will be airlifted.
Details: swimacrossthenations.com
The National Museum of the American Indian has announced a call for entries for its 2009
Native American Film & Video Festival. Entries close Aug. 15. Details: nativenetworks.si.edu
Honoring
Cody Sanderson’s silver Rubik’s Cube
Taking the Best of Show award at the 2008 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market was jeweler
Cody Sanderson (Navajo) for his inventive silver Rubik’s Cube. Others winning major awards included
Damian Toya (Jemez Pueblo) in pottery for a swirled micaceous vessel,
Hyrum Cruz Joe (Navajo) in paintings/drawings/graphics/photography for a painting,
Nuvadi Dawahoya (Hopi) in wooden carvings,
Pat Pruitt (Laguna Pueblo) in sculpture,
Carla Hemlock (Mohawk) in textiles/weavings,
Jamie Okuma (Shoshone/Bannock/Luiseño) in diverse arts for a doll, and
Sally Black (Navajo) in baskets. Taking the Conrad House Award was
Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo) for his unique tiles.
The hard-charging rock guitarist and vocalist
Derek Miller (Mohawk) recently took the Juno Award (Canada’s equivalent of the Grammy) for Aboriginal Recording of the Year with his CD
The Dirty Looks.The inaugural American Indian Youth Literature Awards, presented by the American Indian Library Association, went to
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom by
Tom Tingle, illustrated by
Jeanne Rorex Bridges (Cinco Puntos Press);
Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond by
Joseph Medicine Crow (National Geographic); and
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by
Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown Publishers).
John N. Low
(Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians) has been named executive director
of the Mitchell Museum in Evanston, Illinois, the first Native to hold
this prestigious position.
Sherwin Bitsui (Diné),
Sonya Oberly (Nez Perce/Osage/Comanche) and
Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca/Red Lake Chippewa) have been selected as 2008 Sundance Film Fellows;
Beau Bassett (Native Hawaiian) was selected for the Emerging Producer program; and
Darrell Dennis (Secwepemc Nation) was chosen to attend the Sundance Screenwriting Lab.
The nonprofit group Native American Public Telecommunications has selected the following radio projects for production in 2008:
Friends, written by
Marcie Rendon (White Earth Ojibwe); and
Last Summer with the Pigeons, written by
Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo).
Arigon Starr
(Kickapoo) was the only Native performer invited to the 16th World
Congress and Performing Arts Festival for Young People, held this May
in Adelaide, Australia. She performed her original one-woman work,
The Red Road, initially produced in Los Angeles for Native Voices at the Autry (see March/April 2008 issue).
The Indian Arts and Crafts Association’s Artist of the Year Award has been bestowed on
Mary Lou Big Day (Crow) for a beaded doll with cradleboard. Others taking IACA awards were
Venus Brightstar (Creek) for a porcupine-quill and leather jacket,
Charlene Sanchez Reano (San Felipe Pueblo) for lapidary jewelry,
Earl Plummer (Navajo) for metalsmithing jewelry,
Caroline Carpio (Isleta Pueblo) for small sculpture, and
Frank Fowler, Jr. (Navajo) for the Judges
Choice Award.
Ira Lujan (Taos
Pueblo), the only Native artist to appear in the first annual Taos
Glass Invitational at Henningsen Fine Art in Taos, New Mexico, is now
preparing for shows in China.
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