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  • From Off the Rez to Off the Hook!Douglas Miles and Apache Skateboards
  • David Martínez (bio)

There are a number of ways in which one can contextualize the work of Douglas Miles. These contexts, however, will inevitably overlap, shift around, and ultimately prove inadequate for comprehending an artistic phenomenon that simultaneously is grounded in Arizona’s Indigenous communities and reflects ideas and influences from a broad horizon. For some, the name “Apache Skateboards” may evoke an unexpected combination of skateboarding (associated with urban street life) and American Indians (associated with reservations and, too often, with Hollywood westerns). Yet, insofar as American Indians have been enmeshed in modern American society for generations—confronting, resisting, and adopting non-Indigenous elements into their communities—there is nothing unusual about an American Indian skateboard company. It also stands to reason that where one finds skateboarding, even on a reservation, one will see other elements being integrated into the prevailing group dynamic, especially among young people. Stereotypes fall to the wayside as hardcore punk, hip hop, deejaying, death metal, graffiti, T-shirts, skateboard decks, stickers, stenciling, tattooing, posters, and skate jams, not to mention gaming, smart phones, YouTube, and Facebook, are effortlessly woven into the lifestyles and vernacular of “Rez culture.” Of course, not every Indian skates, so there is an appreciable difference between those who do, those who hang around skaters, and those who have nothing to do with skating but may be interested in other forms of pop culture (e.g., music) that may be essential to the skater lifestyle.1 With respect to the latter, the list goes on, and it is included in the dizzying array of fine art and pop culture trends, along with Indigenous expressions, that Miles draws upon for inspiration.2 Apache Skateboards [End Page 370] cannot be dismissed as an aberration of or as marginal to contemporary American Indian life; nor can it be limited to representations of race, ethnicity, gender, or age group. Instead, Apache Skateboards—and the work of Douglas Miles—is a visible manifestation of the sea change that has occurred across reservation communities since the peak of “Red Power” in the early 1970s, in which modern life is embraced with a rebellious attitude, and Indigenous people’s primal place is affirmed in an otherwise colonial society.

Miles is concurrently relevant to American Indian art, pop art, skate-boarding, street art, guerilla art, photography, video, and mixed media. He is also a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe of Arizona (in addition to being Gila River Pima) and a trained artist whose work is well known and respected across a diverse spectrum of audiences.3 As Miles points out, “The artists and skaters and musicians we [meaning he and the Apache Skateboards crew] work with are from all over as you can see from my facebook friends. la, nyc, nm, id and on and on.” Such an adamantly inclusive attitude is based on, for lack of a better term, the skate-boarding ethos, in which skating is open to anyone willing and able to get on a board. Indeed, it is this skater ethos that informs an important facet of Miles’s identity as an artist: “I don’t really want to be lumped or considered a part of any ‘scene’ except one that is purely ‘skateboarding,’ which absorbs and accepts all nationalities and people without regard to race or ethnicity.”4 This principle of inclusivity is readily apparent at skating events, such as the All Nations Skate Jam, which is held annually in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but which is open to everyone who wants to join the events.5 The same is also true for Skateploitation, which Miles and his crew hold at Indian Market every August in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Characteristic of such events, if skate jam organizers were to restrict their events to “Indians only,” they would risk alienating themselves and their skaters from the rest of the skateboarding community, whose skate parks and events are always open to them. In other words, it is “uncool” to ban anyone from the “fun.” Miles, in turn, translates this inclusiveness into his artwork. From his studio in San Carlos, Miles...

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