New School Natives
Jessica Seneca

Douglas Miles's "Pop Life 2," at Princeton University on April 8th, was an amazing collaboration of live art performances. The ensemble of multi-talented artists and skaters held the audience's attention with a nonstop brilliant show from beginning to end.

A brief introduction was given by Apache Skateboards founder and artist Douglas Miles (San Carlos Apache/Akimel O'Odham). Apache Skateboards is the first American Indian skateboard "grassroots" company based on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona.

There has been some controversy with the boards depicting the Apache Gaan dancers. The elders in San Carlos have opposed their sacred Gaan ("Spirit Mountain") dancers on decks because the dancers are used only in sacred ceremonies. Currently, the skateboard decks featuring Gaan images are only used for display and are not mass produced for riding.

However, the younger generations are eager to ride a Gaan deck and encourage more of the Apache Skateboard designs. Miles's artistic influence and, perhaps, rebelliousness has intrigued the next generation of Native artists in the Southwest.

"Pop Life 2" was a high energy performance featuring live hip-hop music spun throughout the performance by DJ Kwai Kane (Creek/Kiowa), a full-time student at the Institute of the American Indian Arts, Sante Fe, New Mexico. Live graffiti artists/painters, Rose Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo), also a full-time IAIA student, and Yatika Fields (Osage/Creek/Cherokee) of New York City mixed a larger than life mural melting city images with indigenous faces. The piece combined the modern influences of urban life and American Indian heritage shared in one experience.

Douglas Miles, Jr. (San Carlos Apache/Navajo), Reuben Ringlero (Apache/Akimel O'Odham), and Irwin Lewis (Akimel O'Odham Apache) represented the Apache Skate Team. Sooth, Ringlero and Lewis's electronic duo, illuminated with their melodic, minimal music; DJ Kwai Kane, Simpson, also a poet/singer, and Fields's beat-boxing mixed in to the scene. The finale became a full-circle bringing at least one of each of the cast into a united band. Miles's self- described night of "Tribes, Vibes & Scribes," was exactly that.

"Pop Life 3" is in the works to be hosted by the University of Arizona in Tucson, but is yet to be scheduled. Currently on view is "Reservation Radical/Apache Skateboards: The Art of Douglas Miles," on display at the Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA, or available online at www.apacheskateboards.com.

Jessica Seneca (Seneca/Wolf Clan) is from the Cattaraugus reservation, but lives and works in New York City. She currently writes for a tribal paper, Roots, for which she reports on contemporary Native events going on in the City.

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