Douglas Miles

Watching his son practice skateboarding, Miles drew corollaries between skateboarding and the Apache warrior tradition, as both involved increase concentration, stamina, and the ability to withstand pain. After finding no skate decks available relevant to Apache culture, Miles painted a skateboard deck himself. He gave it to his son, and this spawned Apache Skateboards.

Founded in 2002, Apache Skateboards is one of the earlier Native American-owned skateboard companies. Native artists working on the Apache Skateboard project with Miles include Razelle Bennally; Tracy Polk Jr.; Douglas Miles, Jr.; Keith Secola; Reuben Ringlero; Irwin Lewis; Tony Steele; and Tashadawn Hastings. As Apache Skate Team, the group gives skating demonstrations, organizes skateboard contests and concerts, and curates art shows around the country, and especially on Indian reservations in the American Southwest.

“Painting on the skateboards … opens up a whole new medium for me,” Miles told Shade magazine. “My skateboards are both traditional and contemporary by design. Are they fine art or pop art? Why can’t they be both?” He emphasizes Native American youth, Apache culture, and reservation lifestyles in his work. “You need to show ‘Indian people’ in the 21st century and not so much as museum pieces,” Miles says.

Miles and Apache Skateboards have succeeded in finding new venues for art and skateboarding, blending the arenas of fine art, pop culture, and sport. They have successfully challenged outmoded categorization of Native American art based on anthropological perspectives. Together they have helped form the artist collective, Native Agents, and added visual artists Micah Wesley (Muscogee Creek-Kiowa), Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo-descent), and Yatika Starr Fields (Osage-Muscogee Creek-Cherokee) to the Apache Skateboard group. Native Agents curate “Pop Life” events, which combine visual art, music, and skateboarding, and are informed by the DIY ethic of punk culture.

Apache Skateboards work continually in film, photography, fine art, skateboarding, murals, multimedia projects, community projects, skate park planning, skateboard events, apparel design, television, film, youth conferences and speaking engagements. They produced a documentary, “Walk Like a Warrior: The Apache Skateboards Story,” which was co-directed by Douglas Miles and Franck Boistel.

In 2008, Apache Skateboards collaborated with iPath Footwear to create the I-PACHE collection of sneakers, fitted hats, and T-shirts, all of which feature Douglas Miles’ original designs.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Miles