Skateboarding provides Navajo and other indigenous peoples with an outlet for their artistic talents and heritage

Skateboarders from the Navajo Nation and other indigenous groups “shred it” at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The sport has proven to be an outlet for artistry and heritage.

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

By Brianna Chappie

Cronkite News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first skateboard Di’Orr Greenwood ever rode was a cheap plastic one her grandfather gave to her younger brother. “He had so much fun with it that I wanted a little bit of that fun too,” she said. When she was 22, an arson attack destroyed the family home. They lost nearly everything. But Greenwood found some old skateboards that were unscathed in the fire and a wood burning tool her late uncle had taught her to use. She started carving Navajo designs on skateboards to raise money. Fast forward to 2023, and Greenwood’s designs have appeared on skateboard stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service. In June, she launched two new shoes and a clothing line for Nike SB.

“These are the mountains that my predecessors had to overcome and move,” she said, holding up the heels of the Blazer Mids to show off the ridges etched into the soles. “A tough shoe for a tough piece of history.” The 28-year-old artist from Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo Nation, seemed unfazed by the stifling heat on the National Mall as she showed off her handmade skate decks and other designs at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the largest annual cultural event in Washington, D.C.
Nearby, a “skate jam” was set up with ramps and grind rails. Dozens of indigenous skateboarders showed off their skills during the weeklong event. Skateboarding is a thriving subculture on reservations, where poverty rates are high. Skateboards like the one Greenwood shared with her brother are relatively cheap. You can ride them almost anywhere. It’s a way to find community, far removed from bad influences. “All they want is to belong,” said pro skater Manny Santiago, a Taíno who represented Puerto Rico in the sport’s Olympic debut in Tokyo at the 2020 Games. Even if you’ve never heard of him, you may have played him as a character in the video game Session: Skate Sim. He was hard to miss at the Smithsonian festival, with his famous smile complete with missing front tooth — a trademark since a fall during a competition in 2009. “Skateboarders are very stubborn. We wait until our leg falls off before we go to the hospital. So I waited until my face was swollen to 300 pounds,” he said. The abscess put him at high risk for a brain infection. “When they took it out, I was like, ‘I’m alive!’ I don’t care what I look like, I can skate again. … My mom says I’m beautiful. … I don’t need anyone’s approval.” Skateboarding often gets injured, which teaches resilience and determination in the face of adversity. And there’s a counterculture vibe — all of which resonates with young people who bear the burden of historical injustices. For many Native American skateboarders, it’s also an outlet for cultural expression. “A lot of Native Americans are artistic, and skateboarding is art in a way,” said Charles Cronyn, a 15-year-old skateboarding prodigy who also hails from the Navajo Nation. “It’s a sport, but it’s also an art because people are coming up with new tricks.” He was 6 when he moved from the reservation to Brooklyn with his father. In their new neighborhood, his father quickly noticed his passion for skateboarding and arranged lessons. “And then I had to get him new coaches, because around 8, he started to outdo his coaches,” said his father, Chris Cronyn. “We’re in the business of creating, and when a child is born, he learns to create,” Chris Cronyn said. Last year, Diné Skate Garden opened in the Two Grey Hills chapter of the Navajo Nation in Newcomb, New Mexico, just east of the Arizona border. Greenwood was there, along with skating legend Tony Hawk and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren. Amy Denet Deal, a Navajo fashion designer, raised more than $100,000 for the project, though the local tribal chapter was reluctant to approve construction until Greenwood came to a hearing and gave an impassioned speech, talking about the positive impact skateboarding has had on her life. The Navajo Nation isn’t the only indigenous community where skateboarding has taken hold. In 2012, Santiago became the first Puerto Rican to reach the final three of the X Games. “Growing up as a Boricua” — a native of Puerto Rico — “I was always (indigenous) in my mind, because I knew about my Taíno heritage from a young age,” he said. A group from Bolivia known as imillaSkate girls showed off their skills in colorful skirts called polleras — outfits imposed by Spanish colonists in the 16th century and now claimed as a sign of indigenous identity. “We are descendants of women who wear polleras, so we are proud to wear clothing that is indigenous,” said one of the skaters, Elinor Buitrago, 27. For her and other skateboarders, merging with indigenous cultures is a testament to the power of community, heritage and resilience in both traditions. “No matter what color you are, no matter how old you start, skateboarding is for you,” Buitrago said. “Even if you fall, you get back up. Despite injuries, despite everything — you are there to overcome it.” That’s a recurring theme among skateboarders and part of what draws many of them to the sport. The Cronyns say that as a Native American, Charles has faced discrimination in the sport. The teen recalled a competition in South Carolina where judges refused to shake his father’s hand and gave low scores to competitors with darker skin. “I did everything — I didn’t miss a trick and I probably finished in the top three — and they put me 34th out of 35,” Charles said. Despite such hurdles, Charles has maintained a positive attitude through about 10 professional competitions, starting when he was just 9 years old — including one of the biggest in Arizona, Cowtown’s PHXAM, a hugely anticipated amateur meet at Desert West Skateboard Plaza in Phoenix. He hopes to make the 2028 U.S. Olympic team. Charles met Nygren last August at a veterans’ party in Window Rock. He was there to honor his grandfather, an Airborne Ranger during the Vietnam War. Charles gave the president an eagle feather and a skateboard, which Nygren hung in the tribe’s office. The president, also an avid skateboarder, gave Charles one of his own personalized skateboards. “It was pretty dope — he’s a really nice guy,” Charles said. For Greenwood, skateboarding is an outlet for artistic expression. She loves the way girls and women bring “the grace of movement and dance and femininity” to the sport, making it “much more artistic and beautiful to look at.” From pyrography, or wood burning, she’s developed her craft as an artist. For Nike, every detail — from the stitching on the Big and Little Dippers on the Dunk Highs to insoles that reflect her Arizona roots — is designed to pay homage to her Diné roots. Growing up on the reservation, she said, “the only Nikes I’ve ever been able to have were second-hand Nike studs that came from an older cousin or someone like that.” She is currently leading a project to build a skate park in her hometown of Window Rock to bring the sport to more youth. “In indigenous communities, I feel like skateboarding is becoming more popular,” she said. “I feel like it’s always been there, but now it’s being recognized and appreciated.”
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Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published under a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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