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A first-of-its-kind skateboard competition is coming to Navajo Nation Saturday at the Two Grey Hills Skate Park.
The Modern Matriarchs Skate Jam competition will bring together “Indigenous Girls, Women, Trans, Non-binary and/or Gender non-conforming skaters” as they put their hard work and practice to the test.
Amy Denet Deal (Diné) is the founder of 4KINSHIP, an Indigenous owned clothing brand, and organizer of the Diné Skate Garden project.
She says while spending a day at the skate park with one of her groups, one of the girls came up with the idea of having an all-women skateboard competition.
“I’m like, ‘Let’s do it!’ And they came up with the name. And they’ve all been working together these last few months to make it happen. It’s been a great experience.“
Deal said using skateboarding to bring the community together just made sense.
“I’m not a skater, but I’m executive from an active sports company, and I personally now so many athletes, and every single one says the same thing to me. ‘Amy, skateboarding changed my life, it saved my life.’ It’s like people that struggle with mental health issues, or just health issues, there’s always a place for them within this sport. It’s something you can do any time, you don’t have to be on a team, you can do it by yourself, you can do it with friends, it’s just a great way to process emotion that you go through during the day and things that you struggle with I knew it was just a great way to bring a really beautiful tool to the kids.”
The event will also raise awareness for the need for equipment for Diné youth and will help the organizations get to their goal of providing more than 2,000 youth on Navajo Nation with skate equipment.
“We made a beautiful partnership with a company called Monarch Skateboards. I just have to raise a lot money between now and the end of the year, and I’m down for that it’s just necessary for kids to be able to experience this sport. We have 25,000 left to fund before end of the year, but I know we can do it.”
Deal says they’re also helping raise funds to purchase skateboards and helmets for Native youth.
A Beam EV ARC 2020 sustainable EV charging station. (Courtesy Beam Global)
Over a dozen projects in Oregon have received funds as part of a federal initiative to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.
Altogether, 15 projects in eleven counties and two Native American tribes received money.
About $13 million have been made available for small urban and rural projects that cut greenhouse gases from transportation.
Ryan Webb is the engineering and planning manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, which is getting almost $700,000 for four electric vehicles and two charging stations.
“People of this land have always been good stewards of it. And I think being able to be considerate of how we can limit the impact that that footprint has, is one component of what the tribe does when we look at kind of sustainable projects or our footprint on the land.”
The Oregon Department of Transportation says five years of federal funding will come to $82 million for state projects.
ODOT says it aims to lower the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60% (than what they were in 1990) by 2050.
The 8th president of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. was sworn in this week.
Dr. Frank Arpan’s leadership comes as the tribal college is serving the most Native American students in 12 years.
Dr. Arpan was officially inaugurated in a ceremony along with his Yankton Sioux Tribal Council in attendance.
He says his focus is on a holistic environment.
Dr. Arpan stated that Haskell has more than 880 students representing 140 tribal nations at Haskell this year.
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