Skate Pine Ridge

For over a decade the Elemental Awareness foundation has been traveling across the nation visiting Indian reservations to empower skate scenes and share massive amounts of product. This year they visited the Lakota reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The road was long, cold, and there van broke down on the way there. Luckily, someone lent them a big rig truck from a diesel repair shop in Nebraska. So they crammed all their stuff in, learned how to drive it, and made it the rest of the way.

The reservations in the States are notorious for their poverty, substance abuse, and high teen suicide rate. What you don't always hear about are all of the wonderful things that coexist with the bad: the smiles, the high fives, the communities, the ceremonies, the kickflips, and the grinds. Those are the things they saw and focused on during their visit. In the words of the great Lakota Chief, Sitting Bull, “Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”