The National Museum of the American Indian sheds light on the origin of skateboarding and contemporary skateboarding culture among Native Americans in the show Ramp It Up. Most people can probably guess that skateboarding is related to surfing, but how many of us actually realize that it has evolved from surfing, which is a native Hawaiian sport and, therefore, a Native American sport. The show gave a snapshot of the popularity of the sport among Native American teenagers and exhibited skateboard art done by Native Americans. These boards often educate the viewer about aspects of Native American History. My favorite was the the skateboard that showed a graphic depiction of the U.S., repeated four times. Each map represents a different period in a timeline starting in the 1800's and going up to 1990. All four of them were in black and white, starting as mostly black in the 1800's and gradually becoming more white through 1990, when most of the map is white. The color represents the increase in land that has been taken over by "Americans". I was surprised to see the timeline go all the way through 1990.
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