David Kamper authors new book: “Rezballers and Skate Elders: Joyful Futures in Indian Country”
The book explores how Indigenous communities use basketball and skateboarding as powerful tools for cultural expression, resilience, and mentorship.
Through ethnographic research, David Kamper highlights how basketball and skateboarding foster intergenerational connection, community building, and the reimagining of tradition to offer a hopeful vision for Native futures.
Kamper is professor of American Indian studies, cofounder of the Surf/Skate Studies Collaborative, and associate director of the Center for Skateboarding, Action Sports, and Social Justice.
Inspiration for the book solidified 12 years ago
When he was working on his first book, “The Work of Sovereignty: Labor Activism and Self-Determination at the Navajo Nation,” Kamper found a surprising shift in conversations during interviews. “When I was talking to folks about tribal labor relations, it struck me that there was a lot of basketball going on, and they were just as interested in talking about basketball as anything else,” he said.
He discovered the Native American Basketball Invitational youth tournament, known as NABI while living in Flagstaff. Finals were held each year in Phoenix, and when he attended his first tournament he noticed 160 teams playing in the PHX Arena. At that point, he truly understood the importance of Rezball (a community-based style of basketball) in Indian Country.
He visited other tournaments in Rapid City and Albuquerque to confirm that Rezball’s popularity was not only local, but nationwide. In the book, Kamper argues that Native participation is merely an indigenization of basketball, but that Native people have been defining the culture of basketball since the sport’s inception. “It's important for us to think about how Indigenous people are participants in what we call modernity — and they are participants in defining modernity. Rezball is an example of it.” he said.
In the second sport that Kamper covers in the book, he learned about the extent and popularity of skateboarding via an assignment in his American Indians through Film and Television course that he taught in the 2010s. Two students created a video about the Pala pool (a DIY skate spot in a San Diego area tribal community), and world renowned professional skateboarder Danny Way’s involvement with the spot. Kamper said it “uncovered a whole world” for him.
He learned about the All Nations Skate Jam hosted the same week as the annual Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque (considered the largest PowWow in the world). Kamper attended three skate jams in order to gather more research for his new book. Through this research, he discovered skateparks existed all around Indian Country: in Southwest reservations like Navajo Nation, Sam Carlos Apache, and Tohono O’odham, and the Northern Plains such as Flathead Indian and Pine Ridge reservations. He found that the Lummi Nation, Zuni, S'Klallam Bay, Tulalip and others were all invested in skateboarding.
“There's very clearly a basketball subculture in addition to a skateboarding subculture, and both of them have heavily influenced American culture,” Kamper said “These two sports are a way of continuing pride, joy, and securing a joyful future for all that participate in them.”
‘Rezballers and Skate Elders’ covers a variety of topics
In the “Rezball: The Anti-Funeral” chapter, Kamper explores the fact that through basketball, community members recognize that pain and joy go hand in hand. During his research, people from the Kumeyaay and Luiseño communities told him that if it weren’t for these large inter-tribal sports community gatherings, they would only see each other at funerals (where families and people from neighboring communities come together). These conversations provided inspiration for a deeper exploration about togetherness through sport.
In “Skater Legends of the Rez,” Kamper highlights skaters who have had the most impact on promoting skate and travel within the communities. He tells the story through the lens of skaters from five different tribal communities: White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, Muskovee Creek, Pine Ridge Lakota, and Lenape. “They are the main progenitors of this kind of really vibrant skate culture in Indian Country right now.”
Kamper’s book helps give a sense of how dynamic these communities are, “despite all the destruction brought by various forms of settler colonialism.”
Learn more about the book on the publisher's website.
Learn more about Kamper by visiting his website.