Closed Captions Audio Described

Keith Bear, a Mandan musician from North Dakota, shares stories, songs, and flute music while discussing Mandan culture and history. He reflects on the concept of native identity, explains the cultural significance and craftsmanship of handmade flutes, and recounts traditional stories including Coyote tales and Mandan courtship customs. Bear also addresses the impact of Lewis and Clark's expedition on his people.

Transcript

0:03 Discovery 2 and the Tent of Many Voices real quickly. I just want to tell you a little bit about us. We are a traveling exhibit that's been on the road since 2003. We are sponsored by many different federal agencies which you can see on the banner right in front of you here. We are managed by the National Park Service and in 2003, we did what's called the Eastern Legacy States. They started in Monticello, Virginia and starting in 2004, we actually hit the Lewis and Clark Trail.
0:28 We took two years to make our way way west to the Pacific Ocean like Lewis and Clark and their gang of explorers 200 years ago. And this is our final year and our final destination is right here. We've worked our way back from the ocean to Saint Louis and this will actually be the final stop. for Core discovery 2. You are hearing the Tent of Many Voices and the Tent of Many Voicesis exactly that it's a place for people of many different
0:51 backgrounds to come and share their experiences. Talk to you about Lewis and Clark's and the subsequent impact of the expedition. So what I'd like to do now is actually welcome our next presenter, Mr Keith Bear. He's from North Dakota. He's gonna play a little music for us. He's gonna talk to us about his culture as well today. Please help me welcome to the tenement voices, Keith Bear,
1:16 the scars,
1:18 this Ghana. Doja how
1:26 Konnichiwa
1:28 Ola. Good and talk. Oh yeah. Hello. OK. You guys are mostly English speakers. That helps a lot, right?
1:39 But I greet you first in my mother's language, the Mandan people. We are born into our mother's side of the family. We're matrilineal people on my mother's side. I my name is O-Mashiruta
1:51 This means a bright light that waves in the north sky in English. My name is Northern lights. And as you know, northern lights is only a reflection. So as you see me standing here telling these stories playing these songs just as I am, I am a reflection of my family. I'm a reflection of my clans. I'm a reflection of my people. I'm a reflection of North Dakota. And when I go overseas, I'm a reflection of many of you also
2:15 because they call me a native American. But when my grandfather, when I were younger, my grandfather was still walking this earth and they were bringing new grass called Kentucky grass to North Dakota. And he said this wasn't native and people were talking about native grasses, native things. I said, Kakalla, I said, what's, what's native grass? He says, like buffalo grass and foxtail, these things that grow here, like the buffalo and the eagle that are born here,
2:39 the trees and the butterflies that are born here. If you're born here, he said, then you're a native of this land. So I ask you my friends, where were you born? If you were born here in this country? You're as much a native American as I am. See, it's not the color of our skin. It's a birthright. It's something we should be very fortunate and lucky that we are born here in this land because my people began here. Some of your people came from a far away place.
3:05 Some of our relatives on the east welcomed them in their little wooden boat. But today that little wooden boat is made out of iron and steel and sails, rivers and seas. It's made out of tin and flies to the sky. It might even be aluminum foil flying around the moon. It might even be an inner tube still bringing pilgrims to this land and it's up to you and I the new native Americans to greet these people.
3:27 And when we greet each other, we greet each other with hugs at where I come from. I have an adopted daughter and my brother and sister here. And so as soon as I saw them, I greeted them, I have many friends around here when we see each other, we greet each other with hugs. I have a new friend and I greeted her with a hug too, but we spoke over the phone. So we have a connection you see at home when we think of someone that we
3:50 is dear to us, and we think about them, we send them a prayer, we care for them. We say that the meadow lark brings that song in the morning. And so when we hear a meadow lark, we think someone is thinking about us praying for us. And so we say our prayer and we offer our words back to that meadow lark and maybe he'll take them back to those people that we are thinking of. And so I'd like to begin the program with a song that I call the Meadow Lark song.
5:36 You see these flutes are made out of trees, limbs and branches. Sometimes a piece of a door, this particular flute would came from a, a, an old farmhouse in North Dakota. The cedar closet, the house was built and it was damaged after the family had moved out and it was falling apart. I went in there and I was looking around this old house to see what I could see.
6:00 And I saw this front piece hanging on the top of the door and the backside was hanging down the side of the door. And I took those two pieces and I put them together. It's that aromatic cedar smells really good. And so when we play these songs, when, when they, they open up doors in our minds and our hearts, when you hear the songs, you should express yourself. We go through a lot of doors in our lives. We open a lot of doors.
6:23 We can close a lot of doors. But we, as a people, we hardly ever had doors. Even in our Teepees, we had a flat in our earth lodges of the Mandan people. We had a buffalo height or something. We didn't have a solid door there. So when we opened those doors, we welcome everybody and we all welcomed Lewis and Clark 200 years ago as they came up that river because we'd heard about them coming.
6:48 We heard that there were men coming. They make a lot of noise and they did shooting their little cannons and making guns go off and they wanted to be known who they were. But we had heard about them through the Indian Telegraph mok and Telegraph told us who they were before they ever got there.
7:06 This song is a song that I want you to just think for just a moment. I don't know how good it's gonna be with this traffic here, but this is something we have to deal with. So I'd like to offer you this song that I call Spirit Journey.
7:26 Um This, this has a very soft voice. I'm afraid I can't use this one. This time. But these are like people, these flutes very much like human beings because each one of us has a voice. All of these flutes that I make, I use my hands to measure. And so when I take the wood, like this one was a fence post from a friend of mine up in Seattle, Washington and he was going to throw it away. And I said, hey, can I have that?
7:49 So he mailed it to me and I gave him one back and I sold two and I still have one and I got two more at the house yet I can sell too.
7:59 But see one man's trash is another man's treasure. You know, it's not the outside. That makes all the difference. The first one I created out of a flute. My three year old grandson brought it to me. He was dragging it across my living room rug. I'm like, oh grandson, gee, thank you to go get some cookies from grandma. You know, and I was gonna throw that, that ugly fence post away. But when I looked at it, you know, a few days later,
8:23 we have to remember that our Children are still closer to God than we are. They can remember things and see things that we don't. I saw an old ugly fence post with bird poop on the top and cracks on there and holes in it and you know what coyotes do on the bottom of fence post, you know. And so I was gonna throw it out, but I stopped for just one moment and I looked at that and I thought my grandson brought me this.
8:46 Maybe I should look in here because he didn't see the outside. He looked within. And so I cut that bottom part where the coyotes walk, I threw that away first, then I took off the top where the birds sit and then I took out the outside. I need a good solid piece of wood to make a flute. And so as I began to carve that to take that apart, I cut it in half and then I use my hands and my fingers to do the measuring.
9:10 And as I was working on this, I thought this is a lot like us as human beings. You see, sometimes we have scars too on the outside, just like that fence post did. It had been repaired. You could see several holes that were there. It had scars from where the wire rubbed on it where the horses and the cows fed and rubbed some of those fence posts, they fell down because they were weak within themselves.
9:32 But some of them like this fence post did his job every day in the wind, in the rain, the snow, the hot sun, maybe he wanted to be a boat and carry people down the river. Maybe he wanted to be a table to feed people. Maybe he wanted to be a weapon, a boat or arrow to feed people and protect families. But he was chosen, he was chosen to be a fence post to protect that, that grain from the horses and the cows to protect
9:55 those horses and cows from those people on the highway. Every day. He did his job when he got old, they were gonna throw him away. But one little boy did not look at the outside. He looked inside. And so then I made that flute as I made this one out of another fence post. I remembered my grandson. And so we must remember that our elders have some of the best stories,
10:18 some of the things that we have experienced in our lives, we need to pass on to our grandchildren because our ways the grandparents took care of those Children. And long ago when those people came from far and wide, we lived on the Missouri River for a very long time and we were the commerce center of America. Other tribes came to us from the mountains and the deserts and they came from the north and the south east and the west
10:40 and they brought things we didn't have in North Dakota and they would trade with our farmers for those goods and that medicine, they'd also bring their sons and daughters to help them as they travel, to help push the horses and cook and prepare the food. And so when they got there with their tall skinny boys. You ever see pictures of them prairie guys? They got high cheekbones. You know, those guys got rib bones sticking out too and knobby knees.
11:03 Well, that's how you would look too if you spend all your winters on that prairie in a little mobile home called the teepee. Shivering off your fat in those cold winters. You see, we're condominium people. We have earth lodges and it was nice and warm in those earth lodges. And so they wanted to be a part of our family. So those young men would come over and they'd visit,
11:25 they'd bring a gift for everybody in the lodge from the dog outside to the youngest, the women, the Children, the boys, the girls, the elders, everybody received a gift. And that young woman would let him sit on furs that she had prepared and give him food that she had grown and they would talk. All the family will try to know who this young man is because I want some young man who's gonna protect my daughter, feed my daughter, take care of her.
11:47 I want her daughter who can feed my son and I can and take care of that young man that she's with in a good woman way. And so these things are all done. And at the end of the evening, that young man would go out and he would take a flute and he would stand off to the side and some time ago, a young man loved the woman so much that he said all through the night I have dreamed of you
12:11 and all through the night, you have been my dream. I woke this morning and I sat upon the hill and I waited for you to bring sunlight into the day. As I sat here, I twisted sweet grass with the flowers that grow. When you step from your lodge and you stepped upon the earth, the sun began to shine, the birds began to sing. The butterflies begin to dance and my heart began to pound
12:32 as you walk towards me. I wanted to say good things to you. But my mind became a cloud. My tongue was so thick. I couldn't move it. When you looked into my eyes, I became lost. I looked at the earth and I raised my hand with that bracelet and you took this from me. And as you walk past, I said, there goes the light of my life. There goes the source of my desire. There goes the woman of my dreams and all through the night I have dreamed of you
12:56 and all through the night, I shall dream of you again.
13:12 Really?
13:38 Ok.
14:46 Please
14:51 excuse me.
14:59 Our Children are most important to us. And as we raise our Children, we raise them by giving them a lot of times to our grandfathers and grandmothers. As we go out and work, the men go out and hunt the women would take care of the gardens and they would take care of those lodges, those lodges that we had were as high as this and as round as this whole place round and the women built those, not the men,
15:23 all those horses that a man got in war, they belong to that woman. So if you were good to that woman, you could have two or three or four wives. But if you weren't good to them, they could get rid of you too.
15:36 You see, I would talk to the first wife and say this one is not getting along and they would say, yeah, we need to have her removed. And so the man would break the stick and throw it out, say someone can have her now. And if her husband was on the other side of the camp, if this young man grabbed her or her, his dad grabbed her, that would be his woman. Now, she didn't have time to make it over there. But then if that man displeased the women too and they
16:00 had enough sons and brothers to take care of them, they would take his things and set them outside the lodge and he can't even go back in that lodge. Now, see, she gets all of that stuff. That's even better than California. Huh? They only get half.
16:16 But if they're good to one another, then they will have Children. And those Children are sacred to us. As I said, and so when my wife was pregnant, I took one of my flutes and I raised it over my daughter's belly o over my mother's or her mother's belly. I said my baby, I said, give me a song and she gave me a beautiful song in a couple of days when she was about three months old, laying on the bed. I put this over my child again and I said, my baby,
16:41 you gave me a song now give me some words. And so my daughter, her name is Christina May, her Indian name is new earth woman, but I call her my bug. She's my honey bug. She's my stink bug. Sometimes she really does bug me, but that's my child. And so this is the song that I made for her, but she was just a baby and it sounds like this
17:48 bug is sleeping. Bug is sleeping. Grandma moon is smiling. Bug is sleeping. All the stars are shining when the sun comes out and the stars will run away. That's when my bug will be dancing. My heart will be singing all day. Bug is sleeping. Bug is sleeping
18:11 and my moon is smiling. Bug is sleeping. Bug is sleeping. All the stars are shining when the sun comes out and the stars will run away. That's when my bug will be dancing. My heart will be singing all day.
19:00 So we,
19:05 we teach our Children many things by what we say and what we do. And so we use a lot of our stories and our stories include all the animals, all the people see at one time, we could all speak the same language. And there was a time when coyote, he got up one morning and he was pretty hungry and he wanted to get something to eat. So he was going across the prairies and coyote, he saw a rabbit.
19:29 So he chased that rabbit this way and that way he was going back and forth and he finally caught that rabbit, but it was hot like this down here and that you ever have fur in your mouth? Oh, that's not terrible. So he had that rabbit fur in his mouth. Now he wants to drink water. So he goes down to the favorite water hole. But when he looks in there, there's another Kyle and he's got a rabbit too. He said, hey, what are you doing? He said, hey, what are you doing?
19:52 He said, are you making fun of me? He said, are you making fun of me? I'm not afraid of you. So I'm not afraid of you either. I'll fight you. He said, I'll fight you. And so he jumped in there and he's gonna beat up that other coot. But he splashed, he went right in that water and that rabbit got away. Boy. Was he lucky? Huh? Who is that? Kyle? Hollering at, he was hollering at himself.
20:15 You see, just like coyotes. We can be our own worst enemy sometimes. So we have to be careful what we do and what we say because coyote is still hungry now. And so he's walking along like, jeez, I had that rabbit. I should have just, oh, I should have just ate him, man. But, oh, I'm still hungry. He hears dancing on the other side. He hears chickens singing on the other side. Up on the prairies. We have prairie chickens in the spring. You ever see prairie chickens dance?
20:39 Those young men stick their big red chest out there to
20:44 and those girls put their feathers way back and say coo, coo and they're all looking and dancing at each other. And he said, oh, I'd like to have one of those. He said that would be really good. What can I do? He said he grabbed a flute and he started walking that way. I got an idea. He said, and so he sang the song like that. He would see um
21:09 this,
21:21 no. And all the prairie chickens heard him. They said that's a beautiful song. Brother. Can you share that with us? We can dance to that song. Uh You guys are just trying to steal my songs. He said, you better back away from me. This is a special song. But brother, we, we could share that song with you. We, we will share it with you. He said, well, if you stay back, don't get too close. I don't trust you birds. You're always trying to steal things from me.
21:44 But Kyle is the one I was trying to steal from everybody else. And so the birds made a big circle and he said, now this is the words for that song. So I need your help. OK. Here's, here's the word say tag.
21:58 I do molded
22:03 siaha
22:05 ha ha ha. All right. Now, it kind of sounds like this saga. A do mo it's ha ha. Ready. Say Zaga. I do more. It ha ha ha.
22:27 You guys are pitiful for cherry chickens. I tell you. Now see tr chicks, they like to dance, they like to sing. Now I need you to sing loud. OK. Ready a little bit louder. What if there was somebody down there by the mother tense? We want them to come over here and join the dance. So you know how it is when you holler at somebody pick your head up its gaga
22:46 ah do more. It's
22:50 oxy ha ha.
22:55 Uh Not bad. All right. What if your friend was like a little bit farther down there by the stairs? And you know how it is when he's way over there, you gotta close your eyes and really holler. All right, we got a lot of noise up here to compete with. So Come on. Pray chickens ready to go. Oh, do mo that's ha ha ha.
23:18 And while all those prairie chickens had their eyes closed, he went bunk, bunk bunk and he threw this one in the bag and went bunk bunk bunk. And he threw that one in the bag and one chicken opened her eyes and hey, my friends, we're all just run. He's taking our lives, run, run, run and all the chickens, they ran away. But that old coyote, he took some grass and some sticks and he weaved the bag and he put all them prairie chickens in there and he put it over his shoulder and he was walking home singing that song.
23:43 Zag A do Motive Oaks. Y ha ha. You know what he was singing, I'm gonna eat chicken tonight. Ha ha. So if somebody tells you to close your eyes, somebody, you know, you shouldn't trust, asks you to do something, you better keep your eyes open. And that's the K story here.
24:09 Pardon?
24:12 Ok. Um As we work together.
24:18 OK. How much time I got there? Wow. Oh, great, great, great. Back up from here. See,
24:29 I was taught how to make flutes by one of my relatives who is no longer walks the earth. One year later, he now walks on the other side. He passed away. So I'm very fortunate that I have this gift when I first received one. And when I watched as a young boy, I would watch my uncles take flutes and people would request them in the summer in the spring for special occasions to play a song for them. And so they were,
24:53 I would look at them to grandpa. Uncle, could I? No, no, no. These are medicines you can play with. These are medicines, the spirits of the soul. He said, so there's some other ones but these are medicine flutes. He said, so I always admired those things. When I was working in the oil field over in Wyoming. I saw a young man from Oklahoma take a pocket knife and a stick. And I watched him make a flute,
25:16 but I didn't know what he was making. I said, hey brother, you making a pipe? He said, no, no, this is a flute. I said, hey, you should let me have that. He, he said, oh no, I'm I'm gonna sell this to the museum. I said, brother, I don't wish you any bad luck but I hope it don't work out for you. I want that flute. I said, well, a few days later he came, yeah, your wish came true. He said he's kinda angry with me.
25:38 So I made him an offer. I said, how much were you gonna sell that for? And I offered him that money and then I offered him more money and some more money. He said, no, he said, so I brought over to his hotel room uh a blanket, a star quilt and I laid it on the hotel room floor. All the feathers and the shelves and the teeth and claws that had collected over the years I laid on that blanket because these are men who have given their lives to the people. These eagle feathers,
26:03 the plumes are the women and Children who give us strength and warmth. Those claws and those teeth are weapons that they use to protect and provide for their families. Those shelves even though are water beings. And so I respected them and I put them on that blanket, not on that dirty hotel room floor. I said brother to brother man, to man and to India. And I said this is the best I have to offer if you see something here that you like take that.
26:28 But when you're done, I said I would like to have that flute. So he sat there for a while and I had to kind of do the businessman thing, you know, I gave him some cans of encouragement
26:42 and soon he kind of got that way, you know, but he went over and he took six black tips which are very valuable, two golden and all feather and some two shells. And he took that blanket and he shook and all my things went flying and I was gonna be mad at him with.
26:57 But when he turned around that flute was laying on the floor and I looked at him and he said, you said I could have whatever I want. And I like this blanket too. He said, so I couldn't complain, could I? But I was very honored and happy to have that flute and I carried it and I show it to everybody. Hey, check this out. They said, hey, nice pipe. Let's smoke a bowl. I said, no, it's not like that. It's a flute. It's music. Well, play me a song. I
27:21 don't know how, but it sure looks nice.
27:24 You see, I went up on a hill and I changed my life because I wasn't proud of who I was. And I didn't want my Children to see me like that. So I made a choice and I gave up that time and I put three days and four nights upon the hill. When I came back, my life was changed and I lifted that flute and in the first few weeks, over the first week that I had it, I'd never played one before
27:50 and I tried
27:53 not too good is that? But if you blow on it, it's gonna scream at you. But if you listen, it will sing to you. And I began to listen to the flute. And the first song that came to me speaks of a warrior who was very powerful men bigger than me run from him. Women, I've seen screaming and running from him. But I have seen Children in their innocence reach out and touch this warrior he could hurt me, even kill me.
28:19 But if we look inside, there's good medicine that helps all of us. And so I wanna give you this very first song that I learned how to play. I'm gonna play it in my mother's language mandan. First, they speak slow and pretty, then I'm gonna speak in heat a little bit faster. And then I'm gonna share in the language that we share today. English. Maybe you've heard the story, maybe, you know the song and maybe you have some of his medicine at your home today.
28:42 But this is the very first song I taught myself how to play and it sounds like this.
30:14 Hm. Mhm.
30:18 You guys know that story? You know that song. How many of you men have been clean in the yard or barn or something? Oh, look out scared. You didn't it? How big are you? How big is that spider? Ah, don't laugh. Women. I've seen you dance. Whoa.
30:38 Yeah. But how many of you Children? And how many of us as Children have reached out and touched those spiders with our finger? Very bravely. Maybe with a, a piece of grass or a stick. Did you know that we can take those spiders and look inside of them and some of them have medicine for Children as their bones grow and stretch and their bodies ache. We mix it with a few things and it's better than Tylenol
31:00 for the woman at the time of the moon when you have the cramps and things, they take another spider, take part of him, mix it with a few things. It takes away that, that cramping and that pain. And we as elders have arthritis bursitis, we take another spider mix it with a few things. And that's arthritis medicine from a spider. How many of us have a dream catcher at home spider medicine? See,
31:24 so we still have that. And that has a beautiful song with all the sign language, right? You guys understand sign language? You ever see sign language? What is this?
31:35 We're out walking. What's this riding a horse? How about this?
31:41 All right. How about uh how about one of these
31:45 snake fish river? Yeah. How about like this bird butterfly? Yeah. How about this
31:54 ah field goal touchdown? Don't you guys watch sports? I said we still have sign language. You guys are kind of going a little too far back there.
32:05 I'll tell you what.
32:10 But if it wasn't for our women that we were born into the clan, if it wasn't for the woman who gives us life, if it wasn't for those that we love and respect, we would not be here today in Chicago. W she lived among our people. She was taken from her family and brought to our home, given to one of our chiefs chief bullseye, who's my clan relative. So I have a little claim to her as an adopted auntie.
32:35 You see when those men came up there, that river, we heard the story about them coming. There was a man with hair like a fox and skin like buffalo milk. You could almost see through it. You ever noticed those redheads are like that, huh? Yeah. And then they had a man who was part buffalo, he was black, he had hair like a buffalo and strong like a buffalo. We trapped him and we thought he painted on there, but that's how he was. And so we gave him women.
32:59 We made him one of our relatives, what a great honor to have him. And some of those young men in that journey as they came up, they were half white and half black and half white and half Indian. And we thought the whole crew kind of half off, you know, who would dare go into enemy territory. Very brave young men. But you see some of those boys that were half Indian were some of our relatives because some of our relatives already traded with them.
33:24 They were living down here, some of them had relatives, they were living up there. So we invited them to our homes. It was good to see relatives. That's not reading it in the book. Is it? So these things we want to remember. You see, without that woman who gave life to those young men, this country would have never been opened without the mother of Thomas Jefferson. That decision would have never been made
33:47 without the woman. We are nothing. And so I made this song for my wife and this song is called, I'm coming home and it sounds like I'm, I'm playing it on a flute that my daughter made when she was nine years old. How old are you? Huh? Eight le Well, you guys can make flutes. How old are you? See my, my,
34:11 she was five when she made her first one. Her sister was only three. When she made her first one. You see, if you take your time and you spend time with your Children, they can do beautiful things. And so this is a song my daughter made this when she was nine years old. She's 17 now and she plays lots of instruments and I can't read music. But I've had the opportunity and the honor to play with the Saint
34:35 Louis orchestra and the national symphony and record the Saint Paul chamber orchestra. I can't read a note I can hear. So I've had a great honor. But then you go to a symphony people and you take away their paper, some of them can't play. So we're even,
34:54 but this is a song that I made for my wife and the songs like this.
36:34 The day we a hero.
36:39 I'm coming home. Ha ya. When I get there, I hope that you'll be waiting for me. Honey. Wait,
36:49 wait. Oh, ya head when I get home we'll be singing, we'll be dancing. We'll make love all night long. Wait. Hey, yah. Head o when I get home we'll be singing. We'll be dancing. We'll make love all night long. Wait,
37:09 wait. Oh, ya, he was, we don't, you know that I love you a ya hero. Oh, my woman don't, you know that I love you. A ya, he, we, he,
37:24 we had a hero.
38:22 Yeah,
38:29 I want to thank you all very much for coming out and enjoying this beautiful occasion that we have on this wonderful day that God has given us as we go. I want you to remember that you are as much native as I am. If you were born in this land, you are a native American and we need to respect one another as a people, as a country and as a nation because we as natives that lived here first,
38:52 we welcomed all those that came to our shores, that little wooden boat that brought some of your ancestors. It never did sink. Like I said now it's iron and steel and tin and tin foil as you leave here and you meet someone else. Look at the outside and remember, are we any different? How many legs do you have? The same as I, how many arms do you have?
39:16 The same as a black man? How many eyes do you have? The same as an Asian? How many hearts do you have? The same as mother? Earth and all of our relatives that walk that crawl, that swim, that fly. We too have one heart. And so we need to learn how to walk in harmony and live in harmony. Anybody can point. But we still have people coming from far and wide to this great country
39:41 to have the things that we have and enjoy today. So when you see someone different, remember their difficult times and teach them by opening your hand and welcome them and teach them how to walk in harmony. And so this is the last song I wanna give you and I wanna thank you very much for taking time out of your life. And thank you Children for bringing your parents and your grandparents here. That was very kind of you to do that.
40:03 It's good to see my daughter, my brother. It's good to see my, my new friends and my old friends. And so I wanna say Maz Gas from the man, then the out the people, the Rira people of North Dakota. Thank you very much. And may we all walk in harmony?
41:07 OK.
41:29 Yeah.
41:33 OK. Yes.
43:04 Thank you.
43:07 Anybody have any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you.
43:17 Thank you very much.
43:22 Anybody have any questions. I have a microphone. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand. We do have time for a couple of questions and I'll bring the microphone to you.
43:35 I make it easy.
43:37 How do you learn how to make one. How did I learn? How does anyone learn? How can I learn? Um Give me a call, come and visit. The best way is to come and visit, we can sit and I'll, I'll show you how to hand carve them. And then uh at the end of that, if you want to mass produce them, I could show you how to do that too. But um II I much prefer hand carving the flutes. It takes about a week to learn
44:01 and I give you the stories and songs. And so there's a process to it.
44:07 Anybody else have a question. You have a business card or you would like to know if you have a business card, a business card, no pockets.
44:19 But um we can talk if you got a pen and paper.
44:24 Yes.
44:28 Excuse me.
44:31 Tell us about the last flute that you played. Um This flute was given to me by um Lee Johnson. He's a magazine editor of uh a flute players magazine. Um I'd only seen one before. I have one that I traded for in Bitter Valley. I call this my shotgun. And uh when I play this, I think of two men or men singing at a drum.
44:57 Yeah.
45:00 And so when I received this one, it took me about a year to get my first song. I couldn't bring that third flute in there. I could play two and I could play two. But then one day we're at drum practice. And uh, we, we were singing and my daughter and my granddaughters came up the stairs and in the stairwell, I heard them singing. And so I said, go down there and do that again. And so when they stood in the stairwell, you know how that has that echo there,
45:24 I heard this. And so now when I play this flute, I play the men sing on the top. I start with one singer as we always do with the drum, the men join in and then we add the women, the women sing behind. So when I play this song, uh I think of the women in the third voice. And so I have about five songs now and I've had this for six years. Um So it's kind of difficult to, to, to make a song for this.
45:47 But uh it is very, very pretty. I, I really like this too. Thank you. Any other questions, Maz Gudas. Thank you very much for coming. Oh, I got time for one more question. How long have you been doing this now? With this? Oh, sometimes this long and sometimes that long. How, how long have you been playing the fl um I, I taught myself in 1994 92
46:11 and in 94 I had my first recording and I've been nominated for Grammy and won an Emmy and got to be in some movies and all because of a little piece of wood. So, you know, if you think you can't sing, if you think you can't play, I didn't think I could either. You just got to listen. You know, and, and thank the Godfather, grandfather creator for the gift and I do that every day. Thank you very much. How about another hand for Mr Keith Baer?
46:44 It's always a pleasure to have Keith here in the 10 of many voices. I'd also like to encourage everyone to come back for our next program at the top of the hour one o'clock, Ed Shirley is going to present Beaver bison and bears. So please come back and join us for that program as well. Thank you folks.

Tent of Many Voices

Keith Bear: Mandan Culture, Flutes, and Native Identity

Keith Bear

Mandan

51:37

Search the Database

Keith Bear: Mandan Culture, Flutes, and Native Identity

Our Partners

More Voices

Our Partners