By Lyn Hacker
NKyTribune Contributor
Two days of perfect weather are not the only things to look forward to this weekend. If you’ve ever been curious about Native Americans, flute music, hearing the drum, seeing Native dancers, or eating authentic Navajo food, the time has come. Welcome once again to the Native Dawn Flute Gathering, happening free, this weekend, Aug 1 and 2nd, in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
This festival, the brainchild of Fred and Angie Nez-Keams, is a celebration of the Native American flute. Different from a pow-wow, with its own set of rules, customs and traditions, Nez-Keams said he hosts this festival to share with, and educate the public, about Native Americans. He feels there are many mistaken assumptions about Natives, and by putting on this festival, “maybe people will be curious, and come, and let their knowledge of us grow.”
“We hope that the festival people will come together and have a better understanding of each other, better acceptance and we can all get along,” Nez-Keams said. “It is okay to be yourself. It’s okay for others to be themselves, and that’s what makes it beautiful. We’re not all the same. Music is so powerful. When there are no words, there’s music and when you can’t communicate, you can communicate through music. The drum is the heartbeat and the dance is your prayer.”
A flute maker himself, Nez-Keams feels his education in becoming a flute maker has brought him into a better awareness of life and his place in it. “We are losing our language and traditions,” he said at the last festival. “I see the Native American flute as a way to bring back awareness for the Native Americans to others. Native flute music goes down to the bone,” he explained. “It is made from the trees. You breathe the trees that give us the air when you play the flute.” He, himself, prefers the Kentucky cedars for making his own flutes, citing special properties of tone in the wood.
Flutes have been found in all cultures for generations. One flute, found in Northern France in 2008, was dated as being about 35,000 to 40,000 years old. Made of every kind of material from bamboo to metal, flutes were one of the first musical instruments ever made, second to drums and rattles. Over this time, music has been an integral part of human communication, taking precedence over reading and writing, which only happened around 3500 years ago, and which, in some cultures, is still restricted to certain people.
Native American flutes and classical European flutes and recorders are very different, especially in design and tone. The former is made by flute makers who create them from their own, deeply individual designs and orientation, as opposed to a general rule and form. This flute community produces a great variation in design. According to Flutopedia, an encyclopedia for the Native American flute, it “continues the tradition of innovation and creativity in the craft.”
There are three major differences between the two types of flutes, according to the article — first, the range on a Native flute is generally limited to one octave plus a few notes in the second octave; second, fingerings vary between different makers, or even between flutes from the same maker; and third, voicing (timbre) varies widely between flutes, with no generally “best” sound.
R. Carlos Nakai, one of our country’s premier Native flute players, said the use of the native flute by indigenous North American people can be traced back over 2,500 years through oral traditions and pictographs. Nakai wrote in his book, The Art Of The Native American Flute, “because of the official oppression of the Native culture in America’s early years, the use of the flute was lost by many tribes.”
Made of crafts persons of varied tribal backgrounds, these individually crafted instruments each have (their) own idiosyncrasies. Each is unique depending upon choices of the individual maker. Many problems of discerning pitch, pitch range, fingering patterns, embouchure (how to blow into the flute), etc., beset me as I attempted to develop a technique that would adequately
An exciting schedule is in place for the festival. The Red Circle Singers will be back again, as well as the Azteca Dancers, and twenty individual singers. Leading the drum band is elder Ross Davidson, who turned 77 this past January. The different types of dances include a hoop dance, a ladies’ traditional dance, a round dance (or friendship dance), an Apache crown dance (danced by Nez-Keams himself), and an all traditional dance. Some dances are open to audience participation. There will be vendors on site, as well as authentic Navajo food. Most of the performers are vendors, and they will be selling their handcrafted items, including flutes and CDs during the festival.
The festival will start at 8 Saturday morning, with the Blessing Of The Grounds. The Ohio Valley Warrior Veterans Society color guard, led by Mike Dunn, will post the colors at 10:20 again this year. Nez-Keams invites all vets, active duty, or loved ones to come out and join in this dance and ceremony. It will be both on Saturday at 8 a.m., and Sunday at 10 a.m.
Performers on Saturday are Kevin Murphy, Ky, Dan Ward, Ky., Grady Jones, TN., David Targenza, MI, Emerson Begay, NM, Duane Deemer, TN, John & Karen Keane, AR, Tim Corbin, OH, Kevin Lui, Shandong, China, Matthew Thoma, OH, Joseph Whitefeather and Michael Schul, Oh, Tim Nevaquaya, OK. Performers on Sunday are Dave Fallis, KY, Seth Andress, TN, George Dyson, MS, Freichs Littlefastelk, IL, Robert Mullinax, KY and John Deboer, OH.
The festival will be held August 1st and 2nd, on The Green in Lawrenceburg. The actual address of the festival is The Green at Woodford Street and Township Square, Lawrenceburg, Ky 40342. From Frankfort, go south on 127. At the light after the Wal Mart, turn left and the festival is one block before Main Street. Lawrenceburg is south of Frankfort and I-64, north of the Bluegrass Parkway and just west of Versailles.
For more information, please call 502-600-1895/0024, or email yellowknifeflutes@gmail.com.