The History of the Native American Flute - What is the REAL truth?

[@ksen8-m6e]

Great video. Do you have any suggested readings for learning more about NAF history or readings that cover some of what you talk about?

[@willowstream]

What can you say about the seven hole Lakota flute collected in 1823 by the Italian explorer Beltrami which currently resides in the Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali (Civic Museum of Natural Science) in Bergamo, in Northern Italy? Also, I'd like to read more about the 3000 year old North American flutes you mentioned. because the oldest flutes I've been able to read about are the Broken Flute Cave Pueblo (Anasazi) flutes. Can you give me a reading list. Thanks!

[@stephenhill6003]

You might find this of interest: The L'Anse Amour Flute page - www.flutopedia.com/lanse_amour.htm It refers to a flute thought to from about 5255 BCE.

[@ksen8-m6e]

I’d like a reading list for NAF history too

[@YamaKinoko]

Charlie, you and I are walking a similar path. I have been watching your videos since 2010 when I began making penny whistles. It's now 9 years later and listening to your philosophy; the little nuggets of gold you share open-handed in your current videos are in parallel with my current conversations with mother on how to offer similar wisdom in a form that can be appropriately received without attaching to the pattern of "knowing". By the time I had purchased your book, you had already freely shared all of the information I needed and I had already made a handful of flutes in a range of keys. I bought your book, not for your secrets but in support of your work for this world and all of the others(The physical book is worth every penny and more by the way. Your approach of being is precious and I wanted to acknowledge that. I see the effort you put into your videos to pass on mothers wisdom untainted. Thank you! Now the beauty is that your epistemology is universal, so no matter how you mince your words they come out with the pure intention of love. So refreshing in this current dream. Thank you so much! I hope to one day to be able to share a song and a meal round the same campfire as you but in the meantime, I have many fires to visit. Cheers!

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Thank you my friend. Although you and I are only a small stain on the fabric of time, perhaps we can affect a positive light on a few. Though it is not enough to persuade their forthgiving or to inspire their kindness, maybe it is enough to stave off the darkness for a short time more. One day my friend. Take care and stay lit. And thank you again.

[@KenneyCmusic]

Hi, Do you sell your penny whistles?

[@denisseavila9083]

Thank you for this video on the truth, my friend! 😊 The bottle is always overflowing. 😁 I came here to explore more about this because for years, in the very early morning hours, after midnight and on, especially on weekends, I can hear a distant neighbor playing a Native American flute, behind my house, in my neighborhood, here in inner-city Tucson, AZ. It is beautiful! I think that is so awesome to have someone still keeping this culture alive in my community! Hopefully, whoever that is, he passes it on to children to learn. I say "he" because it is more often than not that it is men who play it. I grew up on the Navajo reservation (Dinétah) & remember elders coming into our classrooms to share their cultural knowledge. A man once told us they were played for medicinal purposes, healing, or to attract a future wife. My husband, who is a middle school Spanish Teacher, was once gifted a flute from his student from the Yaqui tribe, who stayed last after class on the last day of school, to take it out of his backpack, which was handmade by his grandfather! 😱😍 He insisted my husband to keep it, which he proudly places it on our shelf, till this day. Keep up the great work - I can tell you like what you do, which is important!

[@nvdawahyaify]

Osiyo, my friend. I greatly enjoyed your video, as I always do. I love the way that you shared the truth about the bottle being, in fact, completely full. I have tried to tell people that for years, but usually I'm told that im stupid or crazy. Im not either, im autistic, but you sharing that helped me realize that I am not alone in the way I see things. Wado very much my friend.

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Reminds me of one of my favorite new songs: Upside Down by Paloma Faith. You're welcome my friend. (Check out the song, it's one of the best!)

[@michaelkane2470]

Hey,I’m Michael,I live in Saint Augustine Fl.I bought one of your Native American Flutes last yr.Im half Choctaw.Love your videos.

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Thanks Michael! Thanks for watching and remembering us my friend!

[@Julian-bq9qv]

WOW ! The bottle example is truly pure Zen. The bottle IS full.. yet there IS no spoon! ( movie ref)

[@BlueBearFlutes]

I used a variation of "there is no spoon" in a reply on KZbin the other day! Very true words!

[@varieamcgarrah7953]

Nothing like the verve, it really is a bitter sweet symphony.

[@ChrisLeeW00]

Pentatonic scales are ancient and seen across many, maybe all cultures throughout the world. Don't fall for whitewashing history!

[@gregsettle9725]

Good video, again! Many, most people want a particular history to been wrapped in a neat little package that can be read and learned in one sitting. As you stated if you're interested in learning the "real truth" you should study all the history you can find and then make up your own mind about it.

[@denisseavila9083]

Yes, I agree about not just the studying of other cultures to learn more, but to actually live with them, as our friend said in the video, "To walk a thousand miles in their moccassins." So true!

[@markdemian5547]

WHATS THE AVERAGE LENGTH OF A SONG. AND DO YOU PLAY A CHORUS OR JUST VERSES? ..TY

[@BlueBearFlutes]

That is a great question! There are a number of answers, and I want to give you as many as I can think of to help out. Historically, most songs were probably about a minute long. Although today people prefer longer music. Just like typical pop culture music, most flute music will be about 2 to 4 minutes long. Of course some being longer and some being shorter. Historically also, the idea of peas, chorus, versus and so on are not something that was necessarily considered in the native community. Add having been said most native music existed in four-part "rounds" and the small amount of flute music which has survived are very similar. Oftentimes there are parts you can call a chorus, although they're not necessarily a part of the song.

[@markdemian5547]

@@BlueBearFlutes thx bbf , I get the 4 part round and round and around.... I just cant remember my round.....to repeat .. I'm old

[@soonermodels1173]

Love that backround

[@BlueBearFlutes]

@@soonermodels1173 Thanks! It's one of our ponds. 🙂

[@koobo100]

This like all your other videos was well worth watching thank you my freind for your time and wisdom.

[@ivanrowe2880]

As a child I can remember learning about this lesson and waiting for dads friends to leave... Dad it is both half, empty and half full, doesn't the view change depending bin the situation?

[@KheglenAnn]

Thank you for your intelligence. My husband is OjiCree and he always tells that it is impossible to even imagine how his people was thinking . You see, when he came live with me here, in Switzerland, he had 1000 venues to play the "shaman" (and that word in a Tungus name and guys seach for yourselves what it REALLY meant) an d we could have made money on "it" instead of us working like dummies in security jobs. All these pretended "Wise/Medicine men" are liars, and, just to tell, among the Ojibway by exemple you would never pass on any knowledge completely, like by exemple you would pass 3/4 of a recepit of a medicine and leave 1/4 to the free individual to search and interpret. That's one of the reasons why so much knowledge is now lost, so all these pretencious liars (white and red, same globalised world) who pretend to "share" the "tradition" of "Mother Earth" are just posers. Anyway, thank you for your sincerity, I love flute - all flutes- and you are a great person. Anushka ps. Apologizes for my approximate English, I learned with a Savage ;-)) lol

[@philhicks2167]

Thank you very much for this video

[@charliechrist7537]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your videos thank you

[@BlueBearFlutes]

You bet my friend! There are many which only few people have seen on my channel and more on the way!

[@renegalvan6417]

Which of your flutes are you holding in this video?

[@BlueBearFlutes]

It's one that we no longer offer, it was made of carbonized poplar. I may have a piece or two of that wood laying around still. Please email me through my website if you have any other questions about it.

[@renegalvan6417]

@@BlueBearFlutes Ah...it's beautiful.

[@ronaldjacobs8169]

Dear Charlie, I have been following you for a very long time and I really like you and you are also the reason why I started to make whistles myself, actually you are not the reason because I wanted to be able to do this as a child, but you are the reason why I can do it now, make Native American flutes, and I would like to thank you very much for that. Having thus said this and this from the bottom of my heart, I have something for you and about your inquiry to seek the truth, and you say right now that the truth can sometimes even change? I see that a little differently and I will also be happy to explain why, because the glass likes to see half full and therefore show me optimist, or see the glass half empty and thereby show me pesimist? I prefer to just see a glass with a liquid in it and am therefore more realistic. In my opinion, dear Charie, truth is nothing but truth and every truth has to do with facts and facts arise from past events, and facts are events that nobody can change because nobody can travel back in time to meet facts change something, so it is not true that truth can change. So in order to find out what real truth is you have to go back in history, and if it is about the truth in history about the Native American flute, then you have to look there, and that, like an ariologist, as long as until you find the first Native American flute ever made, and this flute then represents the truth about the Native American flute in general. This is only my point of view but, but I still wanted to say it.

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Thanks for your post. It's always good to hear points of view from others, which is what has led me to where I am today. "Definitism" or as Yoda says, "Absolutes" are the path to the dark side. Confusion leads to anger and anger leads to hate, then hate to suffering. I believe that noone can know the truth, especially those who profess it because they may also be blind to it and profess from their impairments leading others into the same impairments. I wish you well my friend and hope that others reading this may benefit.

[@ronaldjacobs8169]

@@BlueBearFlutes I thank you my friend, my point is that whatever others write and claim and whatever you may read or hear is always written or told by someone, and this person is usually a person and people are good knowing that people make mistakes, yes, that making mistakes is even human. So whoever really wants to know the truth should not always be guided by book wisdom, but also by gaining life wisdom through his own experiences, so you can more easily distinguish lies from truth. If only my experience is, and yes, my experience is that I am also a person with my own mistakes, and you know what they say about self-knowledge? True, self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. But then again this is a Chinese saying. ;-) I used to say, if you're looking and you can't find during that long search, stop searching and it can be found. But that is about people who are looking for a partner and during their search they move away from their future partner without realizing it. However, the same goes for people who are lost because they are lost, and usually when they go looking for a saving way they move even further to the exit towards getting lost, instead of staying in one place until they are found. However, it does not count for Native American flutes or for events that are already over. It could, however, apply to history, because people say it for good reason: History sometimes repeats itself.

[@tomcartmill401]

WOW. You are going for the big time Charlie. We will see you teaching fillossoffy soon ( spelt wrong on purpose) . Ha ha ha Too hard for me, I just love full glasses. I still love your flutes and the effort you go to for us no joke there. Tom

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Thanks my friend! I haven't forgotten about you or your help either! soon...

[@eljoemissiletoe3438]

Dude I bought two cedar flutes off you guys yearrrrrrs ago and they have been the soundtrack for my family and our household, you must have the best friggin karma ever😅🤣😂!! Just found u on KZbin all these years later!WAKAN!!!

[@reviewsfitness]

BOHPOLI a Choctaw diety or Pan the Greek deity have a lot in common

[@BlueBearFlutes]

As well as so many others! So much we don't know about the old world.🙂👍

[@reviewsfitness]

@@BlueBearFlutes exactly I agree

[@og-greenmachine8623]

Sucks we have to ask for REAL truth 👉🏽About EVERYTHING Our whole lives were lies...

[@martialbernier3282]

So after watching this video. I have a few unpopular opinions that will get some back lash and feel free to enlighten me. 1. You are the whitest looking native I have ever seen, you have few of the genetic features we have your eyes are too round cheek bones aren't high or pronounced enough and your skin is a little to pink on your face. Nit saying your not some degree of native but definitely not a pure blooded one. 2. From my knowledge and experience I have never ever heard any of the tribes near me ever play flute music, it's mostly drum and alot of chanting. That's not to say there isn't flute music but I just haven't seen it and I've been around. My background for reference is Ojibwa, Cree. From the plains and bc area in Canada. It may have been more popular in the u.s tribes. Keep in mind I am using modern distinctions as the whole content was ours even tho we didn't view it like we owned it. 3. You didn't really give a history of flutes nor where there prominently found, you just talked about the amount of holes in most flutes which while interesting to some just bores me. Anyways still not a bad video. Would love to have a respectful chat about things. I meant no disrespect even thonit will appear that way. Feel free anyone to jump in and educate me politely.

[@BlueBearFlutes]

I have to admit, at 2 a.m. seeing this, my first thought was to block you and flag the comment as hate speech. Instead, although you are a shower in Spanish, I am going to entertain your request for a polite conversation - though the level of "politeness" that you extend to me inspired my checking out your KZbin channel which appears to be that of a troll. In fact, in my life I have never heard someone speak to a dog the same way that you are referring to me. That is to say, most never look at a dog and say "you don't look like a dog - where are your ears and tail". As a matter of fact, you're judging of me based on your limited knowledge or fairytale storybook lessons on what a native should look like if not guided by American cinema is reminiscent of the way slave buyers used to judge their purchases. Based on the language you use, English is likely your first language. It is amazing however because the amount of misspellings and poor punctuations are atrocious. They do indicate incredibly low intelligence. This brings me back around to the entire reason I wanted to leave your comment posted. It is sad in this world that people like you still exist to judge others based on what they've read in storybooks or that I don't look like Iron Eyes Cody or Burt Lancaster. And when you say that "for reference your background is Ojibwe Cree", what the hell does that mean? And you also comment that you were "nit (not?) saying I'm not some degree of Indian blood, just not a full-blood". At what point in this one video do I say "ug, me-um full blooded Indian"? Also, what the hell are those tribes chanting all the time? Is it like "Ohm Shanti" or something? Considering how often I have been attacked recently by THE non-native lap dogs of a certain undisclosed tribe, I imagine that is why you are so incredibly rude and attempt a week attack on my character. In closing, I would like to point out that if it weren't for the fact that you are so incredibly rude, I would have done the aforementioned block and report on this comment rather than reply because it is simply unfair (to you) for someone like myself to point out your great many flaws even if only the ones in your comment. I will leave you with powerful words of a great Chinese man: Confucius has said, “A wise man question himself, a fool, others.” ~Charlie Chan

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Just to be certain that I am educating you properly and my understanding of your "query" is correct, what you're saying is that I am not native although I am probably native, natives who live near you don't play the flute although they probably do, I bored you with my video but it's not too bad, I didn't give any history on the flute but I did, referring to the natives who live near you in an understood "they-type" language suggest that you yourself are not native although it is in your background, and you are quite politely being rude? Oh yeah, and you actually didn't ask a question. All I can say is "it's been real Riddler!"

[@martialbernier3282]

Wow, sorry it took me so long to reply. Your response was understandably rude whilst trying to be polite, but I appreciate it all the same. I do not have a youtube channel and I am not a troll. Sorry if it seems that way. I'm am in fact a pure blooded native american that has all of the distinct features I mentioned. Your comparison of dogs is funny because like dogs natives are the only people on earth who are judged native or not based on blood purity ie. How much native blood you have. In canada where I live there is s1, and s2 natives. S2 are at least 50% while s1 are pure bloods. I am an s1 native meaning I have two full native parents. We get these little cards that prove our staus as well. S1 natives are privey to a wide host of benifits from the government ie free schooling, tax breaks etc. I grew up being taught by elders and other members of my native community so my knowledge isn't some story book bs. As for the flutes I asked those in the community about them and they aren't common in my area bht definitely in other parts of the native community ie. The southeren U.S. English is my first language and I'll admit I am far to lazy to proof read a youtube comment hence the numerous errors and I tend to watch on my phone which also makes typing a nightmare sometimes. Again wanted to thank you for responding and engaging with me even when I can come across extremely arrogant. Wish you the best and lots of success in all that you choose to do.

[@BlueBearFlutes]

@martialbernier3282 you'll have to forgive my ability to Fight Fire with Fire. You are extremely arrogant and rude and a moron. I feel terrible that you can claim your Ancestors or Elders taught you anything. You do them a serious Injustice. (P😉😏) (Lt.-Col.?)

[@eljoemissiletoe3438]

Dude I bought two cedar flutes off you guys yearrrrrrs ago and they have been the soundtrack for my family and our household, you must have the best friggin karma ever😅🤣😂!! Just found u on KZbin all these years later!WAKAN!!!

[@BlueBearFlutes]

Thank you so much! It's good to hear from you 😁 Feel free to join our Facebook group @bluebearflutes.