"I love my flute (which is no surprise to you of course) and I can’t wait to be able to purchase another one from you. Thank you Ken there’s no doubt you are gifted and it stands to reason why R. Carlos Nakai uses your flutes in order for him to get out the beautiful voice that you hear in his music they both are a complement to each other and I am glad that I’m part of your inner circle of being an owner of one of your flutes. Thank you so much for the beautiful voice that comes out of my flute and hope that I can soon, purchase another one". -J.O.
Original Dan Red Buffalo flute from the Dr. Richard Payne collection (circa about 1890). Photo credit Robert Gatliff
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DRB Lakota Courting Flute Replicas
Authentic A-minor 5-hole tuning
24" long with 1" bore
These five-hole cedar flutes are museum-quality interpretations of historic instruments from the late 1800's work of Lakota master flutemaker, Daniel Red Buffalo a.k.a. Lefthand Bull (see photo at the bottom of the page).
The flute that started it all for Ken was Tony Shearer's "Lady", one of DRB's old courting flutes that was passed to him by his grandfather, Harry Flying Horse. Told that he was the only person that Tony had allowed to study his grandfather's flute, Ken began his first explorations in flute making trying to reproduce the magical voice heard coming from this incredible old flute.
Ken's research to date has found only six other surviving examples of DRB's work. Here is the 30-year evolution of Ken's flute making and Penny's paints to emulate the look and sound of these great old instruments. These flutes feature characteristic front tuning slots and the contemporary version is available with your choice of bird and animal effigy block designs.