Michael Searching Bear

Michael is a full-time musician, recording artist and educator, as well as a full-time wood flute maker. He travels and educates about Native American culture and heritage through music throughout the country. He teaches and performs in a variety of arenas from historical societies, business corporate meetings, Indigenous arts organizations, festivals, theaters and colleges to day care centers, K-12 schools and national events. Michael is proud to be a member of the Eastern Cherokee tribe and of Powhatan ancestry

2019 Stream No. 039 G

The flute has a warble sound. Michael burns the holes in the flute instead of drilling them. The contemporary Native American flute does not sound like the native flutes of the distant past. The flutes are refined by modern options. They are tuned to certain scales. Their timbre has changed And they have lost their ability to warble.

A number of recordings featuring the warble can be found on the web, such as the Belo Cozad recording at https://www.themathesontrust.org/library/the-kiowa-story-of-the-fluteBelo Cozad (1864–1950), a legendary flute player of Kiowa, explains in this recording (before the portion presented here) how the wooden flute song he plays was obtained from an ancestor who learned it from a spirit. The Kiowa are a tribe from Northwestern America.