There’s a feeling of peace in the air when Fred Nez Keams plays his Native American flute.
“It’s actually something very spiritual that was given to me from the creator. When I heard it, it just hit my soul deep down and it just stayed with me,” said Keams.
The 51-year-old Keams has short dark hair and wears a colorful beaded necklace. He sits in a chair in the green grass of his 10-acre farm in Mercer County, where he plays an impromptu song on one of the traditional flutes he’s crafted and carved with symbols representing his culture. Keams is from the Navajo Nation Tribe (Diné). He was born on a reservation in Arizona and grew up in New Mexico. Today he lives in Kentucky where he’s been playing and making Native American flutes consistently for nearly 20 years.
“Different tribes have different styles of flute. The ones I make are called the Woodland flute. The sound is actually built inside the block or in the flute. My traditional flute is called an Anasazi flute. It’s like a long tube with four holes in it. It’s actually a mating call instrument. Other tribes use it for ceremonials,” said Keams.
The Native American said he is on a mission to educate people about his heritage. The flute is one way he connects with the world.
On this day he plays a song he wrote called The Feather Song. He said it was inspired by a story told to him by a medicine man.
“One day I was curious about the feather on the tallest pole on the teepee and I asked the medicine man, I said, what’s the meaning of the eagle feather on the tallest poll and he was saying that all the blessings, all the singing, all the medicine, all the smoke that we throw on the fire it goes through the smoke hole on the teepee and the eagle feather catches it and it takes it up as far as it can to the heavens and when it can’t get any further anymore, the eagle, it lets the feather go and that’s how you get blessed with a feather,” explained Keams.
Keams has sold flutes to people from around the world in places like Germany, Australia, and Africa. It takes him about a week to craft a flute. He uses cedar wood and on a recent Thursday placed a piece on a table saw in his outdoor workshop to begin the process.
“I love cedar because cedar is a traditional wood we have back on the reservation that we use. And we use it for everything. We use it for firewood, we use it for cooking. We use it in ceremonials. We use it for instruments. We use it for our Navajo cradleboard for the newborns,” said Keams.
In 2020 Keams was commissioned to make flutes for Kentucky’s Governor’s Arts Awards. He was featured in the Kentucky Arts Council’s Native Reflections Art exhibit. He and his wife Angie who is also Native American give presentations about their culture in libraries and other venues. He refers to the flute music as good medicine.
“When I’m out there playing there’s somebody out there having depression, having a hard time and then they hear it and it just makes them so calm and forget whatever they were thinking or feeling. I say it’s good medicine because it helps a lot of people in certain ways,” reported Keams.
In 2010 Fred and Angie created the Native Dawn Flute Gathering. Angie said the event in Harrodsburg, Kentucky invites everyone to experience the beauty of Native American cultures through authentic song, dance, stories, and melodies of the Native American Flute. She said participants come from Oregon, Wisconsin, and Tennessee.
“So it’s a way to give people that normally don’t have an audience so they can share their music. But it’s also to plant seeds. We want to educate, share, give back, and say we are still here,” said Angie.
The couple will play music together at the gathering, Fred on the flute and Angie on an instrument called the hand pan which has been compared to a Caribbean Drum.
"At the end of the day what we say is that when there’s no words, a way to communicate is through art, and for us our art is music. So even if we didn’t speak the same language, we could still communicate through that,” said Angie.
Knowing that his music touches others means a lot to Fred.
“It just makes me feel good that I’m helping someone and I’m actually educating because you never know what that person is going through. And for them to hear the flute. You’ll see people in tears. Maybe they’re thinking about a loved one or hard times. That’s why I call it good medicine too,” said Fred.
The Native Dawn Flute Gathering is scheduled for May 24-26th at Old Fort Harrod State Park and is free and open to the public.
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Fred Nez Keams sits in a chair on his 10-acre farm and plays a song he wrote inspired by a story he was told by a medicine man.
Fred Nez Keams plays one of the Native American flutes he crafted at his farm in Mercer County.
It takes Fred about a week to craft a flute. He works in his outdoor workshop and uses cedar wood.
Fred and Angie Keams pose near several of Fred's Native American flutes. The couple is preparing for the Native Dawn Flute Gathering.
Angie Keams will play the hand pan while Fred plays the flute at the Native Dawn Flute Gathering. Angie said the couple is on a mission to educate, share and give back.
Fred Nez Keams holds a piece of wood that he is making into a flute. He's sold flutes to people in the U.S. and abroad.
