((PKG)) BEAR DANCE CHIEF -- ALDEAN KETCHUM
((Banner: Beneath the Shadows of Bears Ears))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martínez))
((Dance footage: Angelo Baca))
((Map: Bears Ears, Utah))
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
I am Aldean Ketchum and I'm a traditional artist and storyteller. I have been a Bear Dance Chief for over 20 years now and it's a job that those that accept it have a responsibility to provide their songs, which are healing songs that the Ute people have been doing for many generations.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
I play for different circumstances like weddings or birthday parties or whatever the occasion may be, I play that role.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The flute is a healing instrument that my grandfather said that heals all living things from the tiniest bug to biggest animal and that's the unique thing about the flute, I think, how it played an important role in keeping everything in balance.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
My inspiration I get for my music is from the animals. I incorporate a lot of their songs and sounds that they make. So, when I go out and play my music, it attracts all kinds of animals.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
There goes the hawk.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The animals were important part of our culture. We didn't worship any of them, in that way. We honoured them in our dances and songs.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
My band I belong to, we're probably in the three hundreds right now. So, we are part of the Ute Band of Weeminuche that live in this area, the Four Corners Band, and that's where my people had lived for thousands of years until we were invaded.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
But we still exist here and that's where I grew up as a kid.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
Once we had dirt roads here. Now we have a highway and asphalt. When people look at San Juan County, you know, they don't think no native people exist here still, but if you look closely, we're still on the map.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The music part of it is important to help us preserve our songs and our stories, in that perspective.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
This bag is one that my wife Wanda made me. So, she made this for me to keep all my flutes in. So, as an artist I learned to create with my hands and I learned how to make the flute from my grandfather, and he showed me a technique of taking from a live living tree without destroying it, like from the cedar, traditional cedar wood, and the tree would heal itself and you work with it to give it a voice, so to speak. So, this is the one that I made for my little friend, the red tail hawk I raised. My grandfather gave me the name of Panáqasarüqqwánaći-ci, meaning the Red Tail Hawk - Lightning Hawk, so I use it in my performance name as well. And this one here is made out of the river cane, which is a plant that is grown right out my yard here, the bamboo of the United States they call it.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
And then I have another here that's made out of Birdseye maple tree. This is what the bull elk would sound like during the rutting season.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
This is the flute I played at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and this is the song they had us play called We Are The People.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
So my flutes are unique in a way of custom made and I still use raw materials and it seems like everyone wants to be a flute maker these days. So, they mass produce them and sell them in vast quantities that, with teachings of my grandfather's traditional values that restricted me from that of mass producing my flutes, enables it to make it difficult for me to make a decent living nowadays.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
This one here is the bear dance rasp. You can see a carving of the bear here.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
It has a different sound. You can really hear the bear growling here.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
It's a unique way of living our people have, and through songs and dances, I think, we only become stronger and pass it on to the younger generation to help them understand who they are and where they stand in the world.
((NATS))
