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Handcrafted flutes stolen
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APACHE, Okla. (AP) – The son of a renowned Native American artist is hoping a set of handcrafted flutes that were stolen from him are returned.
Tim Tate Nevaquaya awoke Friday morning to find his home in Apache had been vandalized and five flutes he had placed in his vehicle gone.
“When I found out they took these flutes, it’s just really upsetting,” Nevaquaya said. “They were really special instruments.”
The stolen flutes include a distinctive white pine flute Nevaquaya and his wife made while on a trip to Florida, which he said “really means a lot to me.”
Nevaquaya valued his four missing flutes at about $1,100 and one belonging to his brother, Calvert, at $1,000.
“That was his pride and joy,” Nevaquaya said of the flute, which his brother played during concert performances. “That was something he never wanted to give up.”
The Nevaquayas are two of the four sons of Doc Tate Nevaquaya, a Comanche flutist who is considered one of the great Native American artists of his generation. He was named an Oklahoma Treasure by the Governor’s Arts Award in 1995. Doc Nevaquaya died the following year.
The brothers have carried on the flute-playing tradition and were slated to provide music for the Comanche Elders Day program in Lawton on Friday.
They have gotten instruments to perform with, but there are certain subtleties in tone and texture that separate a concert-quality flute from a standard creation, Tim Nevaquaya said.
He plans to start working on making new, performance-worthy flutes, but creating one takes “a good three days of labor,” Tim Nevaquaya said.
After the initial carving of the wood, an intricate process of refinement and tuning occurs before a flute moves from a mere musical tool to an instrument of sonic beauty, he said.
“It's a slow process to get a flute to its finest performance level,” Tim Nevaquaya said. “I just hope they will be returned.”
Written by .
APACHE, Okla. (AP) – The son of a renowned Native American artist is hoping a set of handcrafted flutes that were stolen from him are returned.
Tim Tate Nevaquaya awoke Friday morning to find his home in Apache had been vandalized and five flutes he had placed in his vehicle gone.
“When I found out they took these flutes, it’s just really upsetting,” Nevaquaya said. “They were really special instruments.”
The stolen flutes include a distinctive white pine flute Nevaquaya and his wife made while on a trip to Florida, which he said “really means a lot to me.”
Nevaquaya valued his four missing flutes at about $1,100 and one belonging to his brother, Calvert, at $1,000.
“That was his pride and joy,” Nevaquaya said of the flute, which his brother played during concert performances. “That was something he never wanted to give up.”
The Nevaquayas are two of the four sons of Doc Tate Nevaquaya, a Comanche flutist who is considered one of the great Native American artists of his generation. He was named an Oklahoma Treasure by the Governor’s Arts Award in 1995. Doc Nevaquaya died the following year.
The brothers have carried on the flute-playing tradition and were slated to provide music for the Comanche Elders Day program in Lawton on Friday.
They have gotten instruments to perform with, but there are certain subtleties in tone and texture that separate a concert-quality flute from a standard creation, Tim Nevaquaya said.
He plans to start working on making new, performance-worthy flutes, but creating one takes “a good three days of labor,” Tim Nevaquaya said.
After the initial carving of the wood, an intricate process of refinement and tuning occurs before a flute moves from a mere musical tool to an instrument of sonic beauty, he said.
“It's a slow process to get a flute to its finest performance level,” Tim Nevaquaya said. “I just hope they will be returned.”
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