Native American; Carlos Nakai

Carlos Nakai

         Carlos is a Native American flutist and has earned many awards. He has been nominated for 11 Grammys according to R. Carlos Nakai's website.  He also has received a platinum award and has sold millions of copies of his music. His career started when he was given a wooden flute when he was younger and began to learn. He then continued to improve playing his flute and learned about his culture. In an interview, Carlos said he attended Arizona state college and wanted to go to prestigious musical colleges, but had an injury on his lip so he couldn't play as well. Although he had this injury he has been very successful for sharing his heritage. He enjoys nature and is inspired by it and uses it with a lot of the songs he has played. Even one of his albums, "Sanctuary", was inspired by him walking around his summer home near his Ute ancestors, according to Indian Country. 

         He has made his music to keep his heritage and cultures in the world. In one of his interviews he said, “My elders have always told me that I’m one of the last of my cultural community."  He wants to continue to share where he came from and keep their traditions and cultures alive. Carlos also shares his music because the traditions are not being passed on, “We are not teaching our language and we are not encouraging young people to go to ceremonies and different intra-tribal things within their own tribal community." Playing his music accomplishes sharing the concepts he wants people to know about. He also mentioned in this interview that people tell their children to go learn about their heritage from books and things instead of coming from their own community. He strongly believes that people should learn from the physical evidence of their culture like he did. He continues to share his music to people to help them understand what Native American culture is like.