At age 18, Charlie decided to travel around the Pow-
Wow circuit with relatives and learn more about his
people’s music and customs. One of his cousins was
very skilled at flute making and took Charlie on as his
apprentice for the next 2 years teaching him other
things such as traditional crafts and knife making.
After only a few years of making Native American flutes,
Charlie had already become a very in-demand flute
player. He has performed at numerous pow-wows,
gatherings, public events, colleges, military facilities,
festivals, and fund-raisers and has even been a
featured artist on P.R.I. He stands alone in the
celebrated names of Native American flute players as a
youthful and aggressive, calm and mature flutist. Many
people have shared in the peace of his tranquil music
and personality, which makes him easy to work with.

Today, Charlie and his family spend much of their time teaching others the
beauty of Native American culture and helping their people overcome the
poverty and indignities set upon them from the beginning of the “Columbian-
era”. There are many youth classes that they attend at schools, sharing with the
children ideas of old ways of life, traditions and even the process of flute
making.

Charlie has now been playing the traditional Native American Flute(s) for well
over 16 years. For the past 6 years he and his wife Jessie have been digitally
recording his flute music in natural-environments as well as in their home studio.
Charlie’s feel for mechanics as well as sound has helped in their studio’s
creation and also in the seamless-complexity and beauty of the music that
comes from it. Recording and performing are ambitions from early on in his life
that actually existed before his flute playing. Writing plays as early as the
second grade and starring in them clued his teachers and family to his many
talents. These abilities and many others show off so well as melodies breath-
takingly integrate with both other  sounds along with environments both created
and natural. The full experience of Charlie’s music is greatly enjoyable
throughout all of his recordings.

In September of 2000 he had his first non-exclusive contract with the company
NorthSound Music Group, a relaxing/natural-music record company that
produced cd’s with such sounds as wolves howling and thunderstorm
movement across the plains. Their displays once were known to be the only few
of their kind, and could be heard as you walked through the Target department
stores.
Of the 4 recordings that he contracted with NMG, 2, Peace Seeker and Lakota
Legends, were of the first of their kind in Wal-Mart stores across the U.S.
Another album was sold at Shoppe Co., as well through catalogue sales. The
Wal-Mart contract moved many of his albums to Native American music-
consumers all over the country and was one of the top selling albums of its type.

When asked about any future of his music business, Charlie replies: “of my
endeavors in this world, there are no beginnings or endings, just a lot of very
timely and sometimes difficult work.” This is very true of his dedication and
endurance within the industry. And he patiently seeks other artists and record
labels with which to work.