Red Ute was born on the Southern Ute Indian
Reservation in 1920. He belongs to both the Moache and Capote Bands of the Ute Nation. His interest in flutes began at age 7 or 8 when he was drawn to the captivating sound of the instruments that were being made by the Elders in his
tribe. During his childhood years, Red Ute would ride his horse along the Pine River in Southwest Colorado and listen to the young men playing their flutes
softly on the hilltops above.

Like most Native Americans of his generation, Red Ute was sent to boarding school in
Towaoc, Colorado and then to Albuquerque Indian School for high school, where he learned to play another woodwind instrument--the saxophone. It was from this experience that he would  later draw inspiration for the original mouthpiece design on his flutes.

In 1941, Red Ute married his first wife and volunteered for the United States Navy. He was sent to the South Pacific where he served as a motor machinist aboard an LCT landing craft in the Solomon Island Campaign.
At the end of WWII he returned to the reservation and began a family life. In 1952 he was traditionally chosen to lead the Taguwuni (Sun Dance) Ceremony, the most sacred dance of the Ute people, which is held each summer. Not long after he was also traditionally appointed Chief of the Southern Ute Bear Dance Ceremony, which is held each spring. In order to be chosen for such a role a Ute man had to be a song leader and recognized as such by the male Elders of the tribe.

In the mid-1950s Red Ute began his lifelong passion for flute making. He began work in a corner of his home with a piece of red cedar, a jack-knife, a saw and a few chisels. In the 1960s he converted his former trading post into a woodworking shop. At first, he made flutes for "give-aways," as it took him only one month to make a flute. Red Ute was elected to the Southern Ute Tribal Council in 1971 and served his people in this capacity until 1986.  After his retirement from tribal politics he was able to devote the majority of his time to flute-making, and he began selling his flutes. All were handchiselled on the inside and some had lead reeds, as can be seen in some Ute flutes from the 1800s. Examples of flutes made from this historical period are on view at the museum at Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado and the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose, Colorado. Early Pains Indian-style flutes have been credited to the Ute Nation in the areas of Utah and Colorado, though the exact history of their emergence is not known.

In 1990 Red Ute courted his second wife, Diane, who would become his companion and partner in Ute Indian Flutes. Diane still remembers the first time Red Ute played the flute for her at the Chief Ouray Day Celebration at Ute Park in Ignacio, Colorado. "All of the folding chairs had been taken away except the one I was sitting on. Red Ute came over and played his flute just for me. A Ute woman walked by and remarked, 'Eddie is trying to get himself a
wife!'"   The woman's words came true when, after seeking permission for their marriage from Sunshine Cloud Smith, the oldest living female relative of Red Ute's late wife, the couple married in January of 1991.

"Being married to a Ute man came with many responsibilities and Red Ute told me I had to learn three things in five years or he would divorce me! Those were to sing the Ute Sun Dance and Bear Dance songs, to do beadwork and to make fry bread.  I took it very seriously and learned all of those skills in two years."  Diane, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in New England, earned a degree in Studio Art from the University of New Hampshire in 1977. Daughter of a land surveyor, she also spent 19 years as a survey and engineering draftsman. These experiences would provide a solid foundation for the creation of over one-hundred original beadwork designs for Red Ute's flutes.

Red Ute and Diane began exhibiting their work in the early 1990s at several venues throughout the Southwest, including the Colorado Indian Market in Denver. In April of 1993 Red Ute was accepted into the Indian Arts and Crafts Association (IACA) and exhibited in shows in Denver and Phoenix.

In the spring of 2005 the construction of Red Ute's new workshop in Asheville was made possible by a generous gift from Stewart A. and Lynda Resnick of Roll International Corporation, Los Angeles, California.

The couple applied and were accepted for membership in the North Carolina Southern Highland Craft Guild (SHCG). The Guild, an educational non-profit organization with a membership of more than 900 artists selected by a standards jury, has sponsored two craft fairs per year since 1948.(www.craftguild.org) Ute Indian Flutes exhibited at the SHCG fair for the first time in 2005.