BELTRAMI, Giacomo Costantino

Portrait by Enrico Scuri. Image courtesy: Flutopedia

BELTRAMI, Giacomo Costantino. (Bergamo, 1779--Filottrano, Italy, Jan. 6, 1855). The earliest surviving Native American wooden flute was discovered by an Italian adventurer who traveled across present-day Minnesota in search of the headwaters of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

After politicial difficulties with the Italian Papal government surrounding his role in the French Revolution (he had been in Napolean's government), Beltrami began a series of expeditions in Mexico, the Great Plains, New Orleans, and the Caribbean. Beltrami arrived in St. Louis in 1823 and began a voyage up the MISSISSIPPI RIVER on board the "Virginia," the first steamboat to pass the Des Moines and Rock River rapids. He was accompanied by U. S. Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro and explorer Stephen H. Long.

Visiting the MESKWAKIES near Dubuque, Beltrami found the LEAD deposits so valuable that he doubted the natives' ability to hold them from the jealous whites. He noted:

         They (the natives) still keep exclusive possession and with
         such jealousy that I was obligated to have recourse to the
         all powerful whiskey to obtain permission to see them. (1) 

His observations were written in his A Pilgrimage in Europe and America published in 1828. After three months exploring and mapping the region, he set out on August 7th with three guides in search of the source of the Mississippi. His observations of the natives reaction to steamboats included the following:

         ...when they saw it (the Virginia) cut its way without oars
         or sails against the current of the great river, some thought
         it a monster vomiting fire, other the dwelling of the Manitous,
         and all approached it with reverence or fear. (2)

Abandoned by his guides, he was reduced to wading up the river, hauling his supplies in a birch bark canoe behind him complete with a red umbrella that he carried as a sign of peace. He eventually found what he incorrectly believed to be the Mississippi headwaters in present-day Beltrami County. He named the lake "Giulia" (Julia) for a deceased countess friend.

Beltrami returned downriver, arriving in New Orleans in December where he wrote a French-language account of his travels, published a few months later. The Catholic Church condemned his work, but he went on to explorations in Mexico and Haiti.

Somewhere in the Great Plains portion of Beltrami's travels, he acquired two flutes. These were shipped along with his other artifacts back to his homeland, and they are displayed at the Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali (Civic Museum of Natural Science) in Bergamo, in Northern Italy. (3)

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Source:

1. Moeller, Hubert L. "Early Steamboat Travel," The Des Moines Register, November 26, 1934.

2. Ibid.

3. "The Beltrami Flutes," Fluteopedia: An Encyclopedia of the Native American Flute, http://www.flutopedia.com/beltrami.htm

Thayer, Bill, "Gazetteer of the Marche," http://bit.ly/MarcheWPT, American & Military History http://bit.ly/HistoryUSA