A problem with this whistle!

[FolkLife]

These downside up whistle are common on the internet. They even make them in your choice of colors.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32820564335.html

[Dan A.]

These downside up whistle are common on the internet. They even make them in your choice of colors.

I am pretty sure they were discussed herein prior to this thread, too. But having had a look at those in the link...at least the head appears to be removable! And the blue and red ones look anodized. That's probably a trick of the lighting, but an anodized whistle would appeal to me. When it comes to those cheap Chinese whistles, I'd spend a few bucks more and get an entry-level Dixon, or save a few bucks and get a genuine Feadóg, Ckarke, Walton's, Generation...you get the idea.

[pancelticpiper]

@Richard
Do they have a notch like a Quena? I once tried to play a rim-blown flute without any notch whatsoever. Kind of difficult, took me about 15 minutes to get a tone at all.
But flipping the flute around makes me think, they don't even have a notch, right?

Right, no notch, they're like a Bulgarian/Macedonian kaval or Turkish ney.

It seems obvious that the Native American fipple flutes are post-contact though I really don't know.

If you see North American Native flutes in museums you'll notice that they generally don't have the fipple mechanism but are open on both ends and notch-less. Likewise I think all the ancient South American Native flutes that are found in archaeological sites, museums etc lack fipples but I think they have notches. I'm sure there's a Doctoral thesis collecting dust somewhere about this stuff.

In any case it's cool to see the original style being maintained by the Miwok.

About playing end-blown notch-less flutes, it's just a skill like anything else. Once you get the knack it's a handy skill to have, because you can take the headjoint off a flute (wood or Boehm) and play it, or play a Low Whistle from the other end, and play any random piece of plumbing pipe. Well I guess not "handy" but at least cool in a way.