This Lakota musician is a universalist, alert to the commonalities among religions, nations, people. In our conversation at the New York Baha’i Center, he notes that nearly every culture has some kind of flute and some form of fasting. Is the latter a protest against the former? Certainly not. He himself is a flute player and a fine one. Fasting teaches detachment, he says, and after 24 hours it gets easy. Clearly I’ve been doing Yom Kippur all wrong.

•  PERSON: Ptehíŋčala Ská Wíŋ
•  PLACE: Standing Rock
•  THING: his flute
•  RANDY’S THING: a Klipit