Modern wooden flute
The Native American flute is thought to date back more than 60,000 years. It is considered to be the third-oldest musical instrument, following drums and rattles. Several bone flutes were discovered in the area called Anasazi, which is a section of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. The writings of some European settlers in America indicate that the Native Americans around the Virginia colony played flutes.
Flute Construction
Crude flute
It is thought that the first flutes began as whistles made of bone. As time went on, the Native Americans made the whistle bigger and added holes. Flutes were made of different types of materials depending on the geographic location. Bamboo, river reeds, cedar and other woods were used in making flutes. The Native American flute is a two-chambered instrument. Native American flutes vary in length and width. The most common modern flute is made of cedar.
Flute Uses
Native American costume
Native American flutes were used for ceremonies, rituals, fertility rites, meetings and courting. The Sioux tradition of courting included a love flute. A young man would make himself a love flute that would invite the spirit to inhabit the flute. The spirit acted as Cupid, carrying the brave's message of love to the woman of his choice. After the woman's heart was won, the flute was discarded and never played again.
Native American Flautist Tribes
Some of the Native American tribes who created and played flutes are Apache, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Cree, Crow, Hopi, Huron, Iroquois, Lakota, Mojave, Navajo, Omaha, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pima, Seminole, Seneca, Shawnee, Sioux, Ute, Winnebago, Yuma and many others. Each tribe had their own music. Flutes were played as they traveled from place to place. It is thought that tribes were easily identifiable by their flute music.
Archaeology and Discovery
In the 1930s, a group of archaeologists led by Earl Morris discovered caves on a Navajo reservation in Apache County, Arizona. Morris and his group excavated 15 caves. The largest cave was dubbed "Broken Flute Cave" by the archaeologists. Four flutes were found in these caves. They were made of box elder and had six holes. Unfortunately, flutes made by tribes who inhabited the eastern part of the United States were most likely made of plant material and therefore decomposed long ago.
Legend
The Lakota tribe tells about a young brave who was desolate because the woman he was in love with showed no interest in him. He went into the forest and sat near a cedar tree. A woodpecker landed on a dead limb and started to peck holes up and down the length of the limb. The limb broke off and fell next to the brave. The brave picked up this limb and played beautiful music with it, causing the woman to investigate and subsequently fall in love with him.
Tags: Native American, American flute, American flutes, flute thought, love flute