above: a slate flute carved by George Gunya (Haida) ca. 1850. below: One of the distinguishing characteristics of Alex Maldonado’s flutes are the beautiful stands he creates to display them.
 
Like eating and praying, conveying feeling through music is an essential human activity, and it has been part of the Native American experience throughout time. The first instrument, no doubt, was the voice. Soon percussive and simple wind and stringed instruments echoed and mingled with the music of the elements: the wind in the trees, the sounds of water, and the deeper songs of rocks and the earth itself. With this article, Native Peoples begins a series exploring Indigenous musical instruments of North America. Here we look at the flute—its history and evolution, important figures in the instrument’s renaissance, and some of the artisans creating high-quality flutes today.

Almost every tribe with a flute-playing tradition has a story of the instrument’s origin. In the tale passed down by the Sioux, a little boy was entranced by music created as the wind passed through woodpecker holes in the branch of a red cedar tree. The woodpecker agreed to let the boy break off the branch and take it home. But he wasn’t able to make beautiful music until the bird returned and showed him how to play it.

We explore the Native American flute's history and profile a handful of master artisans who continue to handcraft these musical instruments today: Bryan Akipa (Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux), Alex Maldonado (Pascua Yaqui), Daniel Bigay (Echota Cherokee), Charles Littleleaf (Warm Springs/Piegan Blackfeet) and Sonny Nevaquaya (Comanche).

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