The Native American Flute

Oceti Sakowin girl with flute, c. 1900

Native American flutes are handcrafted instruments with ancient origins and rich cultural significance. The flutes are typically used to support healing, prayer, and storytelling, often in the context of ceremonies.  While some performance and crafting customs are considered universal, many are specific to individual tribes or regions.

Traditionally associated with nature, Native American music often imitates sounds such as wind or birds, and serves as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. The flute is typically a solo instrument, playing a role in personal expression and even courtship, allowing individuals to convey emotions without words.

In North America, there are two types of flute commonly used by native peoples: the dual-chambered duct flute of the Plains and Woodlands regions and the single-chamber rim-blown flute of the Southwest.

Woodlands/Plains Flutes

The Woodlands/Plains style has a chamber into which the player blows, after which the air passes through a channel, where it emerges and is split on an edge. This action causes air to vibrate in the second chamber, producing sound. Unique to the indigenous flutes of North America, this mechanism produces a very characteristic and recognizable sound. Today, these flutes are made with five or six holes. They are usually tuned to a pentatonic scale, but other scales are sometimes used. The instrument has a range of one octave, as overblowing is not part of the standard technique. An individual musician will commonly have a set of several flutes on hand, to enable them to play in different keys and scales. The tone of the flutes varies, with lower-pitched instruments having a mellow tone and higher-pitched instruments having a significantly brighter sound.

Native American dual-chambered flutes

According to its origin story, this type of flute started as a hollow tree branch. When a woodpecker pecked holes in the branch, it became a flute. A man traveling through the forest heard the beautiful sound of the branch and began to play it as an instrument. To this day, the woodpecker is associated with the flute, and the block of wood tied to the flute to direct the flow of air is frequently called the bird. As people began making this instrument, they started by splitting a piece of redwood or cedar, hollowing out the two chambers, gluing the pieces to form the bore, shaping the outside, and then drilling (or burning) and tuning the holes.

Traditionally in North America, flutes were made using the human body as reference. For example, the distance between two finger holes might be the width of the thumb or two fingers. The distance from the last hole to the end of the flute might be two hand lengths, and the overall length could be from the tip of the middle finger to one hand length above the elbow. Considering the difference in hand sizes, each flute made using this method is unique to the maker.

Currently, most players, even those not from Plains or Woodlands communities, use dual-chambered flutes that are tuned according to the modern European tuning system. This allows them to be played with other instruments or to play music written for other instruments.  However, another major type of Native American flute, common to the Southwest, is of great historical significance and is now undergoing a revival.

Flutes of the Southwest

Rim-blown flutes historically were the primary type of flute played in the Southwest United States, with the most well-known examples being the six ancestral pueblo flutes discovered in 1931 in what came to be called Broken Flute Cave in the Prayer Rock district of the Navajo Nation in Northeastern Arizona. These flutes—the oldest wooden flutes yet found in North America—are believed to have been made between 620 AD and 670 AD. The discovery and replication of these flutes have inspired renewed interest in this type of instrument.

Flutes from the Broken Flute Cave, Northeastern Arizona

The flute historically played by the Luiseño people of San Diego and Riverside Counties is a type of rim-blown flute. It is a tube with a beveled blowing edge and four finger holes. Luiseño flutes have always had four holes and were typically made of cane or elderberry. In many ways, these flutes resemble the Turkish ney or kaval. These instruments all have a similar length-to-internal-bore ratio, are made of similar materials (hardwood or cane), and are played by directing air over an edge with the mouth.

Native American rim-blown flutes.

Rim-blown flutes are extremely difficult to play and require weeks of daily practice before a proper pitch or sound can be produced. Despite the simplicity, or perhaps because of it, the tone of this type of flute has a great range when played by a skilled player. It is dynamically very expressive, and it is possible to change characteristics such as the breathiness. There is less documentation of the rim-blown flute compared to studies of the Plains and Woodlands flute. There are photographs of Luiseño flute players that are useful in reconstructing the technique. Still, due to the lack of documentation and the difficulty of playing the Luiseño flute, it has fallen out of favor since the 1930s. Very few people can play it today, but some flute makers and players are actively working to bring back the tradition.What makes the rim-blown flute difficult to play also makes it very interesting for the player. Other flute designs have carved chambers or channels to direct air, or in the case of the modern orchestral flute, a lip plate to help the player direct the embouchure. The design of the rim-blown flute requires a very different approach. The flute is only half of the sound-creation process. The player’s mouth must get involved, taking on the same function as the first chamber and duct of the Plains/Woodlands dual-chambered flute by directing the air to be split. To create music, the player must become, as it were, the other half of the instrument.

To master this type of flute, every aspiring player must work through a long process of developing the requisite precision in their embouchure. The player embodies the sound of the rim-blown flute, and the quality, volume, and timbre of the sound depend more on the player than on the quality of their instrument. Indeed, once this technique is mastered, almost any hollow object can become a flute. Skilled players can, moreover, utilize circular breathing to produce a continuous note or play a melody without moving their fingers by using the overtone series produced by overblowing. They may play the flute by blowing into any part of it, such as the finger holes. Old stories even say it is possible to play it with the nose.

Guest author Brandon Wallace is a teaching artist with CWM’s World Music in the Schools program. To learn more, please visit his teaching artist profile.

An Enduring Legacy

A wide variety of Native American flutes has come from the rich traditions of tribes across North America. Among these, there is an instrument suitable for almost any player. They allow people to connect with their culture and history dynamically and creatively, offering a unique, active way to experience and share customs.