The Legend of the First Flute
There are many, many stories among Native American people regarding the gift of the first flute from the Great Creator, and the lessons given to the first flute player. Many of these stories have a similar theme that involves a cedar tree and a woodpecker. I hope you gain greater understanding of the flute from this one…
Long ago, long before the white man came to this land, there was a young warrior who lived in a village in the great wooded mountains that today we call the Great Smokies. This warrior always felt he needed to prove himself to the others in the village because he wasn't the strongest, or the swiftest of the young men. But his heart was pure.
One day he was just outside his village when he saw a mighty elk, the ahwi-egwa, passing among the trees in the distance. He decided that if he could kill this great animal, it would feed his people for a good time and give them its great hide for many uses. So he started out into the woods in careful pursuit. But this elk had not grown old by being foolish and he quickly realized he was being hunted. So he went deeper and deeper into the heavy brush, staying just beyond the reach of the young man, leading him ever further from his village. At long last, the elk disappeared far ahead and left the young warrior on his own in the forest. Although he was certainly able to take care of himself, our young man had to admit that he was lost and did not know his way back to his village.
After several days of wandering alone, he realized he was more lonely than anything else, and he called upon the Great Creator to give him comfort. He soon found a beautiful place to sit and rest at the edge of a great clearing, right below a huge ajina, cedar tree. As he sat and rested, he heard a beautiful, soothing sound coming from above him. It reminded him of the songs his mother had sung to him as a child and he felt comforted. As he looked up into the tree, he realized that this great cedar had a section that had died - perhaps from a lightning strike long ago, or from bugs or disease - and the sound was coming from the wind blowing across a hollow branch. When the wind died down and the sound stopped, he climbed up into the tree and retrieved the branch that had been making the beautiful sounds.
Wanting to recreate the pleasant tones from the branch, he brought it to his lips and blew across it. But no sound came from it. So he tried every which way and finally felt great sadness, as he could not find a way to coax a sound from that branch. In desperation, he raised his voice to the Great Creator and asked: "Oh Great Spirit! You have put magic into this hollow branch but I have not been able to find it. Please show me how to make the beautiful sounds from it."
As our young warrior held the branch up to the Great Spirit, a little woodpecker, the dalala, flew down and landed on the branch and cautiously walked down the branch toward the place where the warrior was holding it, and began pecking. When he had finished, there were two small holes in the top of the branch, and the woodpecker gently lowered himself down over them as if nesting there. Not sure what to do, the warrior raised the branch to his lips and gently blew into it. This time a deep, mellow sound emerged from the other end and his heart once more felt light and happy.
The young man loved the beautiful sound that the branch made when he blew into it, but after awhile, he became bored with just a single tone. So once again he raised his voice to the Great Creator: "What You have given me is truly beautiful and I am very grateful for this gift, but I know that there is still greater beauty from this branch and I respectfully ask for Your help in finding it."
And as he turned back, he saw that the woodpecker arose from his spot on the branch and began walking down toward the far end of the branch. Then he stopped and began pecking again. When he finished pecking a hole through the branch, he moved down and began pecking again. This he repeated until he had created six new little holes along the length of the branch, after which he returned to his nesting place and once more sat to rest.
The warrior saw that the holes were placed so that he could cover them with his fingertips, if he used both hands. And so he did, covering three holes with fingers from one hand, and the other three with the fingers from his other hand. Then once more he blew into the end of the branch. And he discovered that by covering and uncovering the holes, he could make a great variety of tones. He sat down and played one note, then another, then another, and another, and another. Each individual note was itself beautiful, but they just didn't seem to go together. He knew there had to be a way to use these individual sounds to create beautiful music.
So once again he looked to the Great Spirit: "Oh Great Creator. You have given me a wondrous gift, but I am unable to create the beautiful music that I know it can make. I ask that You show me how to take these sounds and put them together that I might create a beautiful song that I can play."
This time the Great Creator spoke back to our young warrior, "To make beautiful music, you must learn to recognize the beautiful patterns of nature that I have given you. You must go to the center of the clearing and look at the trees that surround you. Where the trees lie low, you must play a low note. And where the trees rise higher, you must play a higher note. And where the trees are the highest, you must play your highest note. Where the trees remain at one level for a time, you must play the note longer. And where the trees change often, you must likewise change your notes often. Now go and learn to play the trees."