This is what was handed to my grandfather, from his grandfather, and from his grandfather, who heard it from his father!
This comes from the complete story on how the first young man learned to play the flute by the Creator. I would share that with you but it
would take about an hour if I spoke the words and much longer to type. This is my condensed version. It has been told in many different tribes,
and nations in many different versions. This version is the one that I most closely relate.
So without adieu this is what I was taught...
The story starts with a boy around the age of 12 years, this particular boy was a weakling of sorts that couldn't do much of anything. He was
so sickly he could not hunt, gather wood or berries, plant crops; he could not do much of anything. None of the boys in the tribe would play with
him, even the little girls laughed at him. “At this point I think we all can relate to the boy we all feel and know his situation“.
Anyway, he learned how to amuse himself, he learned to walk and hike, he learned to look for signs from the Creator and over all he learned to
observe. He would observe the other boys learning to farm and hunt, and he swore to himself that one day he would become a great hunter
and show his tribe that he was no longer weak, but he was a useful part of their society! Weeks passed and he would observe and learn day
after day. Till one day he observed a Great Elk who came to the edge of the forest, and to his surprise no one else in the tribe noticed the elk,
this was his chance! He followed the Great Elk into the woods with the intentions of hunting it and bringing back food for the village and
impressing everyone with his new found skills. He would show the boys how strong and brave he was, he would impress those same girls who
had laughed at him, he would astound the adults whom thought him a weak useless boy!
The boy followed and tracked that woolly old buck, but the buck led him deeper and deeper into the forest; until he realized that he was
completely lost. That old buck knew that that young boy was following him and led him in circles, zigzags , long ways and back and forth ways,
till even the most skilled tracker would have been lost!
Weeks passed and the young boy tried in vain to find his way back to his village. He was lost so long that even his people in village stopped
looking for the boy thinking him long dead and held his ceremony sending him to the
Creator.
Now to make even this long story short enough to keep your attention;
After a very long time by himself in the forest he started to speak to the creatures around him including the plants, birds in the sky, fish in the
stream,
even the trees that surrounded him keeping him lost. He would hold long conversations with the Creator, in the hopes that the Creator would
find pity on him and lead him out of the forest and back to his people. One day in one of his conversations he told the Creator that he missed
the sound of his Mother’s singing and wished that he could have her beautiful music to keep him company.
A few days later, he was sitting at the edge of a meadow with the wind rustling through a stand of ancient cedars, the lower branches scraggly
and bare. This branch had been hollowed by age, and as the wind gently blew through it, a wonderful soothing sound came from it. The boy
said a prayer of thanks (he knew the Creator given him this gift) , and put some tobacco at the base of the tree, climbed up and gently snapped
off the branch to bring it back down. He blew and he blew but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the branch to create the beautiful
sound, that the wind had made through it. Just then an idea rose in him and he consulted a Riley old wood pecker whom he a befriended who
lived in a near by tree. His friend the woodpecker told him that the Creator had given him the instructions on how to make it play many years
before and it would take him a few minutes to remember.
So he and the woodpecker sat there in silence then suddenly the woodpecker hoped over to the branch and told him to hold it out so it would
not move around. That woodpecker just flew over and landed on the outstretched branch and began to peck two holes in it, the length of his
outstretched toes apart. But instead of pecking round holes, he pecked out slanted square holes. To connect the two into one, he then
scratched out a very shallow channel between them. Then he squatted on top of the branch, sitting as though he would be if he were tending
his nest. As he wiggled back and forth to get comfortable, he instructed the boy to blow. All of a sudden, the flute began to play a beautiful low
note but only one note and the boy quickly got bored tooting the flute.
The woodpecker then instructed the boy to be a little more patient and
to place his fingers into places down the flute that felt good while holding it, then the woodpecker reached down the length of flute from his
perch and tapped in 6 more round holes at the places where the boy's fingers landed. He told the boy to cover them and uncover them as he
blew gentle then hard to
blow waves then straight and well....you know what happened next.
(All who learn this gift this art from the Creator have made the same sounds with their first flutes!
And so, out of respect for the woodpecker, every flute since that day
has a 'bird' and 'nest' to make it play!)
Now the boy could make a lot of noises and this thrilled him for a few days but he quickly got bored and begged the Creator to show him how
he could put the sounds together to make pleasing songs that would remind him of home and the soothing sounds of his mother‘s songs.
For the first time the Creator spoke to him on the wind, he told the boy to have patience and to take his time and he would instruct him to
create these sounds that he desired!
This is how the Creator instructed him; For the next few days, I would like you to go into the open field and play to the tree-tops that surround
the field. If there are 2 together, then tap 2 times with your foot before preceding with the next note. If there are 3 trees together, tap three
times. If it is high tree, play a high note and a low tree and low note and all of the notes in the middle for all of the other trees. When you can do
this without stopping and it flows like the rivers, come back to me.
The boy did as he was asked, but it took many hours of following the treetops before he could follow them as easily as the rivers flowed. When
he felt he had reached the point where he could play all the treetops as easily as the rivers flowed he asked the Creator to listen to him. The
Creator said, '“NO, you are not ready. There is still more to learn."
The boy was disappointed for he had been so proud of what he had learned so far, but he still asked what was the next step. He then heard
the Creator say; “For the next few days, I want you to go back to your field, but this time I want you to follow the birds. At first pick only one. If
the bird goes high, then the note should be high. If the birds swoops and goes low, then the notes should swoop low. If the bird hangs in the air,
then the note should also hang. If the birds are warbling, then your note should also warble. When you can play all the birds that visit your field
as easily as the rivers flow, I want you to come back for you final lesson.”
And so, once again the boy did as instructed. At first he had a lot of trouble following the smaller birds, so he followed the hawks gliding
overhead. After many long hours that stretched into days of sitting in his field, he had gained confidence and began to follow each movement
and sound of every bird. It was a long time but eventually he could follow them
as easily as the rivers flowed. He was so excited that he felt he must play to show the Creator what he could do.
Once more the Creator refused to listen, and once more came the Creator's words; Now I would like you to go back to your field. I would like
you to close your eyes and imagine the treetops... I would like you to imagine the birds that have visited your field...and I would like you to then
open your heart and allow the spirit to come from there, to your mouth and out of the flute. I will be there beside you, listening to the treetops
and the birds and most of all, your heart.
The young man did as he was instructed and at first he played the treetops in his mind and then the birds as they flew past and then the
treetops and the bird's warble and before he knew it, he was making the most beautiful music that the Creator had ever heard. He had stopped
'seeing' and began to 'feel'. He was playing straight from his heart.
This was the lesson that he had never learned back in the village, he realized that he so wanted to fit in and to be like everyone else that he had
forgotten to be himself and to treat others with his heart not his brawn!
After the boys song was over (which some say lasted for years, till he was way into manhood) the Great Elk appeared once again at the edge
of his meadow, and again lead him through the thick forest and back to his village! The people of his village were very surprised to see him,
thinking him long dead, his mother rushed to him hugging and crying, he raised his flute and began to play! He astounded the adults he once
tried to astound, he showed the boys (whom were now men as well) that he was brave to survive all those years alone, he impressed all the
girls (who were now women) with his ability to create this wonderful sweet sound!
Further, he impressed the whole village that not only had he survived all those years , but he had visited with the Creator and that the Creator
had gifted him and his life with song!
He then through his years, found a bride by playing his flute, created a song that he would play at their wedding, then at birth of their children,
and finally his oldest son would play his song with his flute for him at his burial and he
would be buried with it so he could carry it into the above lands.
In his later years, after he taught many people to make these gifts from the Creator, he was asked the how he learned to play so well. Along
with this story, he always added; It's simple really, I just play from my heart! Truthfully, all of nature is the Creator's Sheet Music.. If you look
hard enough and listen long enough and practice long enough you will begin to play from
you heart too. I hope you have enjoyed this story!
I wish I could take credit for it’s creation but it is the flute creation story that has been handed down for thousands of years!
Silverwolf
“Cherokee”
“2006”
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| The Flute Creation Story! |