Native American Flutes

Over the years I've become very interested in Native American Flutes. Over the holidays this Christmas we went to Arkansas to visit with Brenda. We traveled up to Mt. Magazine where I shot some stock mountain footage and then we ventured into Oklahoma. Brenda wanted to buy lottery tickets, I wanted to see some Cherokee Indian merchandise she said they had at a little store there.
A few years back I was out riding my motorcycle and went to a local festival. There was a man there selling his CD's of native American Indian flute music. I was drawn to the sound and walked across the festival to get to it. I had heard native music before, and I loved it. But this was live and he was playing it there!

He had some very expensive flutes there and some cheap ones too. Not having hundreds for an authentic flute, I bought a cheap one. Its bamboo and simple but it went into the trunk of my bike and down the road I sped.

Later that night I got the flute out and played it. In high school we played some kind of flute-a-phone thing in chorus and I had never played since then. I picked up the flute and taught myself "Amazing Grace" in about a hour. I even called a friend and played it over the phone. LOL She thought it was amazing I learned it in one day. I remembered that the native Americans call "Amazing Grace" the Trail of Tears song. So I wanted to play it. I can still play it on my little bamboo flute.

But my flute, though I would never part with it is not an "Authentic" native American flute and I wanted one. So here I was in Oklahoma near casinos and a little service station that had some Choctaw items for sale. But again, the flutes were too high. They were nice however I didn't find the one I wanted. If I had, i would have splurged and got it.

I am looking for a specific flute. There are two criteria. It must be in either A, F or C note and it must have a hummingbird on it. I am a hummingbird you see. :-)

I lived through Katrina and after the storm I, along with other neighbors came out of our homes to witness the devastation around us. My home was undamaged as I knew it would be. I never worried during the storm. In fact I videotaped it as it happened. I had concern but never any real worry.
Until I saw the neighborhood. Trees were downed on homes, a tornado had taken a grove of large pine trees and cut them off about midway then slung them around the neighborhood like so many twigs. That tornado path ended at my house where it must have lifted and went over me.

For several blocks there was destruction, and my house. I lived on a dead end road and with all of the trees down over the one road in, we were all trapped there. So for several hours we just walked around, some in a daze looking at all the aftermath.

When I first walked out and joined my neighbors in our vigil to assess the damage several hummingbirds flocked around me. They stayed with me all day, never flying more than a few yards away. As I walked, they followed and circled. I covered several blocks an looked at all the downed trees and destruction then returned home, hummingbirds in tow.

Night came and so did the heat and humidity. I listened to my radio and got some idea of what the rest of the south was going through. I was in Laurel, Mississippi - a hundred miles from the coast. We got hit hard too.

The next day several people with chainsaws cut us a path out of the dead end road and having a motorcycle allowed me to roam around a bit and see the adjoining neighborhoods. It seems all of Jones County was a mess. And there were the hummingbirds. Everywhere. They followed me on my bike and back home. Guess they were a bit put out from the storm too so i put up a feeder for them.

Weeks passed and in time power was restored to us, phones didn't come back till almost Christmas. And during the warm months the hummingbirds stayed, assuring me everything was going to be Okay and the earth would mend. And mend it did. Today you can't tell we ever had a hurricane.

One day I was reading online and i came across something about hummingbirds. When I read about the native American spiritual concept of hummingbirds I remembered my little friends after the storm. How they met me at the door and stayed with me. They were a symbol of rebirth, recycle and renewing. They were free and patient. I fed them nectar, they fed me assurance.
I played my flute for them to pass the hours with no power or TV. They played and danced in the sky and seemed to enjoy it.

So I was looking for a real flute. A real Native American flute, one made by a real Native American. With hummingbirds. But there were none there.

Since then I've been looking online and found a couple that look nice. Till then I have my bamboo flute, it is Native American but is more like a basic flute than the ones used by Indians. I keep looking though.

They are beautiful to look at as well as play and you can display them too. So I'm on the lookout. :-)
J.

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