My Native American flute journey part 1

I was managing a Native American art gallery and store and one of the product lines we carried was Native American flutes, these are wooden flutes hand carved in the traditional way.

Up until that faithful day the only contact I had with the Native American flutes was to dust them off from time to time, there were many in differnet sizes and keys.

One a cold winter day my employer came into the Gallery and he had with him a stunning aspen and walnut flute created by a man named Butch Hall, Mr. Hall had donated the flute for a fund raiser for the children of Pine Ridge reservation.

I was drawn to this flute because of its beauty, it was also resting in a carved stand in the shape of two eagle claws, just a breath taking flute, tickets for the raffle were just one dollar but my heart sank when my employer informed me that employees were unable to enter the raffle.

For weeks after I would pick up the flute and blow into it when no one was around, I began to experiment with different finger combinations and after two months I was getting the hang of it, when I was done playing it I always washed the mouth piece with alcohol and placed it back on its stand.

On a snowy day my wife stopped in to see me and I showed her the beautiful flute and played her a simple song I had created, she said she wanted to by a ticket, so with her last dollar she bought a ticket and into the big glass jar it went.

At the end of the 3rd month of the raffle, the owner of the gallery came in to draw the ticket,, he shook them up good in the giant glass jar and had his wife pull a ticket, at this point a great sadness befell me, it hit me that the flute that I came to love was going away.

The owners wife drew the ticket and turned it over and read the name aloud,

"Linda Red Horse", The owner looked at me and said "Well she is not employed here so give her a call and inform her she can pick up her flute", I was so excited that I wanted to jump in the air, the owner and his wife departed and I got on the phone.

A short time later my wife entered the store and I handed her the flute clutched in the wooden eagle claw stand, "Hey you go honey" I said as I passed her the flute.

She held it in her hands and then exclaimed, "I give this to you and I know you will learn how to play it", "because you are already off to a good start".

I didn't know what to say, my eyes filled up and my heart was singing with joy, of course I thanked her and asked her to take it home and I'd see it and her after my shift, we kissed and she walked away with the flute.

The raffle for the flute raised $2,300.00 for the Children of Pine Ridge Reservation, and then it hit me, I had sold all those tickets and some people were coming in weekly and buying multipul tickets trying to win it and my wife could only afford to buy a single ticket.

I never even thought that my wifes one ticket had a chance but boy was I wrong, a little while later my boss told me that the flutes value was $350.00, not a bad return on my wifes investment I'd say.

In the year following the raffle I took that flute every where I went, even to work, I'd hide it in my brief case and play it when ever the gallery was empty, I'd spend hours at home teaching myself what I could do and not do with the fingering combinations, I was hooked!

After my 2nd year playing I began to buy flutes from the different craftsmen and got a good discount on the ones I bought through the gallery, in 3 years time I had over two dozen flutes of different sizes and in different keys.

One day as I was playing one of about 30 songs I had created for my flutes I didn't see a man enter the gallery, after I ended my song I heard one person clapping and it startled me as I turned around to realize I was not alone.

A man around 50 years old with a big smile introduced himself and stated that he runs a local Powwow and he would be honored if I would come and play at his event, I didn't know what to say but "I've never played in front of people before" and I asked him how many people would be there, his reply made my blood run cold, "Oh between 300 to 900 depending on the weather, all I could think was "YIKES".

We worked out the details and on an hot and sunny August day somehow I found myself at a microphone with about 1000 people watching me, I closed my eyes to avoid looking at them and let myself become part of the flute.

I seemed to float along on the string of notes that filled the air over the PA system, I let my soul play and when the last note had flown away I opened my eyes to see more people than I thought possible applauding my humble song.

When I was done playing a set of about 8 songs I thanked everyone for their kindness and packed up my flutes, as i walked towards my wife she had tears in her eyes and a smile on her lips, "You did wonderful" she whispered in my ear as she hugged me tight.

That was my baptism by fire as they say, during that Powwow I was approached by other people who put on Powwows and I had about a dozen paying jobs come out of the one event.

I will write again on my flute journey soon, I never realized that a single raffle ticket would one day thrust me into an inter-National spot light and begin a wonderious journey of my peoples ancient instruments.

In my home today I have 30+ flutes from different Tribes along with two Silver Arrow awards for contributions to Indigenous music and 8 completed cds of the 150 songs that I've composed, as I look at the walls of my studio I'm humbled by the awards that my wife likes to frame and put up, it has been a long and mind blowing trek.