Flute Medicine

The flute is an amazing instrument. Actually, it is more amazing than most people realize. I have spent my life digging deep into its medicine. I believe it is a force for good in the world. However, I can't help but feel that it is being trivialized and underestimated by many, both NDN and non-NDN, and because of this it is in danger of losing its medicine.

Today, non-NDN flute players and makers vastly outnumber NDN ones mainly because NDN people, for a variety of reasons, have let go of it. Flute playing started its decline during the period of prohibition of traditional music instituted by the Federal Government during the first half of the 20th Century. The instrument of focus, for many good reasons having to do with cultural survival, became the drum. As time went on, many NDN men my age and younger chose not to be involved with the flute because they didn't want to seem like a 'stereotype'. Today, some mock those of us who are trying to keep the instrument alive because they think we are giving the white man what he wants to see. In addition, there are now so few flute players in many NDN communities that good instruction is a rarity. The prohibitions against women playing the flute in many tribes cuts the potential number of NDN players in half. These reasons and more have led to the steady decline of the flute in NDN country.

I believe the flute is more than a simple instrument. The flute, along with the drum, is a gift the Creator has given to NDN people for their survival. I feel that NDN people need to wake up because they are about to lose something very important. There are flute songs that have been created to help us and they are in the Spirit World waiting to live out their destiny in the hearts of NDN people. I have been blessed to hear some of them and I have brought them through. I can attest to their life giving power and their ability to open the human heart to Creator's strong, loving hand. Could the flute be the gift that Creator has given the people to help them to gain the inner strength to overcome drugs, alcohol, hopelessness and suicide? I want to believe this. I do believe this. The flute can be a conduit to the Spirit World where Creator sends songs to heal and strengthen His people. I wish more NDN people would take up the gift that was given to them so long ago and access its gentle power!

The flute's sacredness is to be found in its ability to change lives. Some non-NDN flute players can attest to this and this is in large measure why they have adopted it and adapted it. If flute playing makes them into better human beings, then this is something to be encouraged. If, on the other hand, flute playing makes them into a caricature, a poseur, a wannabe, a disrespecter of NDN people, then one has to question their true motives. The Creator has the job of sorting all of this out in the end. Unfortunately, the living have to deal with the offense. I ask non-NDN people to be sensitive about how they use this instrument and how they represent themselves while doing so. Experience has shown me that honesty and integrity in these matters are what honors NDN people, honors the flute and honors the songs that are patiently waiting in the Spirit World for all of us to bring them through.
~HwAn-Pi-Khaw=Ronald Roybal