We may never really know when and where the flute tradition first began in North America. Whatever its origin, the native flute became an important part of the musical heritage of North America.

Most of the ancient predecessors of the native flute were elaborate derivatives of the whistle. Usually lumped together with the simple whistles, perhaps a separate category should be created and called something like "whistle flutes." This would include the multiple holed "whistles" made of bone and stone found in a variety of ancient sites throughout the country.

Another ancient flute-like instrument was the Hopewellian panpipes, made of varying lengths of bone pipes sheathed in a copper band. The Hopewell culture also had single bone whistles, some with multiple holes. One made of a human bone seems to have been used in a fertility ritual.

As we trace the origin of the most common Native American flute, that being the two-chambered duct flute, we encounter mystery. We know for certain that a flute tradition did exist, but when it began is unknown.

Chronicles of travelers and explorers make mention of the existence of flutes. A native flute is first mentioned as far back as the 1500s in the chronicles of explorers who rampaged through both the Southeast and Southwest. They unfortunately do not describe the flutes - what they were made of, what they looked like or how they sounded.

A native flute is again mentioned in the writings of numerous individuals traveling during the 1700s, primarily in the Eastern part of the country. Although many describe them as being made of cane or reed, they again do not describe what they looked like or how they sounded. However, we do have a few examples from this period and all are single chamber designs.

It must be recognized that both the legends and the chronicles are discussing the native flute as it existed in the historic period, which began in the early 1400s. We can surmise from the early descendents of the previous cultures that flutes existed in ancient times, but since no ancient North American culture established a written form of their language, we must turn to artifacts to establish existence and dates.

The difficulty in the eastern part of the country is that no organic objects have been found in their natural state. According to Dr. Vernon James Knight, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama and Curator of Southeastern Archaeology at the Jones Archaeological Museum, especially in the southeast, no flute artifacts have been found at any of the known sites from this period. He suspects that these flutes were made from perishable materials and did not survive.

In the southwest, with its drier climate, organic artifacts of many types have been found, including native flutes. In 1931, archeologist Earl H. Morris led an expedition to the Prayer Rock district of northeastern Arizona. Accounts of Morris's expedition identify the area as Atahonez Canyon. The valley is on the Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona.

Morris's team excavated 15 caves. The largest cave contains 16 dwellings and was later named Broken Flute Cave. His team unearthed thousands of artifacts. Among them were four wooden flutes that have been dated between AD 620 and 670. In one dwelling, two almost completely intact flutes were discovered. The broken pieces of two other flutes were recovered from another dwelling. All four flutes are constructed of Box Elder and had six holes.

According to Clint Goss, who personally examined these flutes, the playing style is similar in principle to the Japanese Shakuhachi. "The mouth hole is largely covered by the lips (maybe 70%) and the player blows across the portion of the rim of the mouth hole that has not been covered by the lips." This indicates a design different from what we now know as the contemporary native flute.

We simply cannot find the origin of the contemporary native flute design in ancient times.

Zadjik Productions. "Ancient Period History." Native American Flutes. 27 Aug. 2009 [http://www.zadjik.com/flutes/].