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It appears that the predecessor of the Plains flute was a flute found in the Southwest, specifically among the Tohono O'odham (formerly the Papago) and Yuman peoples that made of a common reed (Phragmites australis). It was constructed by hollowing all but one of the nodes. Holes were bored on either side of the remaining node and a channel carved between the two holes. In addition, there were usually three finger holes. A player would use a finger as block to cover the channel and direct air from the wind chamber to the sound chamber. The other hand then covered the sound holes. From existing examples, we find that the native flute we refer to as the "Plains" flute emerged no earlier than the 1820s. Dr. Richard Payne believed the historic Plains flute originated with the Northern Utes and its knowledge travelled south to the Taos community, which further dispersed it to the other Southwestern tribes. It next travelled to the Plains tribes of Oklahoma, spreading then to other Plains and finally to other northern and eastern tribes. A number of attributes characterize the historic Plains flute. It has the channel or flute between the air and tone chambers cut directly into the flute body or placed in a spacer - commonly called a nest - that sat between the bird and the flute, sometimes in an indentation called a roost. The fipple, located at the foot end of the second sound hole (or in the nest) is sharp-edged and tapered in a distinctive angle. Many makers of the contemporary period, craft flutes in styles or types that they refer to as something other than Plains flutes and many claim these styles have a long history back into the historic period. The problem with this is that there are no historic examples further back than the late 1800s. They may very well be different styles, but they were developed in relatively modern times and still have the Plains flute as their ancestor. Perhaps the most well known of these other styles is the Woodlands flute, that based on existing examples, emerged no earlier than the late 1890s. There are too many flutes in existence from the 1850s on to substantiate the claim that this style emerged earlier, but no flutes survived. That it developed in the Southeast may also be conjecture since the first known example of this design was a flute collected in Montana in 1911 by Alice Fletcher. A detailed description of this design was made by the ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore during her various visits of the Seminole groups between 1931 and 1932. She found the flute in disuse and only one individual, Billie Stewart, who remembered how to make one. Her description of the flute he made for her gives us an indication of a design different from those she had seen in previous visits to Plains and Southwestern tribes. She stated that the flute "contained peculiarities not previously noted in Indian flutes," but gave no details on what they were. She noted that the block was placed in the channel between the two sound holes, not above the channel. She also noted that the finger holes were burned in with an iron, rather than bored, and the edges were beveled with a knife. Densmore also described two "transverse holes" at right angles to the sound holes, but doesn't explain their function. We can surmise that design is that of the Woodlands flute, which is characterized primarily by the fipple having a blunted edge. We have no examples of this design, however, that predates the Plains flute design, which leads to the belief that the Woodlands design is a later modification of the Plains design. However, in light of the various oral stories and traditions, we cannot with all certainty, discount the possibility that examples of or similar to the Tohono O'odham design did make their way to the southeast and evolved into what we now refer to as the Woodlands flute. Zadjik Productions. “Historic Period History.” Native American Flutes. 27 Aug. 2009 [http://www.zadjik.com/flutes/].
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Plains flute, historic flute,
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