Wind Songs
Published 5:00 am Wednesday, October 14, 2026
I don’t remember the first time I heard the melodic sounds of a Native American flute, but it lingered in my soul. For most, it is an almost spiritual experience.
Legend says a woodpecker pecked holes in a cedar limb and gifted a young brave the first flute, but it wouldn’t play. He had to humble himself first before it would sing. Since the heart of the cedar had been removed from the flute, he had to replace it with his own heart when he played.
I love reading about when America’s Mountain Men traveled through the mountains and valleys of the West in search of beaver skins. It was a tough life, but I sometimes wish I had lived back then. They often heard the haunting sounds of their flutes. They called the mystical music they made “wind songs”.
Made mostly of cedar or river cane, they were used by many tribes for many different reasons. Some tribes used the flute for ceremonial purposes. Other times, young braves used it to try and win the hand of their hopeful bride-to-be.
The flute helped them empty themselves of things they could not express with words. North American flute music is natural stress relief. In the world we live in today, we all need to listen to their music.
The first time I heard a Native American flute, something inside urged me to know more about it. How are they made? What gives them their beautiful sound? Can a musically challenged person like myself learn to play one? The answer is yes.
It is one of the easiest wind instruments to play. A beginner flute player does not need to know conventional music. It is a tool for self-expression. Its simplicity helps untrained individuals pick up the flute and make pleasing sounds within minutes. Master flute makers will tell you they have never sold a flute, because a flute sells itself.
You don’t have to play songs everyone knows. Play what is in your heart. Look to a sunset or sunrise, the valleys and mountains, the streams and lakes, the wildlife and wildflowers. The world of nature that God created for all of us contains countless songs. Look here for inspiration and play what you feel.
It is a beautiful October day. I sit on a tree stump high on a hill overlooking a valley near the Mark Twain National Forest. An eagle is flying in a bright blue sky.
I think of the Native Americans and how they took care of their land, how they honored the game when they took its life to feed their family. They were the first conservationists. They were not savages – we were! They only fought to protect what was theirs.
My flute in hand, I play from my heart. It is an escape from this crazy world for a little while out in nature. As I play, I think of the Mountain Men listening to the haunting, mystical sounds. I think God smiles when He hears the beautiful sound of wind songs.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
“Listen to the wind, it talks.Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows.”
– Native American Proverb
For over 45 years Nixa, MO native Larry Whiteley has been communicating about the great outdoors locally and across America through newspaper and magazine articles, a television show, and a syndicated radio show heard in all 50 states and around the world on the American Forces Radio Network. Read more of Larry’s stories at www.storiesbylarry.com.
