Constructing Aerophones

Excerpt from ‘The Culture of the Drum’, Native Drums Website

Wind instruments made by the First Peoples stretched on a continuum from blowing through a blade of grass between the thumbs to complex end-blown flute and the occasional transverse flute. Whistles usually refer to instruments that produce one or two pitches only for each hollow shaft. For example among the Siouan Nations and other cultures who practised the Thirst or Sun Dance ceremonies, it was customary for each male dancer to suspend an eagle-bone whistle around his neck. He would then blow into this whistle to encourage the musicians and strengthen his stamina at certain points in the ceremonies. The Siouan peoples also made whistles of long tubes of ash that produced one sharp note (Hassrick 1964: 146). These were carried by the Elk Dreamer of the Dreamer of the Double Woman.

Often whistles would be used in conjunction with drums as in this description of the medicine practice of Bear Hat:
Bear Hat’s wife asked for seven men and seven married women still without child, all singers with good voices. The men sat in a row toward the centre of the lodge, facing north, and the women sat behind them. The man sitting at the head took Bear Hat’s yellow-painted drum with the curlew picture drawn on it. Taking the yellow-painted drum from the lead singer, Bear Hat’s wife sat by the doorway, beating very fast on the drum and blowing on her yellow-painted whistle four quick, loud whistles at a time. After four quick beats on the drum, she began to beat slowly on the rim, singing her song with no words. The men and women singers who had never heard this song before, learned it quickly. She returned the drum to the lead singers, and they all sang as one voice. The women especially sang with skilled voices. Spreading out her robe with her arms, she made as if she were flapping wings, all the while blowing her whistle. Then she let the whistle drop from her mouth, and she put words to her song: “Man, sit up. Man, sit up” (Hungry Wolf 1977: 178).
According to Catlin, the war-whistle was six or nine inches in length and was invariably made out of the bone of the deer or turkey’s leg. Carried by a chief or leader into battle suspended from his neck, the war-whistle sounded two notes. From one end, a shrill note is produced and this was a signal for battle. The softer tone produced from the other end marked a retreat (Catlin 1844/1965: 242).

The Siouan Nations referred to their end-blown multi-toned aerophone as the Big Twisted Flute. It was made by men who had dreamed of the Buffalo. Made of two grooved cedar halves glued together and bound by thin rawhide lashings, the flute had five finger holes and “an air vent covered with an adjustable block for changing pitch in the shape of a headless horse” (Hassrick 1964: 146). Each orifice was painted red. To produce really effective flutes, the makers had to be Dreamers.

Catlin described this end-blown flute with external block used in the Plains as being the “Deer-skin flute, Winnebago courting flute, or Tsal-eet-quash-to” (Catlin 1844/1965: 242). According to him, it could have six, four, or sometimes only three finger holes.

Richard Payne provides a detailed description about the making of such a flute:

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  Catlin, George. 1844/1965. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Conditions of the North American Indians, Volume 1. Minneapolis: Ross & Haines Reprint.
  

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  Hassrick, Royal B. 1964. The Sioux. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
  

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  Hungry Wolf, Adolf. 1977. The Blood People. New York: Harper & Row.
  

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  Payne, Richard W. 1999. The Native American Plains Flute. Oklahoma City: Toubat Trails Publishing Co.