Flutes | Thrive: Traditions S2 • E7
1 Video View·Jan 2, 2025
Artisan Jeremy Wallace said flutes were historically played in ceremonies to send prayers up to the Creator. Today, they're still widely used by modern Chickasaws. As a cultural demonstrator Jeremy shared his love of the instrument with visitors at the Chickasaw Cultural Center. He said it took him over 78 hours to create his first cedar flute; he also used river cane, a traditional material that dates back to the Chickasaws' time in the original homelands of present-day Mississippi and Alabama. Jeremy's life was tragically cut short in 2017, but his Chickasaw spirit will always be remembered.
The Native American flute is a very powerful instrument
because it was used in ceremonies to send up prayers
up to the creator.
And when I play, I feel the sound of the flute.
I feel the things of Mother Earth.
And to me, I feel like that's the ancestors touching me,
giving me that blessing, saying, keep doing what you're doing.
My name is Jeremy Wallace, and I will be talking to you
about Native American flutes.
In the homelands of Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama,
we have the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers.
And river cane was a very big necessity within our tribe.
So as I learned how to make the river cane flute,
I really fell in love with the sounds that it makes.
And the knowledge that was given to me was a blessing.
So at the cultural center, what I do
is when somebody wants to learn how to play the flute,
I would explain the steps.
I explain the materials.
And I explain the reason why it was given to me.
And I explain the reason why we pass it on.
As history tells us, we don't ever
want any of our identity lost.
So this is a part of our identity,
and I don't ever want to lose that.
Each flute that you make is going
to be a two-chamber flute.
And as you see, you've got two different chambers
with two different hole patterns on it.
And this first hole right here is going to be in chamber one.
This is going to be in chamber two.
And air's got to come out one chamber, go up into the next,
and go back down.
And I actually have one that I started on.
And this is one that I cut down.
And as you can tell, it's going to come together.
But this is the way that you would start it out.
It took me a little over 70, 80 hours to make
and to put together my first cedar flute.
Whenever I make one of our old traditional flutes,
it's going to be that member of a grass family.
And that's going to be a river cane flute.
This is already made with chambers in it.
I found that when I learned how to make them,
that I would use my thumb.
Since this is a five-hole flute, then I
would put my thumb right here.
And I would mark it.
And then I would go on to the next one.
And I would leave this enclosed, not making a hole
and going to the next hole, and so on, and marking it.
And this is one that we would have
used as a five-hole flute compared to a six-hole flute.
The process of making a flute, you'll
figure out that it's going to take time and patience.
You know, our chicks are children.
If you can teach them at a young age,
it's always going to be with them.
So I'm taking the teachings that was given to me,
and now I'm passing it down to the next generation.
And I feel that, you know, I'm not done yet.
I want to be doing this 20 years later, 30 years later,
and keeping this part of my history and culture
alive as much as possible.