[2] Native American flutes comprise a wide range of designs, sizes, and variations—far more varied than most other classes of woodwind instruments.

[23] Another narrative from the Tucano culture describes Uakti, a creature with holes in his body that would produce sound when he ran or the wind blew through him.

It was recovered in about 1931 by Samuel C. Dellinger and more recently identified as a flute by James A. Rees, Jr. of the Arkansas Archeological Society.

[37] The earliest extant Native American flute crafted of wood was collected by the Italian adventurer Giacomo Costantino Beltrami in 1823 on his search for the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

The slow air chamber can serve as a secondary resonator, which can give some flutes a distinctive sound.

When positioning and securing the removable block with the strap, the use of a spacer plate provides and additional degree of control over the sound and tuning of the flute.

The secondary sound chamber can hold a fixed pitch, in which case the term "drone flute" is sometimes used.

[46] Native American flutes are traditionally crafted of a wide range of materials, including wood (cedar, juniper, walnut, cherry, and redwood are common), bamboo, saw grass, and river cane.

[41] Poetic imagery regarding the covenant between flute maker and player was provided by Kevin Locke in the Songkeepers video:[47] The flute maker has to take that cedar, split it open, and remove that beautiful, straight-grained, aromatic, sweet, soft, deep-red heart of the cedar.

And so the covenant or reciprocal agreement is that the flute player will instill the heart back into the wood — put their heart back in there.Contemporary Native American flutes continue to use these materials, as well as plastics, ceramic, glass, and more exotic hardwoods such as ebony, padauk, and teak.

Known as Ojibwe music, usage of the flute is extremely beneficial for hospice, cancer, and cardiac patients to assist in managing anxiety, restlessness, fear, and pain.

It guides patients in taking a deep breath and using controlled exhalations to blow through the flute, helping with exercising the lungs.

Recently some flute makers have begun experimenting with different scales, giving players new melodic options.

However, contemporary Native American flutes are often tuned to a concert pitch standard so that they can be easily played with other instruments.

The root keys of contemporary Native American flutes span a range of about three and a half octaves, from C2 to A5.

However, many contemporary Native American flutes will play the primary scale using the fingering shown in the adjacent diagram.

However, the convention for this music written in F-sharp minor is to use a non-conforming key signature of four sharps, creating what is known as "Nakai tablature".

Extensive ethnographic recordings were made by early anthropologists such as Alice Cunningham Fletcher, Franz Boas, Frank Speck, Frances Densmore, and Francis La Flesche.

[57] During the period 1930–1960, few people were playing the Native American flute in public performances, or allowing recordings to be made.

[58] During the late 1960s, the United States saw a roots revival of the Native American flute, with a new wave of flutists and artisans such as Doc Tate Nevaquaya, John Rainer, Jr., Sky Walkinstik Man Alone, and Carl Running Deer.

His music was representative of a shift in style from a traditional approach to playing the instrument to incorporate the New-age genre.

She remains the only Native American flutist to be distinguished in this way, as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences retired the category in 2011.

According to a thesis by Mary Jane Jones:[61]: 56–57 The flute's cathartic appeal probably lies in its simplicity.

As most music teachers will attest, many beginners take so long to master the necessary skills and are so focused on the technical aspects of their instruments that they must eventually be taught how to play with feeling.

Struggling with the demands of their instruments over time causes them to lose the emotional connection to music that they may have felt when singing as young children.

As flute players become better acquainted with their instruments, their improvisations tend to become longer, have more complex melodies and forms, and contain more embellishments.

However, the ability to express emotion through improvisation on the flute seems as easy for the beginner as it is for the advanced student.Notable and award-winning Native American flutists include: R. Carlos Nakai, Charles Littleleaf, Joseph Firecrow, Kevin Locke, Aaron White, Robert Mirabal and Mary Youngblood.

A few classical composers have written for the Native American flute, including Brent Michael Davids, James DeMars, Philip Glass, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, and Fabio Mengozzi.

[62][63] The 1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act of the United States criminalized deceptive product-labeling of goods that are ostensibly made by Native Americans.

[66] This statute applies to the eagle-bone whistle, examples of which might or might not be classified as a Native American flute depending on the particulars of their construction.