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"The Boy and the Flute" Contact information for Leonard is available on his Website: http://www.leonardpaul.com/
Painting by noted Mi'kmaw artist Leonard Paul
"My heart is free when I hear the songs of my People..."
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The flute came to the Comanche People by way of a man who had suffered greatly. One by one, his four children and wife had died.
In his sorrow, he wept bitterly for many months.
When the tribe moved camp, he would set his tee-pee away from the others, so as not to disturb them with his constant weepings.
One night, he had a dream. He was told that his Spirit was in danger of breaking by his constant mourning...
He was told he could release his sorrow through music. For many weeks, he thought about the meaning of the dream...
One day, as he was walking in the woods, he heard new sounds. He followed the sound until he came upon a cedar grove... Some of the old cedars had left branches in which woodpeckers had drilled holes... Each time as the wind blew, it created a sweet and soothing sound...
Remembering his dream about his sorrow through music, he took inspiration from the cedar branch with the holes, and set forth to form an instrument...
Sometime later, he had made a flute...
The energy he had put into his tears and sorrow now, he put into his music, thus creating music of great Beauty and Love.
In doing so, he let go of his grief and sorrow, and conserved the wholeness of his Spirit...
Taken with permission from the video TOUBAT, a journey of the Native American Flute with Dr. Richard W. Payne