Hawk Littlejohn

Hawk Littlejohn (June 12, 1941 – December 14, 2000) is considered one of America's greatest contemporary Native American flute makers. At the time of his death, he was living in Old Fort, North Carolina, where he made his flutes and kept alive his native Cherokee traditions with his wife Geri LittleJohn. He made flutes from early in life and began selling them as a business in 1990 under the name Woodsong Flutes. These flutes were highly respected for beauty of tone and form. After Hawk's death, Geri continued making flutes, initially under the name Green Grass Flutes and later as Wicozani Flutes. Hawk's expertise in Native American medicine afforded him a position as adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's medical school, and as a cultural consultant for the Smithsonian Institution and the North Carolina Museum of History. He also wrote essays on Cherokee life, traditions, spirituality, and medicine in a column called "Good Medicine" for the Keetoowah Journal. An important aspect of Hawk's spirituality was his commitment to environmentalism and the connectedness of all life. The flute was his connection with the past and the future, and he combined historical and modern methods in its making. Like many flute makers, Hawk often used dead wood, scrap wood, or salvaged wood especially due to the quality of wood in the wild and of old growth wood used in the old buildings. He used a modern lathe to shape the flute, but burned the holes in the traditional fashion with heated steel rods. His wife Geri sanded, tuned, and voiced the flutes that they made together from 1992-2000. His flutes are collected and played by flutists all over the world. Many flute makers find inspiration from Hawk Littlejohn's nature-themed symbolic flute designs and original hand-carved details.

Contents

• Hawk still soars jonathan c ward native american flute hawk littlejohn
• Hawk littlejohn werner john custom lake spirit flute
• Films
• References

Hawk Is the father of five children. Three daughters and two sons. Starting from oldest to youngest, Sondra Kay LittleJohn, Kimberly Evelyn LittleJohn, Bow Hook Synder LittleJohn, Joshua Snowhawk LittleJohn, Beth Risingfawn LittleJohn.

Films

Songkeepers (1999, 48 min.). Directed by Bob Hercules and Bob Jackson. Produced by Dan King. Lake Forest, Illinois: America's Flute Productions. Five distinguished traditional flute artists - Tom Mauchahty-Ware, Sonny Nevaquaya, R. Carlos Nakai, Hawk Littlejohn, Kevin Locke – talk about their instrument and their songs and the role of the flute and its music in their tribes.