Anasazi flute with thumb hole?

[Tunborough]

There's lore (probably faulty) that says that the Dakota called it "good-for-nothing tree".

My mother would agree with them. Hate's the stuff.

Apparently they never made flutes out of it...

Perhaps that's it; she hasn't tried that either.

[Nanohedron]

Isn't this just completely fictitious romantic writing, perhaps typical of the period? ... But the report strikes me as imaginary, although wonderfully evocative.

Yeah, I find it a bit hard to believe too, but you never know, at least about some of it. He really lost my credulity at this:

...shook the dust and mouse dung out of it, and placed it to my lips.

First there's the on-the-spot disregard for hygiene. Still, I suppose pluck like that is what makes a tomb raider. But wait...never mind leaving droppings, how does a mouse fit into a flute bore of only just over half an inch diameter? Or did it use the finger holes like a toilet?

I think you see my dilemma.

[michaelpthompson]

Earl Morris the archaeologist, reprinted on flutopedia:

I picked up one of the flutes, shook the dust and mouse dung out of it, and placed it to my lips. The rich, quavering tones which rewarded even my unskilled touch seemed to electrify the atmosphere. In the distance Navajo workmen paused with shovels poised, seeking the source of the sound. A horse raised its head and neighed from an adjacent hillside and two crows flapped out from a crevice overhead.

I have to say that it seems highly improbable that an archaeologist could just pick up one of these and start playing, and produce the tone described.

I have to admit, I had the same misgivings when I read that, and they were magnified when it was reported that they didn't even want to disturb the yucca fibers that bound two flutes together, while he actively tried to play one

I rather assumed that he knew more about flutes than was let on, but this is a bit problematic to explain. Archaeology was definitely different in the 1930s than today, as evidenced by the stories of the Weatherill brothers around Mesa Verde, if you read them.