Ceremonial flute returned to Hopi Flute Clan

By Kathy Helms
Staff writer

FIRST MESA, Ariz. — Approximately six years after it was stolen, the ceremonial flute of the Hopi Flute Clan has been returned to its rightful owner.

Ivan Sidney, business manager for First Mesa Consolidated Villages — Walpi, Sichomovi and Tewa — said that at the request of Kikmongwi James Tewayguna of Walpi, he went to the investigator at the Hopi Tribe and asked about the case.

“On Hopi, I can’t do that unless the rightful authority asks me to. In this case, the Kikmongwi asked me, so I asked the investigator what was the status on that investigation, and I was immediately told that the federal and the tribal prosecutors declined to prosecute,” Sidney said.

“I told him that they need the flute because it has been absent from the ceremony. So he responded, ‘Come by and I will release it to you.’”

On Wednesday, Nov. 28, during a meeting of the First Mesa religious leaders, Sidney returned the ceremonial flute to the Kikmongwi.

“He was very elated. Others had attempted to recover it, including himself,” Sidney said. “I didn’t realize the significance, myself, of bringing it, because I didn’t have any problems retrieving it.”

Though Tewayguna was not Kikmongwi when the flute was stolen, Sidney said that when such an incident occurs, the religious leaders feel personally responsible. “But in his reign as Kikmongwi, that this is returned, it’s a good sign to him.”

Sidney wanted to surprise the Kikmongwi, so before the meeting of the traditional leaders — Katsin (Kachina) Mongwi Wayne Peesha and Soyal Mongwi Leo Lacapa Jr. — he kept calling the Kikmongwi’s spokesman, Lawrence Namoki, saying, “ ‘Is he going to be here? Is he going to be here?’ I didn’t want to say why,” Sidney said.

Namoki assured him that the Kikmongwi would be in attendance.

“So right at the start of the meeting,” after checking that Tewayguna was present, “I went out to my car and brought it in and gave it to the Kikmongwi,” Sidney said.

In a meeting later that week, Kikmongwi Tewayguna told the Independent, “The returning of the flute — the paraphernalia for the Flute Ceremony — to my clan, my people, is a great sign.” He said he felt there was a reason why it was returned, based on good for the people.

“I’ve been waiting for that for years, and it has not been returned. It has been absent in our ceremonies. But now that it is back, we will use it for the good of the people. It will be used to help benefit prosperity.”

Tewayguna said he, personally, had asked for the flute to be returned, “but for some reason they would not give it back to me.” He said he also spoke about it with his fellow traditional leaders, “and they’ve been telling me to go after it, but in time.”

He said he even asked Sidney to get it back for them, and said Sidney didn’t forget. Tewayguna told him, “They gave it to you, and I’m very grateful for that. It’s going to bring back the strengths to our society, and this is because of the goodness of our hearts.”

His eyes filled with tears, Tewayguna said that on the night he received the flute, “I got home and showed it to my wife — what I got back — and the emotion that was with it.” The next evening, the traditional leaders smoked over the ceremonial flute and welcomed it home.

Namoki, who is an artist and also a member of the Flute Clan, said he, too, is thankful the flute was returned without any controversy from the tribe, state, or federal authorities.

“That was the instrument, to me, that was going to bring the people together, to harmony,” Namoki said.

When he saw the flute upon its return, he said, “I saw some significant signs on the flute indicating the power that came through (it), that the religious leaders know.

Maybe it’s like ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ — to bring them back together,” he said.