| Salt Lake City |
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| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Flutist plays spirit's tune
Performer on torch run never took a lesson
By Sharon Haddock
Deseret News staff writer
PLEASANT GROVE — When a Salt Lake Organizing Committee official asked for a tape of the flute solo Nagki Nupa Woodhouse would play at Delicate Arch on the eve of Utah's Torch relay run, the Sioux Indian couldn't give him one.
He had to wait for The Great Spirit to tell him what to play.
Woodhouse is Cheyenne, Sioux and Caucasian, part of what he calls "the shadow culture." He's known in Pleasant Grove as Greg Woodhouse, and to his children and wife as "Two Spirits Face The Wind" because his blood is of two cultures.
"It's sacred," Woodhouse said, seemingly unabashed at the enormousness of the assignment he took on, playing a simple song on a wooden flute in the frigid air before a worldwide audience of 3.5 billion people.
"It was a great honor for me," he said. "It's such a beautiful setting. It's like standing in the eye of God."
Woodhouse has never taken a flute lesson. He doesn't really find it remarkable that he can play hauntingly beautiful pieces anyway.
"I think it's something inside of you," he said. "I think having a red heart is part of it."
Before Feb. 4, he hadn't played in the public arena before.
He's more in the habit of using the flute to court his wife as his ancestors once did for their women. Or he takes "Morning Rain" (Lori) and his children into the local canyons, where he plays flute for the wildlife in a perfectly balanced acoustic environment.
"If you sit still and play, you'd be amazed at the animals there are to see: coyotes, cougars, black bear, eagles," Woodhouse said. "I just enjoy the outdoors."
He was very cold the morning of the start of the torch run. His wife thought his fingers would freeze in the 12 degree chill.
"At the end, these two fingers wouldn't move," Woodhouse said. "It wasn't easy. It was cold."
Actually, the fact that his fingers move deftly over the flute's holes is amazing anyway.
He doesn't type. He fumbles with the touch pad on the telephone and, according to his wife and a friend, Ken Brunsvold, he is hopeless on the computer.
But he's remarkably at home with the hand-carved cedar wood flute Brunsvold has made for him. He's even planning to cut a compact disc with Brunsvold that will include the "We Are One" melody.
"I call the song 'We Are One' because I think that's what the Olympics have been, seeing all the different peoples all showing an interest in Indians and in the Western culture. America is one people today. There's such a blend of cultures."
Woodhouse said on the morning of the relay's start, a raven that often circles the arch landed and chittered at him. He felt the bird was trying to tell him that even the animals recognize the unity the Olympics brings to a place.
And Woodhouse is serious about bringing about more unity.
"The Olympics is not about money for some of us. It's about people, the mountains, our beautiful environment," he said.
He has put his tepee up at Soldier Hollow and taken visitors on tours while he plays the flute for them. He mans a booth at Wasatch High School where he sells artifacts and educates people about the American Indian culture.
He and his children take part every year in the ceremonies at Fort Bridger.
He and Brunsvold plan to open a tourist booth at the north entrance to Yellowstone Park this summer.
He feels strongly about encouraging both an interest in heritage and a pride in being who you are.
"If I can do any little thing to make young Native Americans proud, I'm happy to do it," he said. "I tell them to be yourself, to try to have some integrity."
He's even designed a limited edition Olympic pin that captures in metal five Indian feathers that represent the five main Utah Indian tribes and the dream-catcher's net, which he says, has allowed the "good dream of the Olympics" to pass through the tiny center opening.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com
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February 23, 2002
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