Imagine choosing a boyfriend by the sound of his flute.

The courting traditions of American Indians will be just one of the topics explained by T’Chin, a renowned flute player and storyteller who will perform as part of the American Indian Symposium. T’Chin will be performing for free 8 p.m. Wednesday in the atrium of the College of Design.

“T’Chin does story-telling as well as flute-playing so the the stories of how the melodies were made will be told,” said Irma Wilson-White, program assistant with Minority Student Affairs.

“Each flute is kind of a representation of that person,” said Lynn Paxson, associate professor of architecture.

The music of the flute was said to be heard first by a “love-sick young man who couldn’t get the affection of a young woman.” To “nurse his broken heart,” he retreated into the woods, Wilson-White explained. There, he was comforted by the sound of the wind blowing through a branch with holes pecked out by woodpeckers, she said.

Since then, one of the roles of flute-playing is said to be to help with courting.

Many of the songs composed by T’Chin were inspired by nature and have titles like “Sky Gift” or “Pacific Sunset.”

Flute songs can also “recreate the experience of the home place” and listeners can pick out the sounds of burbling streams or wind whistling through pines, Paxson said. Songs are used in American Indian culture “to teach, tell a story, pass on information, and give lessons about values and ethics,” she added.

American Indian flutes are hand-made from wood and can give clues about the maker’s physical self. They are held vertically, rather than sideways, and sound like a low recorder, Paxson said.

Because of his heritage with both the Blackfoot and Narragansett Nations, T’Chin has been able to draw from two cultures, Wilson-White said.

T’Chin fulfills the teaching role by “talking to people who don’t often hear about native background, and trying to get the word out” Paxson said. She added that T’Chin earned the honor of being a visiting artist at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and calls him a “multitalented” person.

Designing jewelry made of semiprecious stones is another of T’Chin’s talents, and he will give a talk about his jewelry Friday, said Wilson White.

“I’ve heard about T’Chin all my life and this is the first time I’ll get to meet him in person,” said Wesley White, senior in liberal studies.

“The [American Indian] flute-players I’ve seen and watched don’t use sheet music,” said Katherine Burns, junior in political science. “It’s like hearing pure art.”