Anyone know what this old movie is?

We used to watch this old movie in music class back in the late 1980's, about this man who carves this little indian sitting in a boat and he burns in the bottom of it please put me back in the water. Then he releases it down this river and the movie goes on to show all these different places it ends up and the people who took it out of the water from all over the world and they keep putting it back to keep him going. Thats about all I remember of it as I haven't seen it since I was a child anyone know the title of this movie is?