Medicine Fetish
(Adorned Antlers)

The antlers of the male deer, or buck, were considered to be a blessing of love.   Native Americans named the deer, Mitawa, or Loved One.  The webbing in the fork of the antlers designates the close bonding of the family and extended families.   Beads, feathers, fetishes and other items were of individual choice and considered personal blessings.  Antlers, shields, headdresses and other tokens of 'good medicine' were hung or placed on the west wall liner of the lodge or teepee to face the entrance, always opening to the East to greet the morning sun.

Antlers are genuine, harvested in locations where deer shed horns early in the New Year.  Modern sinew and legal fur and feathers, with beads and fetishes are used in the adornments.  Some antlers are very weathered, having lain undiscovered for several seasons.  Others are newly shed and fine grained resembling hard wood.   Priced according to size, some have a span at the fork of the points of 3 or 4 inches, some have four points and two forks and the entire span is 16 to 20 inches.