The purpose of this guide is to provide a helpful reference to buyers shopping for fetish jewelry on eBay. The presence of one or or more of these beads on an item of jewelry does not necessarily mean that the jewelry is not Native Indian made, only that certain of the fetishes were not carved by Native Indians. Fetish jewelry strung (but not carved) by Native Indians is very common on Internet auction sites, but does not have nearly the value of jewelry that has that has been entirely created by the carver.

If an item that you are considering buying is attributed to a specific carver or beader, you can almost always find other examples of his/her work on the Internet. You can also sometimes discover who carved certain fetishes through careful Internet research.

Here are nine examples of commercially available fetishes:

Bears

Figure 1. Standing Bear - Assorted Gemstones

Figure 2. Another Popular Standing Bear - Bone (Available in many other materials)

Figure 3. Large Walking Bear - Assorted Gemstones

Figure 4. Small Walking Bear - Assorted Gemstones

Figure 5. Zuni Bear Pendants  - Assorted Gemstones

Figure 6. Zuni Bear Beads - Rhyolite

Birds

Figure 7. Assorted Central Birds - Assorted Gemstones

Figure 8. Assorted Bird Fetishes - Assorted Gemstones

Figure 9. Hummingbirds - Assorted Gemstones

Please see Part II of this series for more examples of commercially available Native Indian style fetishes.