This buckskin wrapped medicine wheel dance stick is approximately 5 1/2 inches wide and approximately 27 inches long. It contains real deer antler medallions, glass crow beads, and/or brass beads and cones. The feathers are duck feathers.

Dance sticks, or dance staffs, as they are sometimes called, are a medicine stick that represents personal totems, the good of the people as a whole or world unity, as represented by the circle, and prayers.

The deerskin and deer antler medallions symbolize gentleness and understanding. Dance staffs are often part of the regalia carried by modern day pow wow male dancers.

The medicine wheel is an important cultural symbol for most american indian tribes. The Medicine Wheel is representative of American Indian Spirituality. It symbolizes the individual journey we each must take to find our own path.

Within the Medicine Wheel are The Four Cardinal Directions and the Four Sacred Colors. The Circle represents the Circle of Life and the Center of the Circle, the Eternal Fire.

The circle represents unity, continuity, infinity, completeness, and wholeness. A circle is a form without beginning or end. It is a smooth form, no rough sides to stick out and cause trouble. It rolls with the flow. It is a round river rock that issues flow over.

Most everything in nature is round: tree trunks, rocks, planets, the human body, most plant stems, and lakes. Just about everything in nature is found in fours, and this is a sacred number in most native american cultures. The human heart has four chambers, humans and most animals have four primary limbs, most animals have four large claws on each foot.

We have four senses: sight, sound, taste, and smell. We divide our lives into four phases: infancy, childhood, adulthood, old age. There are four human races: red, yellow, black and white.

There are four cardinal directions, four seasons, four sacred colors, four natural elements: earth, air, water and fire. There are four primary colors, from which all other colors are derived. We elect our president for four year terms. Four also signifies union, because it is made up of pairs.

The pictures shown are representative. Because this is a one-of-a-kind hand crafted item, each will vary slightly from the one pictured. If you have a preference for bead colors, let us know in the comments section of the order form.

Allow up to two weeks for completion of this item, plus shipping time. This item can be shipped internationally. If additional shipping charges outside the continental US apply, we will contact you with the amount after your order is placed.

This item can be shipped internationally. Read the artist's profile and see more of her work.