Slender Corn Maiden

This gracefully slender corn maiden was carved by Carl Etsate from antler.  It has inlaid jet and turquoise eyes, a catlinite mouth, and inlaid turquoise dots in the body.  The corn kernels are beautifully detailed, as is her long hair down her back.  More about corn maidens below.

Size: 3.75" H x .5" Diameter

Corn maidens represent everything good about being a woman: strong, kind, compassionate, nurturing, and powerful.  There are many Indigenous stories about how corn was brought to the people at a time when there was hunger, and how a sacred, sometimes other worldly, female being brought them corn.  Corn maidens come with a card detailing the meaning, the carver, and the material they are carved from.

Traditionally, Zuni carvings are symbolically fed cornmeal.   Each Zuni fetish comes in a box with a descriptive card and a tiny bit of corn meal to tide them over until they reach you.