Love charms, rituals, and magic objects were used by many societies to gain control over the heart and emotions of the desired person. Amulets, potions, or special words in the form of incantations or spells may also have been part of love magic or love medicine.
Both men and women in American Indian societies use love magic, which was most complicated in societies where the young men and women were separated. "In some societies, flute music was considered particularly seductive to women and so was widely used in courting. A special bird-bone whistle summoned a Flathead maiden to an evening tryst." (Niethammer, 1977)
Northern California coastal Pomo Indian girls would make a charm consisting of four white feathers and four hairs from the boy she admired. The charm would be hung high in a tree for the wind to blow. Apache girls sought the knowledge of special women who would cast a love spell using symbols of the sun, water, and the sacred butterfly. Zuni men would carry a fragment of a woman's clothing in their pocket or headband.
The Menominee people of the Great Lakes region create a male and female doll, each named after the husband and wife. These love dolls are made of wood and dressed in colorful beaded garments. They are tied together, facing each other, to ensure faithfulness. Pottawatomi Indians, also of the Great Lakes region, used dolls as charms to make one person fall in love with another.
Niethammer, C., Daughters of the Earth, Collier, New York, 1977