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Native Americans or Indians as some wish to be called Being spiritual and having a very close link with nature use many different devices to bring about health, love , spiritual wealth etc . Probably the best known of these worldwide is the Dreamcatcher . It is uncertain as to which tribe of Indians first used it but a few have stories or legends about them .
The Lakota (Sioux) legend of the Dreamcatcher talks of an old Lakota spiritual leader who whilst on a high mountain had a vision about Iktomi the great teacher of wisdom . Iktomi appeared as a spider and spoke in a sacred language only the spiritual leader would understand . Whilst Iktomi spoke he took the leaders willow hoop which contained beads , feathers and offerings to the gods and began to spin a web upon it . He told the leader about the cycle of life , beginning as infants and working through childhood to adulthood and on to old age where we end up being looked after as infants. Iktomi gave the web to the leader and told him that if he believed in great spirits the web would catch his good dreams and ideas and bad ones would pass through the hole in the middle thus helping the leader and his people to realize their dreams, ideas and visions .
They Lakota now hang Dreamcatchers above their beds so that all their good are captured in the web and are carried with them .
The Ojibwe (Chippewa) Have long been know for their story telling and deep belief in the spirit world and are considered as being the first tribe to have used the Dreamcatcher . It is told that they were originally hung above a babies cradle to trap bad dreams in the web whilst only good dreams being smart fined their way to the center hole and slip down the feathers to the sleeping infant . Dreams are considered by the Ojibwe to be messages from the spirit world .
Quite who really used them first I guess will remain a mystery , but today almost all Native Americans are able to make and know the stories behind Dreamcatchers , Medicine Wheels , Mandellas etc all of which are now sold world wide.
At this point I would like to add my own story .
The problem with dreams being messages from the spirit world is that as well as good spirits there are also bad spirits . The good spirits always give people dreams to help them in their lives but bad spirits give people anything from bad dreams to nightmares .
When the ancestors of the present day Indians first came to America some 4,00 years ago the country was already steeped in mystery and it wasn't long they began to become at one with nature and the spirit worlds . As various Indian tribes began to appear each had its own spirit leader who looked to provide them with guidance. Unfortunately they would also be guided wrongly by the bad spirits . Some just accepted this as part of nature , but some such as the Ojibwe didn't settle for being guided wrongly and so set about trying to find a way to divert the bad dreams and visions . So that only the good dreams and visions would be seen . Various ways were tried including both gifts and sacrifices given not the good spirits but to the bad spirits to try and keep them away . This proved to be totally unsuccessful and brought about the appearance of medicine men and Shaman in an attempt to put things right . As most visions appeared in dreams they began trying to find a way of trapping bad dreams . At this time they had many hanging totems such as the Medicine Wheel .
A Shaman who had been very ill and plagued with bad dreams and visions slept with a Medicine Wheel hanging above him in an attempt to make himself well . During the night a spider found its way down to the wheel and began to spin a web . In a very short time the web covered the wheel but for a small hole in the center . As if it was intended an Owl flying above in the dark of night shed a feather which floated down and as if guided caught in the web , hanging as if intended from the center hole . As the sun came up in the morning the Shaman woke not having had any bad dreams and the illness having gone . He looked around at the Medicine wheel feeling that this had made him well and was amazed to see the web and feather covering the wheel . From that day the Dreamcatcher was born and was hung above not only babies but also adults as they slept .
Their use today , unfortunately , is ornamental except in Indian homes where the beliefs still go on . Many believe that Dreamcatchers should not be sold but given away and should be made in the traditional way using Willow hoops and nettle sinew as the web allowing the Dreamcatcher to eventually rot and fall apart taking all the bad dreams and visions with it .
There are still many more people than you would expect that do not know of the Dreamcatcher and even may more that don't understand them . I think today a Dreamcatcher needs to be personalized as unlike the Indians of old ,our lives are varied and individual .
The future of the Dreamcatcher is unsure . Within strong Indian bands they will survive in their original form being handed down from generation to generation .
As for the rest of the world they will have to take on a different form to survive , The addition of European beliefs and tokens such as Runes being added to bring the joining of the Indians spirit world with the European beliefs .
Who knows maybe in the future the Dreamcatcher will symbolize the coming together of many nations on a spiritual level never before realized .
By P.J.Mitchell (1999)
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