HUM 6375 – Arts and Human Development

Dream Catcher

Because a young person is all about dreams for their futures, I selected a Dream Catcher for this week's Creative Practice. They are easy to construct using wire, yarn, bits of feathers, and beads. They can even be made using an embroidery hoop and a doily to create one faster. Feathers can be dipped in glitter or hand painted. You can put pretty gem stones or rocks on them or basically anything you like as decoration.

According to dreamcatcher.org (“Native American Dream Catcher,” n.d.), a website dedicated to the history of dream catchers, Native American originally made their dream catcher hoops from red willow branches and covered with sage. They used deer sinew for the webbing. Today's dream catchers are made with wood or metal wrapped in leather strips because deer sinew is no longer allowed. The individual artisan’s imagination determines the decoration of the web along with the shape, size and colors used. Feathers attached to the dream catcher are meant to assist the flight of positive dreams.

While the legend of the Native American dream catcher is slightly different for each tribe, the main theme is to allow positive dreams to slip through the web and into the sleeper during the night while the negative dreams were caught in the web and would die at morning light. The Lakota Legend has the opposing belief that the web will catch your positive ideas and the negative ones will go through the hole.

 

According to legend, the earliest dream catchers, also called “sacred hoops,” were crafted as protection for Native American children. Newborns were given charms woven in the shape of webs to protect their dreams and innocence from the troublemakers of the night. They would hang the dream catcher charm on the baby’s bed.

I found this paragraph very interesting and appropriate for our studies in arts and human development:

“Long ago when the word was sound, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and searcher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. As he spoke, Iktomi the spider picked up the elder’s willow hoop, which had feathers, horsehair, beads and offerings on it, and began to spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life, how we begin our lives as infants, move on through childhood and on to adulthood. Finally we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle.

But, Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, in each time of life there are many forces, some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they’ll steer you in the wrong direction and may hurt you. So these forces can help, or can interfere with the harmony of Nature. While the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web.

When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the elder the web and said, The web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to help your people reach their goals, making good use of their ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will filter your good ideas and the bad ones will be trapped and will not pass.

The elder passed on his vision onto the people and now many Indian people have a dream catcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good will pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The evil in their dreams are captured in the web, where they perish in the light of the morning sun. It is said the dream catcher holds the destiny of the future.” (“Lakota Dream Catcher History,” n.d.)

History of Dream Catchers. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dream-catchers.org/history-of-dream-catchers/

Lakota Dream Catcher History. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dream-catchers.org/lakota-dream-catcher-history/

Native American Dream Catcher. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dream-catchers.org/native-american-dream-catcher/