to reach your goals and make use of your people's ideas, dreams and visions. 'Use the web to help yourself and your people. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the Lakota elder the web and said, 'See, the web is a perfect circle, but there is a hole in the center of the circle.” starting from the outside and working toward the center. He continued, 'There are many forces and different directions that can help or interfere with the harmony of nature and also with the Great Spirit and all of his wonderful teachings.”Īll while the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer you in the wrong direction.' If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. 'But,' Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, 'in each time of life there are many forces - some good and some bad. Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, thus, completing the cycle.

We then move on to childhood and in to adulthood. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life and how we begin our lives as infants. As Iktomi spoke, he took the elder's willow hoop - which had feathers, horse hair, beads and offerings on it - and began to spin a web. Only spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. In his vision, Iktomi - the great trickster and teacher of wisdom - appeared in the form of a spider. Long ago, when the world was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain. It is believed that dream catchers were originated by the Ojibwa people, but Lakota people (indigenous group from North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska, aka Teton Sioux) also made them.Īccording to the Lakota people, the story of dream catchers is the following:

They cannot find their way through the web and are trapped there until the sun rises and evaporates them like the morning dew. Bad dreams, however, are confused and confusing. The slightest movement of the feathers indicated the passage of yet another beautiful dream. Good dreams are clear and know the way to the dreamer, descending through the feathers. Dream catchers have been woven since ancient times by Ojibwa people- an indigenous group from the United States (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota) and Canada (Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba).Īccording the the Ojibwa people, the night air is filled with dreams. We have all seen dream catchers in cars, tattoos, t-shirts, above beds, on stickers, and many other places, but what is the story behind them?īesides being dazzling and full of amazment, dream catchers are quite an intriguing Native American tradition.

Where did the dream catcher originate