According to Native Americans, dreams that humans have while they sleep, are sent by sacred spirits as messages. According to their Legend, in the center of the Dream Catcher there is a hole. Good dreams are permitted to reach the sleeper through this hole in the web. As for the bad dreams, the web traps them and they disappear at dawn with the first light. For some, they try to determine what messages are being past onto them and what the message represents.
The Dream Catcher represents several meanings. All of the decorations and materials used to decorate them, all have a special meaning. A single bead in the middle may represent the spider that is on the web. Scattered beads throughout the web may represent good dreams that may have been caught throughout the night. A feather represents a symbol of breath or air which is attached so it hangs from the center of the ring. It is essential for life. A baby watching the air playing with the feather on her cradleboard was entertained while also being given a lesson on the importance of good air.
This lesson comes forward in the way that the feather of the Owl is kept for wisdom (a woman’s feather); & the Eagle feather is kept for courage (a man’s feather). This is not to say that the use of each is restricted by gender; but that to use the feather each is aware of the gender properties she/he is invoking. (Indian people, in general, are very specific about gender roles and identity.)
The use of gem stones, in some of the ones we make for sale, is not something that was done by the old ones. Government laws forbid the sale of feathers from our sacred birds. These include ALL Birds of Prey and include Hawk feathers, Bald Eagle feathers, Owl feather, Turkey Vulture feathers, and so on. Incorporating four gem stones into the Dream Catcher, is used to represent the four directions. Nature represents the spiritual inspiration in each.
Storytelling has been passed down through the generations; from parent to child, grandparent to grandchild, or from one person to another. This is how the message continues to be passed on to future generations.
Throughout all of history, almost every culture and person has placed important significance on the true meaning of their dreams. Today, our dreams are just as powerful a force in many peoples’ lives, as they were back with all of our Ancestors. Mainly, because of the meanings that are discovered in them. Regardless if your dreams are good or bad, they can confuse, inspire, or upset the dreamer.
Within the Ojibwe Tribe, dreams, or visions in the night, were so vital that children were not given a name until a “namer” (an individual designated to name the child) after the individual had a dream about what name should be given to the child. This “namer” may have also given the child a charm that was woven in the design to resemble the web of a spider so as to protect the infant’s dreams. This, along with the remaining child’s toys, such as bells, shells and pouches made of leather, this “dream catcher” was hung on the child’s cradleboard by the hoop.
In the book, Chippewa Customs, (Ojiibwe) written by Frances Densmore and published in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society Press explains about the Ojibwe/Chippewa Tribe in the early 1900’s. In the book, the author describes how the articles that represent the spider webs were said to: “…catch and hold everything evil as a spider’s web catches and holds everything that comes into contact with it.”
Dream Catchers, also known as Spider Web Charms, are believed to trap unimportant or bad dreams that float in the air, pretty much the way a spider traps insects that flies into its web.
The Ojibwe Tribe were the very first to design these decorations to protect their infants against bad dreams that could possibly come throughout the night. Both bad and good dreams were caught within the web, but only the good dreams were permitted to slide down along the feathers to the infants head. Thus, the bad dreams would become lost within the web and would not be able to find the way to the infant. By morning, when the sun rays would bring in light to the child’s room, it would destroy the bad dreams.