Native American Technology and Art includes wonderful photos of Ojibwe dream catchers (including one protecting a baby) as well as illustrated instructions for making the dream catcher. Densmore describes articles representing spider webs that were "usually hung from the hoop of a child's cradle board." They were said to 'catch and hold everything evil as a spider's web catches and holds everything that comes into contact with it'. These 'dream catchers' were wooden hoops, three and a half inches in diameter, "filled with a web made of nettle-stalk cord that was dyed red with bloodroot and wild plum inner bark." The weave of the dream catcher photographed in Densmore's work is different from that usually done today. By the early 1900's, dark red yarn had been substituted for plant fiber in constructing the web by the Ojibwe.
The following story was recorded November 1, 1995, in response to a question about the first origin of Dream Catchers. Lyn Dearborn was the storyteller.
Origin of the Dream Catcher
Long ago in the ancient world of the Ojibwe Nation, the Clans were all located in one general area of that place known as Turtle Island. This is the way that the old Ojibwe storytellers say how Asibikaashi (Spider Woman) helped Wanabozhoo bring giizis (sun) back to the people. To this day, Asibikaashi will build her special lodge before dawn. If you are awake at dawn, as you should be, look for her lodge and you will see this miracle of how she captured the sunrise as the light sparkles on the dew which is gathered there.
Asibikaasi took care of her children, the people of the land, and she continues to do so to this day. When the Ojibwe Nation dispersed to the four corners of North America, to fill a prophecy, Asibikaashi had a difficult time making her journey to all those cradle boards, so the mothers, sisters, and Nokomis (grandmothers) took up the practice of weaving the magical webs for the new babies using willow hoops and sinew or cordage made from plants. It is in the shape of a circle to represent how giizis travels each day across the sky. The dream catcher will filter out all the bad dreams and allow only good thoughts to enter into our minds. A small hole in the center of each dream catcher allows the good dreams to come through. With the first rays of sunlight, the bad dreams perish. Bad dreams may be malicious in intent or simply unimportant fleeting images. Good dreams may be quite disturbing yet still have a very important message for the dreamer.
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