March 16th, 2015

I realized that I have never posted pictures of all of my dreamcatchers, so I thought I might do that today, and also explain some of their history. In order, from newest to oldest, these are mine:

Made by my friend Destiny, she gave me this as an early birthday gift just last Friday.

A gift from my grandma, I received this one perhaps a year or two ago. She wasn't sure I would want it, so take from that what you will about her understanding of my interests.

If you dig way back through my posts on this blog, you will see that I went to Niagara Falls a few years ago. There was a Native American woman there selling traditional, handmade dreamcatchers, and I was more than happy to purchase one.

A Yule gift from my Aunt C, I've had this one for probably four or five years now.

My oldest dreamcatcher, I purchased this one while on a sixth grade field trip to Springfield. As I recall, I got it in a gift shop located in a reproduction of Abraham Lincoln's home town.

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Dreamcatchers were originally created by the Ojibwe-speaking people of the North American Great Lakes region, primarily in Canada, but extending south into the American states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and etcetera. The Ojibwe words for dreamcatcher include asabikeshiinh, the inanimate form of the word "spider", and bawaajige nagwaagan, meaning "dream snare".

In the 1960s and 1970s, during the beginning of the Pan-Indian (later the Pan-Aboriginal) Movement, Native Americans sought to unite their efforts for the protection of the rights of native peoples in the United States, and the dreamcatcher became a symbol of the First Nations. Some Native Americans, however, do see dreamcatcher as being over-commercialized, or even culturally appropriative, and it is important to bear that in mind.

According to Ojibwe legend, Asibikaashi, or Spider Woman, cared for the children of the native people. As the Ojibwe people spread across North America, it became harder for Asibikaashi to look after all of the children, so the mothers and grandmothers made magical webs for the children by tying sinew cord around willow hoops. The dreamcatchers filtered out bad thoughts, only letting good ones enter the mind during sleep.

The willow frames were traditionally either round or teardrop shaped, and the string tied in a fashion similar to snowshoe webbing. They could then be decorated with feathers and beads.

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I am not Native American, and the brief history presented above was researched entirely on the web. It is not my place to comment on the trend of non-Natives using dreamcatchers, but I think it is important to remember that they are special objects and deserve to be treated as such. If you want to buy one, support actual Native Americans and purchase from them rather than getting cheap knock-offs, if at all possible.