One day between dances at a powwow I wandered back to the vendor's area to look for food and examine the crafts.  I was drawn to a circle of twig that had been woven and decorated with feathers and stones.  The weaving fascinated me.  How did they do it?  I studied the weaving for half an hour until I had satisfied my curiosity and went on.  The legend of the Dream-Catchers was lovely:    

The night air is filled with dreams.  Since ancient times Native American people have woven Dream-Catchers of twigs, sinew, and feathers.  It was woven by the grandfathers and grandmothers for newborn children and hung above the cradleboard to give the infants peaceful, beautiful dreams.  Good dreams are clear and know the way to the dreamer, descending through the feathers.  The slightest movement of the feathers indicated the   passage of yet another beautiful dream.  Bad dreams, however, are confused and confusing.  They cannot find their way through the web and are trapped there until the sun rises and evaporates them like the morning dew. 

Still, I had no intention of weaving even one Dream-Catcher.  A week later my friend, Deanie, called me to ask if I knew how to weave Dream-Catchers.  I said that I thought so.  She had an idea she wanted to play with, would I help her?  Not only did I find I could weave Dream-Catchers, new designs and better methods came to me.  It seemed very natural for me to do this work--even though I was a whiteman doing "Indian" things.  

The spirals danced and turned. 

"He has remembered how to listen with his heart.  Now he understands that Power is with him.  Someday he will know that Power is within him." 

"We had a moment of surprise when he did not begin to weave the Dream Catcher after we had shown him how to do so.   However, we always have a contingency plan to overcome the stubborn, reluctant, or unaware nature of humans." 

"The time has come.  Let that which has been hidden and forgotten be found and remembered." 

Eventually I decided to use natural materials and played with ways to form wood twigs and branches into rings.  My first Dream-Catchers looked like little snowshoes until I discovered I could split the imitation sinew into four strands.  Since it takes nearly fifteen feet of sinew to weave a small Dream-Catcher, it took a long time to pull sinew through and back for each loop.  Trying to increase my weaving speed, I hurt my shoulder and elbow.  Instead, I found I could wind the sinew around my fingers to form a shuttle held together by the beeswax on the thread.  This could be passed through the weaving and back in a second.  I had found an easier, economical way to weave. 

Most of the Dream-Catchers I had seen had feathers attached to the ring or glued to strips of buckskin.  They looked so rigid, so heavy, not light and free like dreams.  I developed an easy way to tie the feathers so that the sinew would disappear into the feathers and they seemed to dance and float.  To the remaining tails of sinew I could attach semi-precious gems.  It became unnecessary to use bulky pony beads made of plastic or painted wood.  And the energy of turquoise, topaz, jade, garnet, carnelian, lapis lazuli, malachite, hematite, citrine, moonstone, rose quartz, crystal quartz, peridot, and amethyst could be carried among the feathers to bring dreams of power, beauty and healing. 

Natural colorful feathers from wild birds were used at first until I was told that there was a serious penalty for using any feathers from migratory birds--thousands of dollars and time in jail!  So I found colorful, natural, and legal feathers of domesticated birds from commercial suppliers.  

My first Dream-Catcher was a simple mid-point weaving that I called:  

Power of the Circle Dream-Catchers--The circle represents the unbroken wholeness from which we draw our power and strength.  It is our Source of Being.  Everything is in the circle.  Within the circle the traditional people follow their ancient ways of connection to each other and to Mother Earth.  At the center of All That Is the Creator weaves the Web of Life spiralling from the known into the unknown.  Four orders of being--the rocks, water, and air; the trees, grasses, and flowers; the four-legged, winged, swimmers, and the crawlers; and the two-legged, the humans--are interdependent on each other and are one in the essential foundation of the universe. 

It is more than a catcher of dreams.  The spirals cross and interconnect creating a matrix of being, the Web of Life.  Although this weave was probably used to make the weaving of the hoop in the hoop and stick game, its later adaptation as a Dream-Catcher has served to teach the complexity of the spirals. 

Weaving a Dream-Catcher is an adventure of the heart, an intuitive and playful journey that connects the weaver with the natural world.  As we weave, we bring the other beings of Mother Earth to our thoughts.  We remember the plants as we handle the wood twig, the four-leggeds and winged ones as we use the feathers, the rocks and waters as we add the semi-precious gemstones.  We learn to honor them as though they were our own relatives.  Our hearts are brought into the Circle of All Beings as we weave the connections within the wood ring.  Even though the thread is very fine we are all connected and have much to learn from each other.  As we honor all the beings of creation, we bring honor and harmony to ourSelf.  Into each Dream-Catcher is magically woven the Dream of the Earth, and our connection to the Creation and the Creator unfolds.  Weaving the Dream-Catcher is much more than a craft project.  It is a meditation that will bring one into an awareness of the Creator, the Great Mystery, Who also abides in the heart of each of us.  Love flowing through the heart like a carrier wave modulated by power and wisdom is a creative and healing energy.  The Dream-Catcher is a three-dimensional tool to weave the connectedness of All Our Relations into a wholeness, a web of light and being.   

Over one thousand years ago the Aniishinabeg lived along the Atlantic Coast, one of the Algonkian peoples of the eastern woodlands.  Responding to Seven Prophets, some of the clans moved west along the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes looking for the promised island shaped like a turtle and "the food that grows on water." The Dream Catcher probably originated among the Canadian clans of the Aniishinabeg (Ojibwe), and spread to their U.S. cousins in Northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  The spider web Dream-Catcher may be seen in the Mille Lacs Indian Museum in central Minnesota, as a Dream-Catcher. Other Dream Catcher-like objects may be found in photographs or as artifacts, but not as Dream-Catchers.  For many years each tribe sold its own crafts.  Only Ojibwe people sold Dream-Catchers at the pow-wows.  In about the early 70's when the Dream-Catcher caught the imagination of white people, many craftspeople of other Native American tribes decided to take advantage of the growing market.   

Each tribe and clan, however, has its own oral tradition and memory.  Passing along that memory by storytelling has not been easy with the traditional culture challenged, the tribal languages falling into disuse, and poverty, drugs, and conflicting values have created a climate of fear, anger, despair, and confusion.  Now there are many legends of the Dream-Catcher from many different Native American cultures.  Sometimes Anishinabe tell the story of the Lakota Dream-Catcher with their own traditional spider web, and Lakota tell the "Shinob" story with their Dream-Catcher.  Authenticity is difficult, if not impossible, given the intermarriage among many tribes, with non-Indians, and the loss of the continuity historically provided by traditional elders.  I have encountered a few traditional elders who wanted to learn how to weave the Dream-Catcher but they could find no one in their community who would or could teach them how to weave the ancient designs of their culture.  They had come to me.   

The weaving pattern most often seen in Dream-Catchers and therefore usually mistaken as traditional, could be called the mid-point weave because it makes loops around the mid-point of each segment.  It leaves a sizeable opening in the center because originally it was used in the hoop and stick game found among many tribes.  Children, usually boys, would roll the woven hoop along the ground while another would try to throw a wooden spear through the opening.  Later as the Dream-Catcher was seen to have commercial potential, this commonly woven child's toy was adapted to making Dream-Catchers.  Now the purpose of the open center was to allow bad dreams, black and hard like pellets of hail, to continue on their way.  The good dreams, soft and fluffy like the down of the cottonwood tree, are caught in the weaving and slip down the feather to the dreamer.  A related form using the same weaving pattern is hung horizontally above the sleeper, suspended by a four-corner tepee-like hanger to honor the four directions.  This is the story of the mid-point weave Dream-Catcher from the Lakota:  

A very long time ago, Wichasha wakan went up onto a mountain to seek a vision so he could    help his people follow the good red road. Iktomi, the trickster and teacher, came to him in a vision as a spider. "Tankashila, grandfather, I will show you the wisdom of the circle and the power of dreams," he said.  Climbing into the holyman's hoop decorated with feathers, beads, and special offerings, Iktomi began to weave and tell the story of wisdom. "Do you see that life is a circle?  All beings are within the circle, each connected to the other by mere wisps.  Many cannot see their connection to the others.  These will injure themselves as they do harm to others," he said.  "They've forgotten the Original nstructions." 

He wove around and around the circle each time moving closer and closer to the center. "Do you see that the path leads to the Great Mystery in you?  As you touch all your relations in this journey you can become wise or you can remain foolish.  Honor them and they will show you how to walk the good road that leads to the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka.  There are many forces and many choices."   

Iktomi gave the woven hoop to the holy man and said, "Wakan Tanka will send you wonderful teachings in your dreams to guide your footsteps. Hang this above your the place where you sleep.  Each night as you rest, your good dreams and your visions of truth and harmony will be caught in this web.  They will stay with you to return again and again in your dreams.  Foolish dreams make a man or woman hard inside so their heart gets very small. Such dreams will fly   through the hole in the center and fly into the sky.  There the un will burn them into an ash and paint the darkness of night.  If you honor the Great Spirit with your prayers this web will catch dreams that make you wise and happy."       

Wichasha Wakan thanked Iktomi and returned to his people to show them what he had learned.  He showed them how to weave twigs and sinew, feathers and stones or beads to    remember All Our Relations, mitakuye oyasin. And in the weaving he placed one bead to remember the spider who had taught him how to catch dreams.  

The contributions of the Native American people to this White Nation has been generally ignored and lost in history. Imagine cooking without tomatoes or peppers, a picnic without potato salad, a world without canoes or hammocks,  representative government or the equality of women.  These are the some of the many contributions of Native American cultures that flourished long before Columbus got lost on his voyage to the Orient.  Perhaps you can get along without corn, beans, squash, or wild rice.  Some families cannot imagine a night without Dream Catchers.  "Ever since I made a Dream Catcher for my daughter she hasn't complained of bad dreams.  My son even takes his Dream Catcher with him when we go on vacation," a mother volunteered a few years ago.  For thousands of years Native Americans have woven Dream Catchers to provide dreams of goodness and beauty for their children.  Yet the Dream Catcher is not for children alone. 

After teaching several thousand people, I developed Dream Catcher weaving kits with illustrated instruction books.  A man in Pennsylvania gave one to his mother who worked in a nursing home.  She wove it for an old Jewish man who had survived the Nazi death camps but not the nightmares of those times.  She gave it to him and told him the legend of the Dream Catcher.  His nightmares did not return. He lived the end of his life in peace. 

"Now he is ready.  He is grounded in the knowledge of one people's way of knowing--they call it science-- and another people's wisdom and love of Mother Earth and Father Sky." 

"But is his heart still open?  Can he approach life with joy and a light heart?" 

"Yes!  That's the amazing part!  He has not forgotten how to be a playful connection between Mother Earth and Father Sky!" 

"Then he will be able to hear with his heart?  He will be able to tell our stories?" 

"At first he will think that he is the one who is being inventive and creative.  We will let him think that for a few years.  The time will come when we will show him that he is a co-creator of the stories, that they do not originate with him.  We must be careful to avoid inflating his ego.  He has many surprises ahead." 

"There is a fine distinction between being humble and having a low self-esteem.  The only way to receive the power that is naturally his begins with a sense of worthiness.  Then with a balance of open mind and open heart he can accept the gifts of being fully human." 

"Yes, we will arrange for him to experience the possibilities slowly enough so that he understands that Who is the giver and what is the receiver.  He must know the difference between Allen as 'WHO' and Allen as 'what.'  Allen as 'what' is always being born and dying.  Allen as 'WHO' is beyond all limitation." 

"His training as a scientist and as a teacher should give him the capacity to speak and to do so with a breadth of knowledge.  With the wisdom of the spirals he can become a bridge, a rainbow bridge, to a balanced way of being human.  He will Sing the Songs and Dance the Spiral."   

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White Eagle Soaring: Dream Dancer of the 7th Fire