Native American Folklore
Long ago when the world was young, in the ancient
world of the Ojibwe Nation, the Clans were all located
in one general area of that place known as Turtle
Island. An old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high
mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi,
the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared
in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a
sacred language that only the spiritual leaders of
the Lakota could understand. As he spoke Iktomi, the
spider took the elder's willow hoop (which had feathers,
horse hair, beads and offerings on it) and began to
spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles
of life ... and how we begin our lives as infants
and we move on to childhood, and then to adulthood.
Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care
of as infants, completing the cycle.
"But," Iktomi said as he continued to spin
his web, "in each time of life there are many
forces - some good and some bad. Different directions
can help or interfere with the harmony of nature,
and also with the Great Spirit and all of his wonderful
teachings. If you listen to the good forces, they
will steer you in the right direction. But if you
listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer
you in the wrong direction."
All the while the spider spoke, he continued to weave
his web starting from the outside and working toward
the center. 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."
He
said, "Use the web to help yourself and your
people to reach your goals and make good use of your
people's ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe
in the great spirit, the good in their dreams are
captured in the web of life and carried with them
...but the evil in their dreams escapes through the
hole in the center of the web and are no longer a
part of them ." The Lakota elder passed on his
vision to his people and now the Sioux Indians use
the dream catcher as the web of their life.
The dream catcher is hung above a sleeping area in
a place where the morning light can hit it. The nature
of the Dream Catcher will attract all sorts of dreams
to its webs. When bad dreams come, they do not know
the way through the web and get caught in the webbing
where the first light of day causes them to melt away
and perish. The good dreams knowing the way go through
the center of the web and slide down the feather to
the sleeper below. In honor of their origin, there
are 7 points where the web connected to the hoop for
the Seven Prophecies or 8 for Spider Woman's eight
legs.
Foreword
