Chippewa Legend of the Dream Catcher A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother. Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it. "No-keegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him." "Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy. The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web." Lakota Legend of the Dreamcatcher Long ago when the world was young, 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 elders willow hoop which had feathers, horse hairs, beads and offerings on it and began to spin a web. As he spun, he spoke to the elders about the cycles of life . . . 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. Iktomi said, "In each season of life there are many forces and different directions that can help or interfere with the harmony of nature, and also with the great spirit and all of his wonderful teachings." Iktomi gave the web to the Lakota elder and said, "See, the web is a perfect circle but there is a hole in the center of the cirlce. If you believe in the great spirit, the web will catch your good dreams and ideas - - and the bad ones will go through the hole. Use the web to help yourself and your people reach your goals and to make good use of your people's ideas, dreams and visions." The Lakota elder passed on his vision to his people and now the Lakotas use the dreamcatcher as the web of their life. It is hung above their beds or in their home to sift their dreams and visions. The good in their dreams is captured in the web of life and carried with them. But the evil in their dreams falls through the center hole, and are no longer part of them. Animal Spirits Resource Page Home