It is hung above their beds or in their home to sift their dreams and visions. 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. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will catch your good ideas - and the bad ones will go through the hole.” 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. 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 continued, “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.”Īll the while the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web starting from the outside and working towards the center. But if you listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer you in the wrong direction.” If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. “But,” Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, “in each time of life there are many forces - some good and some bad. Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle.

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. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language that only the spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand.Īs 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. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Long ago when the world was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. Ever wondered what a dream catcher actually is? There are two legends concerning its inception one comes from the Ojibwe people, where the dream catcher first originated among the Native Americans, and the second from the Lakota, who learned about it through trade and intermarriage with the Ojibwe people.

How is the original dream catcher made