Editing Dreamcatcher (section)

==Ojibwe origin==
[[File:Bulletin (1929) (19801535514).jpg|thumb|upright|''"Spider web" charm, hung on infant's cradle'' (shown alongside a "Mask used in game" and "Ghost leg, to frighten children"), [[Bureau of American Ethnology|Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin]] (1929)]]
Ethnographer [[Frances Densmore]] in 1929 recorded an [[Ojibwe]] legend according to which the "spiderwebs" protective charms originate with [[Spider Grandmother|Spider Woman]], known as {{lang|oj|ᐊᓴᐱᑳᔑ}} ''Asibikaashi''; who takes care of the children and the people on the land. As the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children.<ref name=Densmore>Densmore, Frances (1929, 1979) ''Chippewa Customs''. Minn. Hist. Soc. Press; pg. 113.</ref> So the mothers and grandmothers weave webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The purpose of these charms is [[apotropaic]] and not explicitly connected with dreams:
<blockquote>Even infants were provided with protective charms. Examples of these are the "spiderwebs" hung on the hoop of a cradle board. In old times this netting was made of nettle fiber. Two spider webs were usually hung on the hoop, and it was said that they "caught any harm that might be in the air as a spider's web catches and holds whatever comes in contact with it."<ref name=Densmore/></blockquote>

Basil Johnston, an elder from [[Neyaashiinigmiing 27|Neyaashiinigmiing]], in his ''Ojibway Heritage'' (1976) gives the story of Spider ({{langx|oj|asabikeshiinh}}, "little net maker") as a trickster figure catching Snake in his web.<ref>John Borrows, "Foreword" to Françoise Dussart, Sylvie Poirier, ''Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in australia and Canada'', University of Toronto Press, 2017.</ref>{{clarify|date=December 2017}}<!--probably belongs on "spider as trickster", as no connection to the charm is given-->