Editing Dreamcatcher

{{Short description|Indigenous handmade object based on a willow hoop}}
{{About|the Native American object}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
[[File:Dreamcatcher - Royal Ontario Museum (40194857691).jpg|thumb|Dreamcatcher, Royal Ontario Museum]]
[[File:Sapnų gaudyklė.jpg|thumb|An ornate, contemporary, nontraditional dreamcatcher]]

In some [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] and [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] cultures, a '''dreamcatcher''' ({{langx|oj|ᐊᓴᐱᑫᔒᓐᐦ|asabikeshiinh}}, the [[Ojibwe language#Grammar|inanimate form]] of the word for 'spider')<ref name="freelang">{{cite web|url=https://www.freelang.net/dictionary/ojibwe.php|title=Free English-Ojibwe dictionary and translator - FREELANG|website=www.freelang.net}}</ref> is a handmade [[willow]] hoop, on which is woven a [[net (device)|net]] or [[spider web|web]]. It may also be decorated with sacred items such as certain feathers or beads. Traditionally, dreamcatchers are hung over a [[Bassinet|cradle]] or bed as protection.<ref name=Densmore/> It originates in [[Anishinaabe]] culture as "the spider web charm" – ''asubakacin'' 'net-like' ([[White Earth Nation]]); ''bwaajige ngwaagan'' 'dream snare' ([[Curve Lake First Nation]])<ref>Jim Great Elk Waters, ''View from the Medicine Lodge'' (2002), p. 111.</ref> – a hoop with woven string or sinew meant to replicate a spider's web, used as a protective charm for infants.<ref name=Densmore/>

Dream catchers were adopted in the [[Pan-Indianism|Pan-Indian Movement]] of the 1960s and 1970s and gained popularity as widely marketed "Native crafts items" in the 1980s.<ref name=native-languages.org/>

==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-->

==Modern uses==
[[File:Atrapasuenos.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Contemporary derivation sold at a craft fair in [[El Quisco]], Chile, in 2006]]

While dreamcatchers continue to be used in a traditional manner in their communities and cultures of origin, derivative forms of dreamcatchers were adopted into the [[Pan-Indianism|Pan-Indian movement]] of the 1960s and 1970s as a symbol of unity among the various [[Native Americans of the United States|Native American cultures]], or as a general symbol of identification with Native American or [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] cultures.<ref name=native-languages.org>"During the pan-Indian movement in the 60's and 70's, Ojibway dreamcatchers started to get popular in other Native American tribes, even those in disparate places like the Cherokee, Lakota, and Navajo. ... Most of what you see when you search for 'Native American dreamcatchers' are cheap objects mass-produced in an Asian sweatshop somewhere or glued together by non-native teenagers with eBay accounts, and these 'dreamcatchers' often bear only vague resemblance to the actual American Indian craft it is supposed to represent." [http://www.native-languages.org/dreamcatchers.htm "Native American Dream catchers"], Native-Languages</ref>

The name "dream catcher" was published in mainstream, non-Native media in the 1970s<ref>"a hoop laced to resemble a cobweb is one of Andrea Petersen's prize possessions. It is a 'dream catcher'—hung over a Chippewa Indian infant's cradle to keep bad dreams from passing through. 'I hope I can help my students become dream catchers,' she says of the 16 children in her class. In a two-room log cabin elementary school on a Chippewa reservation in Grand Portage" ''The Ladies' Home Journal'' 94 (1977), p. 14.</ref> and became widely known as a Native crafts item by the 1980s.<ref>"Audrey Speich will be showing Indian Beading, Birch Bark Work, and Quill Work. She will also demonstrate the making of Dream Catchers and Medicine Bags." ''The Society Newsletter'' (1985), p. 31.</ref> By the early 1990s, it was "one of the most popular and marketable" ones.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Terry Lusty|title=Where did the Ojibwe dream catcher come from? |url=http://www.ammsa.com/publications/alberta-sweetgrass/where-did-ojibwe-dream-catcher-come-0|publisher=The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society|date=2001|magazine=Alberta Sweetgrass| volume= 8|issue= 4|page=19}}</ref> 
<!--
In 1978, [[David Wagoner]] used  "Songs for the Dream-Catchers"  as a section title in his "Who shall be the sun?: Poems based on the lore, legends, and myths of northwest coast and plateau Indians". -->

In the course of becoming popular outside the Ojibwe Nation, and then outside the pan-Indian communities, various types of "dreamcatchers", many of which bear little resemblance to traditional styles, and that incorporate materials that would not be traditionally used, are now made, exhibited, and sold by [[New Age]] groups and individuals. Many Native Americans have come to see these imitation dreamcatchers as over-commercialized, offensively [[Cultural appropriation|misappropriated]] and misused by non-Natives.<ref name=native-languages.org/>

A mounted and framed dreamcatcher is being used as a shared symbol of hope and healing by the Little Thunderbirds Drum and Dance Troupe from the [[Red Lake Indian Reservation]] in Minnesota. In recognition of the shared trauma and loss experienced, both at their school during the [[Red Lake shootings]], and by other students who have survived similar [[school shooting]]s, they have traveled to other schools to meet with students, share songs and stories, and gift them with the dreamcatcher. The dreamcatcher has been passed from [[Red Lake, Minnesota|Red Lake]] to students in several other towns where school shootings have occurred.<ref name=TulalipNews>[http://www.tulalipnews.com/wp/2014/11/07/marysville-school-district-receives-dream-catcher-given-to-columbine-survivors/ Marysville School District receives dreamcatcher given to Columbine survivors] By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News. Posted on November 7, 2014</ref><ref name=cnn>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2012/12/22/erin-pkg-harlow-survivors-sharing-newtown.cnn|title=Showing Newtown they're not alone - CNN Video|via=edition.cnn.com}}</ref><ref name=WSJ>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gift-no-school-wants-to-receive-1519578001?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 Dreamcatcher for school shooting survivors] (paywall)</ref>

==See also==
* [[God's eye]]
* [[Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990]]
* [[Namkha]]
* [[Witch ball]]
* [[Witch bottle]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Dreamcatchers|Dreamcatcher}}

* [https://www.doi.gov/iacb/act/ The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990]

{{Anishinaabe}}
{{Amulets and Talismans|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anishinaabe mythology]]
[[Category:Dreams in religion]]
[[Category:Amulets]]
[[Category:Great Lakes tribal culture]]
[[Category:Native American sculpture]]
[[Category:Native American relics]]
[[Category:First Nations culture in Canada]]
[[Category:Objects believed to protect from evil]]
[[Category:Talismans]]
[[Category:Anishinaabe culture]]
[[Category:Native American culture]]