Ed and Daughter's Native Dreams

Live Video's of Dream catchers being made by Local Native.

Legend of The Dream Catcher:

The traditional dream catcher utilizes a typical spider web, however some modern dream catcher craftsman use what is called the spiral pattern. The webbing is to catch bad dreams. The beads woven into some dream catchers are put there to encourage particular kind of dreams.
Particular beads may be "blessed" to bring dreams of love, sea shells may be tasked to bring dreams of self-realization or beauty. These items are used to attract dreams.
The dream catchers purpose is to trap the bad dreams and allow the good dreams to find there way to the sleeper.
The feathers at the bottom of a dream catcher serve as a special function, as the bad dreams become trapped in the dream catchers web the good dreams traveler through the room freely. However, special dreams may need help finding the dreamer. The feathers serve as both a pathway, (and a filter of sorts) that lead the good dreams to the dream beneath the dream catcher.
Briefly, a dream catcher begins as a willow sticks bent into a rough circular shape. Often the circular willow frame is covered with leather straps and treated to remain soft and supple.
Hand woven string is then passed through the circle to create a web depending on the Native tribe small personal items such as beads, sea shells or most recently, crystals.
The willow tree holds a special significant to most Native Americans. Willow was, and is, special for its vast array of uses from creating baskets to medicinal. The active ingredient in the common drug aspirin was originally discovered in willow and many ancient people utilize willow as a pain killer and to reduce fevers an Osage Tribe legends holds that the willow tree is a tree of wisdom.
A large dream catcher could be used to clear the negative energies of a location or a room which is why one can often find very large dream catchers created by some tribes and located in public meeting places. Smaller dream catchers could also be created that could be carried by a person or worn as Jewelry. Something like a personal charm or talisman that protect one from negative energies.
To most Native people, dreams are the crossroads where the human mind, the soul and the spirit world all meet. Dreams carry as much reality and purpose and anything else in the waking world. The dream catchers purpose is to trap the bad dreams and allow the good dreams to find their way to the sleeper.
It is said that the first dream catchers had to be fashioned by a person who told or considered the story of the seven fires. The seven fires are basically even prophecies for the first peoples. Part of the prophecy tells of how the dark skinned original people would be driven from there homes by fair skinned race, and that destruction would overtake the land . In the time, a new people would emerge.
In the seventh prophecy, a time would come when the new people would have to choose between the spiritual or the material. If the people chose, the spiritual path, then a beautiful new age would begin. But if the material path was chosen then destruction and despair would continue.
One could also say that when some one weaves a dream catcher they are doing something good for someone. They are making the choice to do what is good. The light of day cleanses a dream catcher o the bad dreams of negative energies trapped within it.