What is a dreamcatcher?
In Native American culture, a dreamcatcher is a handmade object based on a hoop
(traditionally of willow), incorporating a loose net, and decorated with items unique to the particular dreamcatcher. There
is a traditional belief that a dreamcatcher filters a person's dreams, letting through only the good ones.
Dreamcatchers are an authentic American Indian tradition, from the Ojibway(Chippewa)
tribe. The people would tie sinew strands in a web around a small round or tear-shaped frame--in a somewhat similar pattern
to how they tied webbing for Ojibway snowshoes--and hang this "dream-catcher" as a charm to protect sleeping children from
nightmares. The legend is that the bad dreams will get caught in the web.
