Cath Oberholtzer - Dream Catchers: Legend, Lore and Artifacts

Print edition published by Firefly Books Ltd., 2012

Copyright 2012 Firefly Books Ltd.
Text copyright 2012 Cath Oberholtzer
eBook copyright 2014

eBook ISBN: 978-1-77085-448-2

Publisher Cataloging-in-Publication Data (U.S.)
Oberholtzer, Cath (Catherine) Dream catchers : legend, lore and artifacts / Cath Oberholtzer ; original dream catchers by Nick Huard [144] p. : ill., photos. (some col.) ; cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-77085-056-9
1. Dreamcatchers. 2. Ojibwa Indians Religion. 3. Ojibwa art. I. Huard, Nick. II. Title. 971.004/973 dc23 E99.C6.O247 2012

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Oberholtzer, Cath (Catherine) Dream catchers : legend, lore and artifacts / Cath Oberholtzer.
ISBN 978-1-77085-056-9
1. Dreamcatchers. 2. Ojibwa Indians--Religion.3. Ojibwa Indians--Social life and customs. 4. Ojibwa mythology. 5. Ojibwa art. I. Title.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Publisher.

Published in Canada by Firefly Books Ltd.
50 Staples Avenue, Unit 1 Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 0A7

Cover design: Janice McLean / Bookmakers Press Inc.

The Publisher gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund as administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

No project reaches fruition without the assistance of many people, and I am indebted to a great number of individuals who have willingly shared information, photographs and actual dream catchers over the years. My gratitude is extended to Trudy and John Nicks, Alison Brown, Tabitha Cadbury, Debbie Cochrane, Gerry Conaty, Stephen Cook, Alan Corbiere, Leslie Dodds, Bernie Francis, Sue Giles, Richard Green, Judy Hall, Rachel Hand, Susan Haskell, Nick Huard, Stephen Inglis, White Wolf James, Misel Joe, Chantal Knowles, Ken Lister, Anne Marin, Damian MacSeain, Ruth McConnell, Ann McMullen, Beth Oberholtzer, Ron Oberholtzer, Katherine Pettipas, Kim Reid, Angela Robinson, Donald Smith, Nick Smith, Sandra Weizman, Bill Wierzbowski and Laila Williamson. Needless to say, if I have overlooked anyone, it was inadvertent.

Nor does a book come to print without a competent publishing house behind it. The invitation to prepare this manuscript was proffered by Michael Mouland (on the advice of Trudy Nicks) and encouraged by Firefly Books publisher Lionel Koffler. The final product came about thanks to the team at Bookmakers Press, with editor Tracy C. Read and copyeditor Susan Dickinson bringing a critical perspective, a sharp eye and a deft touch to the text, while art director Janice McLean contributed her talents with a lovely original design. To all of them, a sincere thank you.

Currently a conjunct professor in the Anthropology Department at Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, and a research fellow with the Trent University Archaeological Research Centre. Cath Oberholtzer began her career as an archaeologist. While her original focus was on the prehistory of southern Ontario, that shifted to cultural anthropology when she began to research the early material history of the Crees in numerous museums. In addition to undertaking archival research related to the early British and Scottish presence in the James Bay area, she has gathered firsthand accounts from members of the Cree communities on the coasts of James Bay, participated in workshops with the Crees at Val-dOr, Quebec, written extensively about Cree material culture and lectured on the aboriginal art of the Americas. Dr. Oberholtzer lives in the historic town of Cobourg, Ontario, where she is actively involved in a number of organizations and social groups.

The legend of the dream catcher began long ago, when the child of a Woodland chief fell ill. Unsettled by fever, the child was plagued with bad dreams and unable to sleep. In an attempt to heal him, the tribes Medicine Woman created a device that would catch these bad dreams. Forming a circle with a slender willow branch, she filled the center with sinew, using a pattern borrowed from our brother the Spider, who weaves a web. This dream catcher was then hung over the bed of the child. Soon the fever broke, and the child slept peacefully.

It is said that at night, when dreams visit, they are caught in the dream catchers web, and only the good dreams are able to find their way to the dreamer, filtering down through the feather. When the warmth of the morning sun arrives, it burns away the bad dreams that have been caught. The good dreams, now knowing the path, visit again on other nights.

O ver time, a number of indigenous groups have laid claim to being the originators of the dream catcher. The more vocal among them have been the Navajo, Lakota Sioux, Huron, Crees, Mohawk, Cherokee, Iroquois and Ojibwa, even as other groups have been documented as producing them for use and for sale. In the first decade of the 21st century, however, many of these claims were put to rest by a consensus that identifies the Ojibwa as the originators. Lets take a closer look at the Ojibwas traditional lifeways and material culture to understand how this general agreement was reached.

The Ojibwa are members of the broader Algonquian language family, which is widespread geographically and comprises many language divisions throughout its distribution. The more common languages include the Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Crees, Montagnais and Naskapi; the eastern groups, such as the Mikmaq, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Abenaki and likely the now extinct Beothuk; Great Lakes groups such as the Delaware, Fox and Menomini; and western groups like the Blackfoot and Cheyenne.

In the mid-1800s, early travelers in North America began to make firsthand observations about the use of round, netted baby charms among the Ojibwa to protect their infants from colds, illness and evil spirits. Decades later, 20th-century anthropologists anticipating the eventual absorption of Native cultures into the more homogeneous North American society undertook to gather information about indigenous groups. Working among the Ojibwa (known as Chippewa in the United States), anthropologists recorded the continued use of these netted charms. It has become evident, however, that the Crees and, to a lesser extent, the neighboring Naskapi also relied on netted charms as a protective force.

J ust as the Ojibwa and Crees spoke different languages derived from the Algonquian language base, each group eventually diverged slightly from the common hunting, trapping and fishing way of life their ancestors had shared. As each group responded to changes in its own habitat sometimes the consequence of settling in different territories, perhaps as animal populations fell or rose the means used to obtain the necessities of daily life began to evolve. Adapting to their surroundings meant learning a taste for novel foods, even as the technologies and strategies for procuring these resources had to be developed. While much of the mutual material culture and ideologies of the two groups remained unchanged, new practices were an inevitable reflection of their changing environments.

The Ojibwa, for example, inhabited the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron areas in the 1600s, according to European accounts. By the late 1700s, their territory extended from the eastern end of Lake Ontario, west to the Lake Winnipeg area in Manitoba and the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota and into southern Ontario. And they continue to live in the areas surrounding the Great Lakes today. According to Ojibwa traditions, they migrated, along with the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes, from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes region about 500 years ago. They refer to themselves as Anishinaabeg, the original people, or human beings.