The
Pequot/Mohegan Dream Catcher
By now everyone
knows a story about the Native American Dream catchers?
So let's get
into how to make one?
As with
everything else we talk about on this blogger this is only how they were made
by my ancestors and why we make them a little different then the pretty store
bought ones of today!
No one nowadays
makes a Traditional Eastern Woodland New England dream catcher for sale, why?
Because they are not the pretty ones that come from outside this country and
sold as native!
A traditional
dream catcher (Tear Drop) was not made from medal and/or plastic, we use a
branch of a Willow tree or grape vine and sometimes both, tied together with
Sinew.
However, if you
did not read the story here goes again.
The Story of the Teardrop
"This story was told to me as a small child, first by my
Grandfather and then again later by my father."
Long ago, when the Mohegan people all lived in the same village, the men
spent most of their time away, either hunting or at war with the Tribes of the
North.
The women ran the village.
They tended their gardens and cared for all of the Tribes clothing.
This would often leave the Elders and the very young, whom they cared
for, alone in the village for long periods of time.
The Trickster or evil one, knowing this, would come into the village at
night and frighten the children, so that they couldn't sleep.
The Mohegan people knew that neither the Elders nor the children, could
do anything about the Trickster on their own, so they contacted the Little
People on their behalf.
(The Mohegan people believed that the Little People were their
protectors who lived in a sub-world between the spirit world and the Mohegan
world.
The Mohegan People would go to them with their prayer requests and the
Little People would then take these requests to the Creator.)
The men of the village made offerings or gifts for the Little People of
strong tobacco skin pouches, while the women made food baskets.
The children made their own special gifts.
On a chosen night, the Mohegan People would take their gifts to the edge
of the forest.
Just before sunset, the Mohegan's would offer prayers and songs to the
Creator, who would send the Little People to them.
They would then leave their gifts for Little People and go back to their
village.
Every night for a week, the Mohegan People would return to the edge of
the forest to see if the Little People had taken their gifts.
One night, one of the Little People was waiting for them and all of the
gifts were gone.
After the prayers and songs were finished, everyone sat down to discuss
why the gifts had been left.
Learning what the Trickster had been doing, the Little Person said that
she would go back to her people and return later with their answer.
A few days later, the Little People asked for a meeting with the Mohegan
Tribal council.
The Little People told the Tribal council that they would need help from
the Spider Woman.
So, they talked to the Spider Woman and she agreed to meet with the
council.
After the Tribal council explained what the Trickster was doing to the
Elders and the young, the Spider Woman took some grapevine and spun it into a
teardrop shaped web.
The teardrops represented the children's tears.
She gave one teardrop to the head of each Mohegan family and told them
to put the teardrop over the child's bed, as close to an opening as possible.
As the child dreamed, the Trickster tried to send forth bad dreams.
Now, the bad dreams would get stuck on the spider web, and the good
dreams would pass on through and down to the child.
In the morning when the sun would come up, the heat from the sun would
erase all of the bad dreams, making the teardrop clean again until the next
night.
From that day on, the Mohegan children dreamed good dreams and the
Mohegan village was again at peace.
