Most orders are from non-Indians who want more than 100 at a time, she said. Her work, starting at $14.95 for a 3-inch dream catcher, is sold everywhere from a Paris boutique to a Sioux City, Iowa, strip mall. Heminger-Cordell, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, has been making dream catchers since she took one apart and learned to put it together again 15 years ago. Indeed, since the terror attacks of September 11, business has picked up, says Colleen Heminger-Cordell. White acknowledges that dream catchers are an important source of money for some Indians. It's like losing our language, our culture - another symptom of a larger thing.' 'It's lost a lot of meaning, even in our own tribe. 'The dream catcher, to us, is a sacred item,' White said. Those steps fall by the wayside when a person buys a make-it-yourself kit from a discount store, says Gerald White, a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The web filters out nightmares, allowing only good dreams to pass through to the sleeping child below.Ī dream catcher is supposed to be made in intricate, ceremonial steps that include giving thanks for the spirit of the wood used in it. There's things you have a right to wear and things you do not,' Benjamin said.Īccording to Indian tradition, dream catchers should resemble a spider web and are to be placed above a baby's cradle. 'In order to be a good, traditional person, you have to live that life. Though some tribal members say they see no problem with the practice, others regard the marketing of dream catchers as another example of their culture being picked apart.

It means something to us, it's a tradition,' said Benjamin, a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.īenjamin isn't the only American Indian dismayed by the marketing of dream catchers. These days, though, she shakes her head to see them worn as earrings, hanging from car windshields and even sold as key chains in convenience stores. When Millie Benjamin was growing up, she spent her nights sleeping under a dream catcher, a traditional Indian object believed to ward off nightmares.īenjamin drew comfort from her dream catcher.

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