It is said that Dream Catchers were given to the Native Americans as a gift from Grandmother Spider:

Many, many generations ago a mother cleaning her long-house came upon a spider and its' web...instead of killing it, she gently moved it outside.

The spider somehow made its’ way back into house and spoke to the surprised woman...the spider told the woman it was very grateful that the woman spared the spiders life when so many other humans would have killed it...

The spider then told the woman “ I have noticed your child is having very bad dreams each night that terrifies the child...in return for saving my life, I will give you a gift that will keep the bad dreams from reaching your child....first, you must get me a sapling and you must make it into a circle for me”.

The woman went outside and found a sapling growing at the edge of the field...taking her work knife from the sheaf at her waist, she cut it down and pulled all the leaves and branches off of it....

She then bent the sapling, turning and wrapping the pliable wood around itself until she had a nice, strong circle...she walked back to the long house, hoping the spider would approve of her efforts.

She gave the circle of wood to the spider and watched in amazement as the spider started making a web inside the circle....she watched carefully, making sure she remembered each step like the spider had told her...when the spider finished, she told the woman “ this is a Dream Catcher...you must hang it above the child's' head where the child sleeps...it will allow the good dreams to pass through, but because bad dreams are so large. they will stick to the web, unable to pass through...the morning light will burn up the bad dream”

The woman thanked the spider and immediately hung the Dream Catcher on the wall above her child's bed....that night was the first time in a long time her child had no nightmares and slept through the night.

The Pawnee consider the Dream Catcher a very sacred symbol...it is often found on the head of the medicine man’s staff...they say it represents life: everything is always connected to one another.....

The bead in the web represents us, the human race, and how we are connected to everything, be it directly or indirectly....of how everything we do effects everything else--be it water, air, earth, animal, insect, mammal, plant, fish, etc.