HELEN NILES

 

 

Registered

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST

CHOCTAW TRIBE

 

Helen Niles

 

Member of the Choctaw tribe of Oklahoma. Great  Grandmother now living in Corpus Christi, Tx.

     Dream Catchers are one of the most fascinating traditions of Native americans.

The traditional dream catcher was intended to protect the sleeping individual from

negative dreams,while letting positive dreams through.  The positive dreams would slip

through the hole in the center of the dream catcher and glide down the feathers to the

sleeping person below.  The negative dreams would get caught up in the web, and expire

when the first rays of the sun struck them.

     The dream catcher has been a part of the Native American culture for generations.

One element of the Native American dream catcher relates to the tradition of the hoop.

Some Native Americans of North America held the hoop in the highest esteem, because

it symbolized strength and unity.  Many symbols started around the hoop, and one of

these symbols is the dream catcher.

     Historically, dream catchers were hung in the lodge and on a baby's cradle board.

 

 

 

​