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Making Dreamcatchers? Beware.

O.K., so we know that dreamcatchers in their modern form and all the stories about what they are and which Native Americans used them are made up.
We also know that the Chippewa "Spider Web" charm
was probably the inspiration for them all.

However, I don't think anyone was prepared for this development. An AP story dated 27 October 2000 filed from Montecello IL was headlined: "Presidential pardon sought for giving feathers to Hillary Clinton."

The feathers were on a dreamcatcher Peg Bargon made and gave First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1994. Bad choice of feathers, though, because they were of protected species such as bald eagles.

Federal agents read of the gift in a newspaper and found feathers from several protected species in Bargon's house. She claimed to have gotten then from "roadkill" and a zoo, but in 1995 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of breaking federal wildlife protection laws. She paid a $1200 fine and shelled out another $10,000 to lawyers who kept her out of jail.

My own exquisite addition to the genre.

Thanks to Beth Barringer,
who helped me make it.

Why is this in the news in late 2000? She is hoping that before he leaves office President Clinton will pardon her to clear her name. "Whatever debt I owed, I feel I've paid," she asserted. A pardon seems unlikely. In eight years in office Clinton has only granted about a tenth of the 1820 that have been petitioned.

Making dreamcatchers? Be careful out there.

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