The Butterfly T-Shirt

Because of the beauty, power of flight, and complete metamorphosis found in butterflies, these insects frequently are found in Native American stories. Attention to the belief held by the Blackfoot Indians, that dreams are brought to us in sleep by a butterfly. The symbol for a butterfly was a design roughly in the shape of a cross with one arm horizontal and the other vertical. This symbol was painted on a lodge or teepee to indicate that the style and method of painting the lodge were taught to the lodge owner in a dream. It was also the custom for a Blackfoot woman to embroider the symbol of a butterfly on a small piece of buckskin and tie this in her baby's hair when she wishes it to go to sleep. At the same time, she sings to the child a lullaby in which the butterfly is asked to come and fly about and put the child to sleep. The Blackfoot stated that the butterfly is soft, pretty and moves gently and that if you look at it for a long time you will go to sleep.~23.00