I came across a 1994 movie the other day starring John Denver, called, “Walking Thunder.” In a nutshell, the storyline’s about a pioneer family, the McKay’s, traveling to California right after the American Civil War. John Denver plays the main part of John McKay, an East Coast shipbuilder looking to move his expectant wife and children west to start a new life.
A large bear attacks their covered wagon and begins destroying it somewhere in the rugged Rocky Mountains, with the wagon ultimately ending up with an unrepairable broken axle. My first thought after seeing this was quite sarcastic, “McKay should’ve purchased a one-ton!”
Only 10 minutes in, I’d already decided to earmark the film as “hokey.” That’s a word I use to describe movies that hinge on being bogus or unrealistic. Seeing that my wife was enjoying things, I decided to quietly go along for the ride without complaint.
In the story’s beginning, the great-grandson of John McKay, Danny McKay, stays with his grandmother for a few days. Grandma Anne McKay wants her grandson to go through an old trunk in her attic that once belonged to their early McKay relative, Jacob.
Inside this antique trunk is an Indian dreamcatcher, a Colt revolver, and a journal written by Danny’s great-grandfather, Jacob, about the problematic trip to California. From that point on the storyline follows what happened next.
After the bear encounter, the McKay clan befriended a mountain man, Abner Murdock, and his Sioux medicine man friend, Dark Wind. Murdock gives the family some pointers on how to survive in the wilderness as winter is fast approaching. He also tells them what Dark Wind’s dreamcatcher is used for, after seeing that McKay’s two boys, Jacob and Toby, are interested in it.
In simplistic terms, a dreamcatcher is a circular wood hoop with webbing in the middle and feathers hanging from it. The weblike part of the religious item supposedly catches evil spirits and bad dreams during the night, and when daylight comes they dissipate. The feathers retain any good dreams.
As if dealing with a vicious bear wasn’t bad enough, three snarky-looking hide hunters come along, harassing the family and wanting their gold and silver. There were fights galore between the evildoers, McKay’s, and Abner Murdock, yet no one was killed.
Each time John McKay shot at any wild game he missed. It was only because of Abner Murdock having good hunting skills that they survived—although he was never shown killing or butchering any animals. They did eat well indicating that such events happened.
Where family movies are concerned this is a good one, with no f-bombs being dropped, drug use, excess violence, or explicit sexual acts. I seriously doubt this type of film is being made anymore, at least not in Hollywood. That’s a good part of what’s wrong with this country.
Lake Havasu City has a dreamcatcher of its own, although the city doesn’t rightly own it. “Dreamcatcher” is the name the Chemehuevi Indians gave to their Havasu Landing Resort and Casino transportation boat. This sleek-looking vessel transports folks across the water to their California desert oasis numerous times a day, and for only $3.00 roundtrip. Hands down it’s the best deal in town!
Authentic American Indian dreamcatchers are popular tourist items in almost every Native gift store. I’ve even seen them in Walmart, yet with “Made in China” labels, I seriously doubt they’ll catch dreams. Undoubtedly though, they will catch dust.
The opposite of dreamcatcher is dreammaker. I’ve found that lots of things can create dreams, including fatigue, prescription medicines, and certain foods, such as pizza and spaghetti. I’m not the only person claiming that red tomato sauce makes them dream.
It happens to me all the time, especially after eating pizza from one specific location here in town. Don’t get me wrong, their pizza is delicious—I just wish it’d stop giving me nightmares.
With the length and severity of bad dreams, this food creates for me, I highly doubt an average-sized authentic Indian dreamcatcher would snag them all. I’ll need one about the size of a garbage can lid for starts.
There’s no room on our walls for a dreamcatcher this size, so maybe this eatery could be coaxed into placing one in their dining room. It makes sense to me that the bad dreams should be snared before ever leaving their front door!
I like to write junk... 