The butterfly symbol

Native American Indians were a deeply spiritual people and they communicated their history, thoughts, ideas and dreams from generation to generation through Symbols and Signs such as the Butterfly symbol. Native American symbols are geometric portrayals of celestial bodies, natural phenomena and animal designs. For additional information please refer to the Meanings of Animal Symbols.

Meaning

The meaning of the Butterfly symbol signifies transformation as the ugly caterpillar changes into the beautiful butterfly. The butterfly is also believed to be a messenger from the spirit world. The message the butterfly brings depends their color. A black butterfly indicates bad news or illness, yellow brings hope and guidance, brown signifies important news, red signifies an important event and white signifies good luck. A butterfly who lands on your shoulder brings you comfort. According to Native American legends and myths of some tribes the Butterfly played a part in their Creation myth. According to Native American legends and myths of the Pueblo tribes of southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico the Butterfly played a part in their Creation myth. The Creator took the most beautiful colors of all living things and placed them into a magical bag. He have the magic bag to the children and when it was opened colored butterflies flew out singing. The children were enchanted by the butterflies but the song birds were so jealous that the Creator took away the ability to sing from the butterfly.

The bringer of dreams

To tribes such as the Blackfoot, the butterfly symbol is associated with sleep and dreams. They believe that dreams are brought to us in sleep by a butterfly. Women embroider the sign of a butterfly on a small piece of buckskin and tie it to a baby’s hair or on the baby's clothes to encourage the child to go to sleep.

There were so many tribes of Native American Indians it is only possible to generalise the most common meaning of the Butterfly symbol or pattern. Native Indian symbols are still used as Tattoos and were used for a variety of reasons and depicted on numerous objects such as tepees, totem poles, musical instruments, clothes and War Paint. Indian Tribes also used their own Colors for Symbols and designs depending on the natural resources available to make Native American paint.

Butterfly symbol

Native American Indians had a highly complex culture, especially those who lived on the Great Plains.

Their religion was dominated by rituals and belief in a spiritual connection with nature and these beliefs were reflected in the various symbols they used such as the Butterfly symbol.

The clothes, tepees and all of his belongings was decorated with art and included symbols depicting his achievements, acts of heroism, his various spirit guides or the most important events in his life. Every symbol used by an American Native Indian had meaning which can be accessed from Symbols and Meanings.