The problem with Quileute werewolves

In The Source for Chief Kaheleha I noted a possible source for one aspect of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight legends.

If Meyer did borrow the "Kaheleha" name, it's not a literary crime. She's free to use whatever names she finds or invents in her fiction. What I object to is her claiming her legends are "genuine" when they aren't.

Non-Natives have a long history of borrowing Native legends, stories, concepts, beliefs, and practices. And then simplifying them, changing them, sometimes bastardizing them beyond recognition. The result is a mishmash of mistakes and stereotypes amid nuggets of actual information.

No wonder people don't understand Indians. Their primary source is popular media such as the Twilight books. Which are based on "genuine Quileute stories," according to Meyer.

Quileutes according to Meyer

What have we learned about the Quileute Indians from Meyer's books? Among other things:

1) Quileutes are in touch with their animal side: hunting in packs, snarling when threatened, literally fighting tooth and nail.

2) Quileutes had (have?) mystical "spirit warriors" within them that can leave their bodies and possess other bodies.

3) Quileutes can grow to an enormous size in their human forms.

4) Quileutes are ruled by werewolves, not by an elected tribal council. (Does the BIA know the Quileute Nation is a werewolf-controlled dictatorship, not a democracy?)

Except perhaps for 1), none of these are the typical stereotypes we see so often. But they aren't genuine facts about the Quileutes either.

What will people think when they read Meyer's "genuine" legends? That Quileutes are less animal-like, less mystical, less exotic than other people? That they're more conventional, more modern, more sophisticated than others? I doubt it.

A New Age dawns

Meyer hasn't exactly turned her Indians into New Age mystics. But the effect is similar. Readers will think the Quileutes are more mystical and less real than they actually are.

Here...read what Indians have to say about New Age beliefs and practices. Below are a couple of quotes from that page. These quotes are talking about New Age mysticism, but they could be talking about Twilight's version of Quileute history and culture:The realities of Indian belief and existence have become so misunderstood and distorted at this point that when a real Indian stands up and speaks the truth at any given moment, he or she is not only unlikely to be believed, but will probably be publicly contradicted and "corrected" by the citation of some non-Indian and totally inaccurate "expert."

Andy Smith (Cherokee)
The process is ultimately intended to supplant Indians, even in areas of their own customs and spirituality. In the end, non-Indians will have complete power to define what is and is not Indian, even for Indians. When this happens, the last vestiges of real Indian society and Indian rights will disappear. Non-Indians will then "own" our heritage and ideas as thoroughly as they now claim to own our land and resources.

Russell Means (Lakota)For more on the subject, see Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

Below:  The present chairperson of the Quileute Nation? Perhaps testifying before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on an environmental issue? Perhaps something about how the Quileutes will manage the forest if they move their reservation inland to avoid coastal floods?

Or not. Perhaps just a stereotypical notion of what a wolf-like Indian would think.