March 28, 2009

Writing about the Wolf Pack

In a move full of irony, Indian Country Today has asked me to write an article about the Native actors hired to be the Wolf Pack in the Twilight sequel New Moon.

This raises a couple of interesting questions:

1) Can I write a fair and balanced article about the Wolf Pack despite my previous criticism of the Twilight franchise?

2) Will I be able to write the article from a pseudo-Native perspective even though I'm not Native? Will anyone be able to distinguish my non-Native perspective from the Native perspectives usually published in Indian Country Today?

I presume the answers to these questions are 1) yes, 2a) yes, and 2b) no. But you can see and judge for yourself, of course.

Meanwhile, here's your chance to sound off on the subject. What do you think--good or bad--about the hiring of these Native actors to play Quileute werewolves? Feel free to post comments that I can use in the article.

Note:  If you're someone I don't know, please identify yourself with your full name and Native heritage, if any. No doubt ICT will wish to avoid anonymous opinions if possible.

12 comments:

Stephen said...

That pic's nothing but a collection of stereotypes; utterly sickening.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob, this is Anonymouse. I think you remember me and yes I wish to remain Anonymous. I don't really have anything to say about Twilight but I do have an opinion about ICT.

I have over the years, read about obvious and blatant wannbe tribes and fake people claiming to be Indian in ICT and had to scratch my head. I am constantly looking up so called tribal names and or the people they write about to find that they don't exist or have any real claim to a Tribal identity. I have even written ICT to complain about this policy of theirs. It wouldn't take much to check the facts.

Unfortunately, Indian Country Today treats any organization that claims to be a “tribe” and or person as a legitimate tribe or someone with authority, even if it has been recently formed by people who cannot document Indian ancestry. Thus, some of their articles are as flawed as the groups they write about. In this, authors often fail to do their homework and therefore also fail their readers.

The reason for these flawed articles is that ICT is littered with non-Indian writers who lack critical thinking skills which results in misleading the public.


Just my opinion,

Anonymouse

Stephen said...

My two non-Native cents; I've looked at ICT once and I recall someone who claimed to be 1/4944th cherokee (or something like that) whining about how nobody accepted her as Indian; I think that says it all right there.

Stephen said...

Also I am the only one who thinks that the words 'wolf pack' also implies gang activity?

dmarks said...

Stephen: I think the picture actually is mostly a collection of photos of the chosen actors. Mostly, not entirely. That's just someone's guess at who will be Leah (upper left).

Stephen said...

Ah, well I'm just noticing that one guy looks he's straight off the cover of a bodice ripper.

Anonymous said...

That's Tinsel Korey who will be portraying Emily Young, not Leah Clearwater, in New Moon.

Anonymous said...

Tinsel Korey is not Native, she was born in India to East Indian parents.
She was the only one left off the official media release from Summit Ent because they are aware of this fact.

Rob said...

Are you sure about Tinsel Korey, Anonymous? She's appeared in half a dozen Native-themed productions and Wikipedia lists her as Native:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel_Korey

Korey was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was adopted at the age of two and grew up in a Jewish community, but her biological parents are of Aboriginal heritage.

Anonymous said...

Yes, very sure. She has been pretending to be Native to get roles. It is a well known fact in the Native community.
Many of her friends from Toronto and have come out and have publicly stated that she is lying.
People have been trying to get her to prove her supposed Heritage, but she refuses to even make a statement.

Rob said...

For more on the subject, see The Truth About Tinsel Korey.

Anonymous said...

p.s. tinsels b-day is March 25 1980