The Quileute (pronounced Kwee-it) Indian Reservation, is only about one square mile in size and is located about 12 miles from the fishing resort town of La Push, Wash. With Quileute tribal lineage dating back thousands of years to the Ice Age, this makes them possibly the oldest inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest.
According to their tribal legends, the Quileutes were created from wolves by a supernatural transformer.
Ranked second to their tribal neighbors--the Makah Tribe--as whalers, the Quileutes are ranked first as sealers with the Chimacum, who they were separated from by a great flood that swept them to the Quimper Peninsula. There, they were almost entirely wiped out by Chief Seattle and the Suquamish Tribe in the 1860s.
I wonder how much whaling or sealing there is in the Twilight books. Not much, I'm guessing.
While there is certainly the "tween" appeal of the dreamy, heartthrob vampire Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson) to Kristen Stewart's portrayal of trusting "Bella," one of the bigger draws for the Native attendees at the event is Meyer's connection in the story to an actual tribe in Washington State.
"I really like how Bella takes the time to get to know Edward before she judges him, even though he is a vampire. She accepts him and then she falls in love with him. It's also really neat that Bella has a best friend in Jacob ... knowing that he is someone she can depend on and trust." Yaiva said.
Other Native teens were equally thrilled with the Meyer story product, including Aubrey Tisi, 16 who goes to Sinaqua High. Aubrey was there with her sister, Chelsea, 11, who is a big Twilight fan.
"Its so cool, that it's about a vampire family and how they lived side by side [with] the Quileutes. It shows how Natives respect all animal and legend life, even though they are a possibly evil, dark family. I loved the books ..., but to see it [on] DVD format was really neat and I also liked how it showed that loyalty to the people you love is so important," Tisi said.
1 comment:
Rob said: "I wonder how much whaling or sealing there is in the Twilight books. Not much, I'm guessing."
Or fishing. I don't recall any such detail about the Quileute economy being mentioned at all in the books. It's even less than "not much". On the negative side, it doesn't touch on the real lives of the La Push Indians. On the plus side, any atereotypes about lazy Indians loafing on the federal dole or getting rich from casinos are entirely avoided also.
The article aaid "It shows how Natives respect all animal and legend life, even though they are a possibly evil, dark family." of which Rob said " of which Rob said "These movies are filling their heads with notions of Indians who are heroic and nature-loving but also clannish and supernatural"
I don't recall the "nature loving" stereotype/meme coming up in these books at all. The books also say nothing like that the shapeshifting Quileutes are like a dark and evil family. Tisi didn't get this from the books or the movie. I wonder if the few other "Twilight" readers who read this blog will agree. As for "clannish", the characters also do not come across that way when dealing with the whites or other Natives. But they are confrontational with the vampires.
Post a Comment