Jacob's Quileute words translated

In Jacob's Quileute Words = Easter Egg, we noted that Jacob's line to Bella in New Moon was a hidden "treasure." Soon there was a lot of speculating about what Jacob said. Now reader Kat has sent me a possible answer about Jacob's words:Hi Rob,

I laughed when I just saw this:

'New Moon' Exclusive: Chris Weitz Reveals 10 Secrets in the Film!The text at the link says:5. Look it up

"And last but not least: If you want to know what Jacob says before he almost kisses Bella, ask a Quileute! The address of the Quileute tribal council is quileutenation.org. I can tell you this much: He says, Kwop kilawtley."The reference to the Quileute Nation doesn't help since the tribe's publicist said they weren't going to translate the line. But people have pursued the matter, as Kat explains:I thought: Boy, the Quileute will get they email accounts flooded to the extreme.

And of course, I copied "Kwop kilawtley" into Google: Google said at the bottom that this was the 7th most searched term WORLDWIDE in the last hour and has been exploding in frequency. According to Google Trends, "Hotness: VOLCANIC." A Quileute phrase the 7th MOST SEARCHED TERM WORLDWIDE...

WOW!!! The power of pop culture...

Snowy greetings,
KatKat wrote this Friday afternoon (12/18/09). No doubt the term has cooled off since then because I couldn't duplicate her results. Nevertheless, her point remains valid. This shows the incredible influence of pop culture in general and movies in particular.

On the Quileute Nation's page on Facebook, several people asserted that "Kwop kilawtley" means "Stay with me forever." Some people referred to this posting:

What does Kwop kilawtley mean?

which could be one fan reporting what another fan said. Only one Facebook fan seems to have gone further than repeating what she heard:Siân Richards

thats wot i was told that it means 'stay with me forever' she can translate alot of quileute and was online for a while answering these questions lol, think u can probably google the convo anyway it certainly fits with the sceneI asked Siân who "she" was: Stephenie Meyer? Publicist Jackie Jacobs? Kristen Stewart? Tinsel Korey? Siân didn't post a response. So we have a translation and a hint that it's accurate, but no confirmation.

Back to the point about pop culture's influence. As people have said many times, Natives should make their own movies and get tribes to finance them. They shouldn't wait around for Hollywood to discover them. But...appearing in a major motion picture, one backed by a studio's marketing and distribution prowess, is still the gold prize. A single phrase in such a movie can get as many Google hits--a rough measure of popularity--as an entire independent film.

Individual Native filmmakers may have to choose one career path or another: Hollywood or independent movies. But Natives as a whole don't have to go one route or another. Indeed, I'd say they should take both approaches. They should make their own movies and (try to) make Hollywood movies.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.