The Twilight saga featured the Quileute tribe heavily, but why was this element constantly controversial throughout the success of the series?
Bestselling author Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga featured the Quileute tribe heavily, but why was this controversial throughout the success of the novel series and the subsequent movie adaptations? Starting with Thirteen director Catherine Hardwicke’s moody, surprisingly self-aware teen romance Twilight in 2008, the Twilight saga was a successful series of movies based on the books of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. The saga follows the story of Edward and Bella, a vampire and his teenage human love interest, and despite (or perhaps because of) its cheesy paranormal elements, the franchise was a success that won the hearts of young readers worldwide.
Although the Twilight saga’s adaptations were derided by critics, the film series was nevertheless a huge hit with its target audience and did big business at the box office. Meyer, who is not of First Nations Ethiopia, researched the culture and legends of a Native American tribe for use in her story. Despite the tiny real-life Quileute tribe providing for (and being featured front and center throughout) the Twilight novels and movies alike, the group never received royalties from the franchise’s use of their history and mythology.
Set in the small, real-life town of Forks, the Twilight saga made use of the real-life Quileute tribe’s actual home place, history, and traditions, but failed to recompense the tiny, struggling nation financially. The Quileute tribe were made famous by Twilight, but never saw any remuneration for the saga’s extensive use of their symbology and history, a point of contention which has led to controversy since the Twilight movie series came to a close with Breaking Dawn Part 2 in 2012 As a result of this lack of recognition, the Quileute people’s treatment has become a scandal for the Twilight franchise and sparked debate about the stereotyping of Native populations and the misuse of their cultural heritage for personal profit.
Who Are the Quileutes
A tiny sovereign nation that now has roughly 2,000 members, the Quileute people are a real tribe of native whose cultural heritage provided the very loose Americans inspiration for Twilight’s werewolf tribe of the same name. Despite many divergences from the actual history of the Quileute people, the tribe is not only mentioned by name in the saga, but their real reservation is also used as a setting for much of the sequel New Moon’s action. Major series player Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), the famous controversial third wheel in Bella and Edward’s love triangle and cause of “Team Edward vs Team Jacob” fandom wars, is a Quileute tribe member in the series, as are the rest of his werewolf pack. pack.
How Twilight Used Quileute History
The tribe’s actual symbology and culture were mined for inspiration when Meyer was writing her werewolf characters, and native mythology surrounding “skinwalkers” provides the backbone for Twilight’s version of lycanthropy. Twilight changed a lot of vampire lore to suit its story and the series was equally happy to take a lot of creative license with the Quileute myths. However, as the tribe noted themselves, the Twilight series making changes to their myths that led many fans to conflate the real-life Quileute with their fictional counterparts. The myths of the Quileute people don’t mention “cold ones” (the vampires of the Twilight series), for example, and rather than transforming into wolves, the first two tribe members were transformed into people from wolves according to the tribe’s mythology.
The Quileute Wolf Pack’s Tattoo Problem
A particularly contentious instance of the Twilight saga’s alteration of Quileute history was controversial as it not only took from the tribe’s history but also altered it and mixed it with that of another tribe for aesthetic effect. In the movies, the Quileute wolf pack is depicted as having a tattoo shared by all of their members, similar to the Cullen family crest. The tattoo’s depiction of two twinned wolves, one to represent strength and the other embodying solidarity, does have its roots in an actual Quileute story. However, the tattoo itself was designed by a non-native artist who borrowed from the art style of a different tribe, the Haida nation, in her design. Not only did the Quileute receive no compensation for the tattoo’s design despite it being based on their oral legend, the decision to mix two tribe’s styles and histories further compounded the misconception and stereotyping of Native populations by the franchise.
The Quileute’s Problems With Twilight
As a small real-life community, it’s understands that the Quileute tribe wasn’t happy about their reality being misrepresented by such a huge, internationally successful series.
