SEATTLE — The Quileute tribe — women, girls, boys, men — gathered to sing, chant and dance its own story Saturday in an atrium filled with bright sunlight.
This was not the pop-culture version of the werewolf Indians running through the “Twilight” saga, but rather the real thing, the Quileute culture passed across generations among the people of LaPush, the remote village on the edge of the wild Pacific Ocean.
The legends and images of the Quileute tribe are the core of “Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves,” a yearlong exhibit that opened Saturday at Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., in Seattle.
As anyone exposed to popular culture knows, the Twilight books and movies portray the Quileute people as werewolves wont to take off their shirts, run through the woods and compete against vampires for the attentions of Bella, the human heroine.
These tales came out of online surfing by “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, whose teen novels unleashed streams of “Twihards,” tourists who come from around the world to see Olympic Peninsula sights such as LaPush’s First Beach.
The real tradition
But on Saturday, a whole other view of a people and their place opened up, at one of the Pacific Northwest’s hallowed art showplaces.
The “Behind the Scenes” exhibit tells the story of Kwati, the Transformer, who according to Quileute legend came to First Beach to change a pair of wolves into the people who became the ancestors of the Quileute tribe.
Meanwhile, other spirit beings — Dask’iya the kelp-haired monster, Tistilal the Thunderbird — shaped the Quillayute River, James Island and other land forms unique to this corner of the world.
Alongside a timeline showing the Quileute tribe’s history are giant photographs of children offering their springtime welcome of the whales to LaPush, and a series of Quileute School children’s drawings of tribal activities more than 100 years ago.
Wolf headdresses
Also on display are five wolf headdresses spanning 70 years, drawn from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Washington State Historical Society and Olympic National Park.
Shaman’s sculptures and intricate baskets round out the exhibit.
A 12-minute video screens continually in the gallery, so visitors can see Quileute elders, teenagers and Tribal Council members reflect on the “Twilight” phenomenon.
The worldwide popularity of the books and movies “has given us the opportunity to educate people about our culture,” Quileute tribal chairwoman Anna Rose Counsell-Geyer says in the video.
At Saturday’s opening celebration, a crowd turned out as Counsell-Geyer, with Tribal Council members Carol Hatch and Tony Foster, introduced the dozens of Quileute dancers who had traveled from LaPush.
Performed dances
They performed for two hours, moving from the snipe dance and the dance of the elk and whale to the friendship dance, in which tribal members went into the audience to bring people into their circle.
The Quileutes also performed the wolf dances, in which members spin in fierce headdresses — while elders admonished onlookers to put away their cameras.
Barbara Brotherton, the museum’s curator of Native American art, watched it all with reverence.
The Quileutes made 40 new pieces of regalia for their performance and strove to include every youth who wanted to participate.
Their spirit of cooperation came across loud and clear, Brotherton said Saturday night.
“They were strong and focused. In one way, perhaps, ‘Twilight’ has brought them close together as they decide how to present themselves to a wider public,” she said.
But “not all of their culture is for ‘public consumption,’ and they guard certain sacred songs, dances and masks. As it should be.”
Burke Museum website
At the same time, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington is developing a website, “Truth versus Twilight,” countering some of the class, gender and racial stereotypes in the “Twilight” series.
Deana Dartt-Newton, a professor at the University of Washington, believes women are too often portrayed as submissive; she said the site’s mission is to give a more realistic view of native women’s lives.
The site will be launched, Dartt-Newton said, after it is approved by the Quileute Tribal Council; she hopes to receive the go-ahead at the end of this month.
After that, people will be able to find “Truth versus Twilight” on the Burke Museum website, www.Washington.edu/burkemuseum.
At Saturday’s opening, tribal members from across the Northwest spoke to one another in their native languages, and pointed out commonalities among the region’s native people.
‘All brothers and sisters’
“We’re all brothers and sisters, and we’re here at a great moment,” said Cecile Hansen, chairwoman of Seattle’s Duwamish tribe.
But she also called attention to what she and the Duwamish consider a modern-day injustice.
The tribe, whose chief gave Seattle its name, is considered extinct by the U.S. government.
Hansen urged the audience to contact their legislators to ask them to push for federal recognition of the Duwamish — not so the tribe can open a casino, she said, but so members can regain fishing rights and their legal status as Native Americans.
Yet “the non-Indians are brothers and sisters too,” Hansen said. “I raise my hands to all of you.”
The Seattle Art Museum’s “Behind the Scenes” exhibit, which will stay up through Aug. 14, 2011, is “a new beginning,” said Eugene Jackson Sr., one of the Quileutes who came to watch his tribe dance.
Holding his 2-year-old son, Frankie, in his arms, Jackson called the collection of art “positive reinforcement” for the tribe’s young people.
“We’ve always had our culture . . . this will give our youth some incentive to come and do some research on who they are.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.