The Quileute Tribe of NA

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

This blog will focus on the history, culture and current events relating to the Quileute Tribe of North America. Each week I will share my research on life before and after European contact, the impacts of European contact, culture, politics, and the environment.

I was inspired to learn more about this tribe after watching the film Reel Injun, a documentary that addresses the portrayal of Native Americans in films. This documentary explains how the development of cinema is tied to the development and perpetuation of stereotypes about Native Americans. A few examples of these stereotypes are the “wise elder” and “stoic warrior”. Previously, my only knowledge of the Quileute tribe was based on the portrayal of the tribe in the Twilight Saga. I was surprised to learn that the Quileute Tribe is real. That in itself illustrates how the film industry has controlled the narrative on Native American history and culture. If you are interested in learning more about Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans throughout history, I suggest that you watch this documentary. I have provided a link at the bottom of this page.

The Quileute Tribe is located in La Push, Washington. According to the Quileute nation website, this group is dedicated to the preservation of their language, which I will talk about in-depth in later blog posts. If you would like to learn more about the tribe’s efforts towards language preservation, you can visit their website: https://quileutenation.org/language/ 

On an end note, here are some historical photographs of members of this group, which I located on the tribe’s website:

Thank you for reading!

Click on the link to view a free version of the film available on Youtube Reel Injun (2009)