Quileute Legend

The story takes place in La Push, a town roughly 20 miles out of the town of Forks, Washington and is located on the Pacific coast near the Quileute Indian Reservation.  Legends of the tribe date back before records were officially kept.  The stories were passed down from generation to the next, the Quileute Legends were told and retold and have remained a vital part of the Quileute’s heritage.   Let me share one of these tales with you.

Long ago, the harbor was settled by the Quileute tribe. Although Spirit warriors before Kaheleha existed, he was the first noted as the first great Quileute Chief Spirit warrior. When chased from the harbor, the tribe would retreat to ships in the harbor and leave behind their bodies, using wind and animals to chase enemy tribes from their lands. They would then return to the ships and their wives victorious.

After many generations passed, Chief Taha Aki has assumed the role and was known for his wisdom and peace, but the tribe was betrayed by a warrior, Utlapa who was then ordered to leave and never return to Quileute lands. He hid in the forest to seek his revenge. One day, Taha Aki left his body to sweep through the lands, even in times of peace to watch over his tribe. He was then betrayed by Utlapa and instead of just killing the Chief, he stole the chiefs body and slit his own bodies throat leaving Chief Taha Aki with no body and no way to return to the human world. Taha Aki watched as Utlapa ordered no warrior enter the spirit world and as he assumed many unheard of changes to the tribe.

Taha Aki wandered aimlessly in the forest until one day a wolf followed him and he requested the wolf share his body with him, the wolf accepted and made room for Taha. Man and wolf returned to the harbor, but quickly retreated. An older warrior named Yut decided to disobey the false Chief’s order and cross into the spirit world. But, the false Chief found his body before Yut could return and claim his body and warn the tribe, he died as the false Chief Utlapa slit his throat. As Taha Aki joined the wolf, his love of his tribe and his people rocked the wolf and turned the wolf into a man. He had a new form, not the same as his old, but reflecting the spirit of Taha Aki.

Taha Aki assumed his role as the Chief of the tribe and was regarded as Taha Aki the Great Wolf leading the tribe for many, many years and fathering many son’s who could also turn into wolves. After many years Taha gave up his spirit wolf once finding his true love, but a threat loomed. Several young women of the Makahs (a neighboring tribe) went missing and blamed the wolves. Taha tried to assure the neighboring tribe that the wolves had no wrong doing, but out of fear this did not calm the Makahs. Chief Taha Aki did not want a war, so he appointed his oldest wolf son, Taha Wi to find the true culprits of the several missing tribe’s women.

What Taha Wi and the five other wolves found would shape the way the Quileute tribe regarded the “cold ones.” After finding a strange sweet scent accompanied by a human scent and blood on the trail, Taha Wi sent half the pack back to the harbor, as Taha Wi and his two brothers did not return.

A year later two Makahs tribes women went missing in the same night, the wolves were sent out, but only one returned the eldest son of Taha Aki’s third wife, Yaha Uta. Yaha described the speed of the creature they found and that the Makahs women had been kidnapped to satisfy the “cold ones” thirst. Yaha Uta had not returned empty handed, he came with chunks of the creatures flesh and the horrified elders set the remains on fire.

Little did the Quileute’s know, the creature had a mate. The cold woman entered the village with the sun shimmering off her skin, she was beautiful, but deadly. Yaha transferred to his spirit wolf and alerted the elders of the approaching danger and went to find the creature. Yaha was alone in fighting the creature slaying members of the village and his battle was quickly lost. Taha Aki screamed in defiance and shifted to the spirit wolf form, the wolf was old, but he gave a hard right.

Aki fought the cold woman, the third wife did something shocking and plunged the knife into her heart, frenzied by fresh blood she distracted the cold one long enough for Taha Aki to bite into her neck and kill her.

Jacob Black is one of the main characters in the movie “Twilight” and lives among the  Quileute Indian Tribe in La Push, Washington. The Quileute legends shaped the way that even Jacob Black’s grandfather’s generation regarded cold ones or vampires. Although, at the time of the meeting between Ephraim Black’s and this coven of vampires with the yellow eyes was different. They agreed to a treaty and the yellow eyes agreed to not hunt humans on Quileute lands.

The treaty lasts throughout the book and as seen throughout the series, preconceived notions about the yellow eyes changes as Bella pulls both yellow eyed vampires and the werewolves together, although not intentional. In the beginning of the Twilight series, the wolves and the vampires remain true to the treaty, but after complications throughout the wolves and vampires find common ground by protecting Bella and people in Forks, Washington and La Push, Washington.

The wolves and vampires are drawn together in many situations throughout the book and progress to find ways to work together, and throughout these conflicts begin to trust one another in small doses. Eventually by the time Breaking Dawn is released they find that they share a common bond and the Quileute tribe is then connected to the Cullen’s, but this does not change the way that the tribe feels towards other vampires, the Cullen’s are the exception at the time.