Stephenie Meyer New Moon Q&A: Quileutes

Thursday! It’s time for a look at our fourth answer from Mrs. Meyer that she posted at her web site in response to fan questions.

Today: the Quileutes of La Push.

Hello Mrs.Stephenie Meyer, I adore your books. My question is where did you get the inspiration to make Jacob Black a Native American? What is the whole back-story to Jacob being Native American? I too am native American [Navajo] by the way, therefore making me curious. Thank you very much if you answer my question or not, you still bring a great story to your readers around the world. – Kristine B.

Mrs. Meyer: There was a bit of random chance involved with including the Quileutes, but it was also about my personal fascination with Native American history. I picked Forks first, and at that point in time the Jacob character didn’t exist. But around the same time that I realized it would be out of character for Edward to be able to admit that he was a vampire, I discovered the existence of La Push and started reading about the Quileute’s unique history and culture. Jacob developed really naturally from that research, as a solution to my “how does Bella find out” dilemma and also as a way to enrich the mythology. If I hadn’t always been very intrigued with Native American history, though, I don’t know if the proximity of La Push would have resulted in Jacob’s creation.

Again, Mrs. Meyer focuses on the history of her decisions (”when I thought of that”) in answering a reader’s question about meaning. Certainly this specific question is about “Where did you get the inspiration” to feature a Native American character and can be interpreted that way — but, as with the other questions, Mrs. Meyer takes the path of the simplest and least revealing answer. “I chose the Quileutes because they lived next to Forks.”

Okay, but… You could have chosen loggers living and working in the area, hippies from communes, or park rangers. Why choose the Native Americans that also live there? Why is Mrs. Meyer intrigued with “Native American history”?

I think there are three follow-up questions that can be asked here which, because they have a narrower focus, might produce a richer response. Or maybe just a “No.”

(1) Are you interested in Native American history because of your studies of the Book of Mormon, the book you say has had a the greatest influence on your life? Do you believe that Native Americans are descended from Semitic tribes, the not-quite-Lost tribes of Israel led by Nephi and his brethren to the New World?

(2) Do you think that Native Americans are by nature more spiritual and sensitive to the natural world than Americans descended from European and other immigrations?

(3) Is Jacob Black’s name a pointer to the Bible and BoMor Patriarchs named Jacob and to the color ‘black’ and its Lamanite and alchemical significance?

I’m skeptical that she’d choose to answer this sort of questioning but I suspect the first two may have been on her Navaho reader’s mind. Is it unreasonable that if the answer is “yes” to those two questions that this is why the Native Americans feature so prominently in these books? Your thoughts, please.