Talk about going above and beyond the (midnight?) call of duty. Chaske Spencer, the Oglala Lakota actor who plays werewolf Sam Uley in the popular ‘Twilight’ movie series, was home in Montana, recently.

But instead of simply hanging with friends and family, he worked on behalf of a blood drive in Billings. Jaci Webb of the Billings Gazette has the story here:

Last week, Spencer slipped into Billings for a midnight show of the new film.

“I had just flown in from Australia and I was mixed up on my days. I thought, I’ll go see a movie, so I went to ‘A-Team’ and then when I found out ‘Eclipse’ was showing at midnight, I stayed.’’

A few teenage girls undoubtedly spotted Spencer, but he had on a beanie and ducked out the back door before anyone had a chance to speak to him. Tuesday, he was back in town to see the film one more time with 80 blood donors who won a drawing to see one of the summer’s hottest movies with Spencer.

Among the winners was Ryan Meza, who has Type O Negative blood and so frequently donates. She won the grand prize, so she and her 9-year-old daughter Arciela will take a limo ride with Spencer to the screening.

The promotion brought 39 new donors and 264 blood donations between June 24 and July 3, Webb reports.

Lesli Asay, of United Blood Services, told Spencer that “your help here has saved 800 lives.”

For his part, says Chaske, who left Montana at age 14, “I think you’re obligated to help people out when you’re in a position like this. It’s important for me to do what I can with what I’ve been given.”

He says he works hard to avoid getting typecast in movies.

“We’re kind of like rock stars because we’re on a pedestal with this film,” Spencer tells Webb. “But as Native actors, we’re not stereotypical. Look, we have a president who is a minority. And I think the kids see us, not as Native, but just being people.”

Seems like this week the kids saw a role model, too.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Twilight", Chaske Spencer, Native American actors, Oglala Lakota, Sam Uley, Twilight - Eclipse, Twilight Saga - Eclipse, United Blood Services, Wolf Pack

Finally, says Taté Walker of Sioux Falls, S.D., movies for teens take a positive view of Native Americans.

Walker, program manager for the Native American Scholars program, is of course talking about the “Twilight” teen vampire movies, based on the series of books by the same name written by Stephenie Meyer. The latest in the series, “Twilight: Eclipse” (see video above) opens later this month.

In the book, one of the lead characterers, Jacob Black – played by Taylor Lautner in the movies – is a member of the Quileute Nation.

“‘Twilight,’ it blew me away,” Walker tells the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, here. “Here’s this Native kid with a typical lifestyle. … He’s the good guy. He’s a legitimate main character. That was a big component of why I liked the books.”

Native American Scholars program is part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sioux Empire. It matches Native American students with mentors. As the Argus Leader’s Bryann Becker writes, Walker bought the first book in 2008 for her mentee, 17-year-old Tiffany Herman, who also loved it.

“You can’t tell me that there aren’t kids thinking, ‘That’s me someday,’” Walker tells Becker. “They can see themselves represented in pop culture, and that will connect them more to the world around them.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Twilight", Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sioux Empire, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Jacob Black, Native American news, Native American Scholars, Quileute Nation, Stephenie Meyer, Taylor Lautner, Twilight - Eclipse

Some professors at the University of Victoria in British Columbia think so.

A forum there in a couple of weeks will examine the question, according to this story by the Victoria Times Colonist:

The [April 21] gathering will look at whether the portrayal of the indigenous character Jacob, who turns into a werewolf, is a breakthrough or perpetuates stereotypes about native men.

“He doesn’t have feathers in his hair and doesn’t live in teepee,” said Janni Aragon, a University of Victoria political science professor.

“So just the fact there are indigenous men in this book and movie is a big thing. We could say that’s a win. But the next step is to say is how are these men portrayed.”

The insanely popular movies, “Twlight,” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” are based on the insanely popular teen vampire books by Stephenie Meyer.

Werewolves in the series are ostensibly members of the Quileute tribe, and are played in the movie by Native American actors.

As the story notes, the main Quileute character, Jacob Black, is ” muscular, hotheaded, passionate and often dressed in cutoff-style jeans or shorts. That’s in contrast to the very white vampire Edward, who is well-groomed, elegant and rational.”

And, says Sikata Banerjee, a University of Victoria women’s studies professor and associate dean of humanities, Jacob is also portrayed as somewhat childlike – “irrational and emotive, and not really equal in citizenship.”

That, she says, is dangerous, in the way that it reinforces negative stereotypes about indigenous men. What do you think?

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Twilight Saga: New Moon", "Twilight", buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Jacob Black, Native American news, Quileute, racism, Stephenie Meyer, Taylor Lautner, University of Victoria

That’s the New York Times’ take on the effect the “Twilight” book and movie series has had on the Quileute Nation on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

As Angela R. Riley of Los Angeles writes, here:

To millions of “Twilight” fans, the Quileute are Indians whose (fictional) ancient treaty transforms young males of the tribe into vampire-fighting wolves. To the nearly 700 remaining Quileute Indians, “Twilight” is the reason they are suddenly drawing extraordinary attention from the outside — while they themselves remain largely excluded from the vampire series’ vast commercial empire.

Just last month, MSN.com issued an apology to the Quileute for intruding on its territory while videotaping a “Twilight” virtual tour in September. MSN.com sought permission from the Chamber of Commerce in nearby Forks, Wash., but didn’t pay the same courtesy to the Quileute. The video team trespassed onto a reservation cemetery and taped Quileute graves, including those of esteemed tribal leaders. These images were then set to macabre music and, in November, posted on MSN.com. The tribe quickly persuaded MSN.com to remove the Quileute images.

It seems that everybody is rushing to cash in on the Quileute. Riley tells of Quileute hoodies being sold on Nordstrom.com (we didn’t find any at Nordstrom’s, but they’re on Cafe Press, here), charms with what purports to be Quileute werewolf tattoos, and tour companies bringing busloads of people onto the reservation – all earning money, none of it going to the tribe.

Riley argues that even though such activities are perfectly legal, the morally correct thing to do would be to cut the Quileute in on such deals – both in making decisions about what’s sold, and also in terms of profiting from use of their cultural property.

We like the argument put forth by Riley, who directs the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and informally advises the Quileute Tribe as a volunteer.

But are we holding our breath waiting for any of those things to happen?

Um, no.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Twilight Saga: New Moon", "Twilight", buffalo post, intellectual property, Los Angeles, Native American news, Quileute Nation, Stephenie Meyer, UCLA American Indian Studies Center, University of California

Chaske Spencer may be best known now for role as Sam Uley, the alpha wolf in “New Moon,” the second movie in the insanely popular “Twilight” series.

But in Montana, folks remember him for his roots on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Spencer lived on the reservation town of Poplar from from 1987 to 1991, Elizabeth Harrison of the Great Falls Tribune reports here.

There, his mom Jan Spencer tells Harrison, he sang in a Christmas play with his school and went to a theater arts program in Helena during the summer of 1987.

“He wanted to audition and had a real interest in acting, movies, arts, music — down that line,” she says.

A significant part of the “Twilight” series centers on the Quileute Nation on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and the movies feature many Native actors.

Spencer is an enrolled member of the Assiniboine Sioux tribe on his mother’s side and the Nez Perce tribe on his father’s side – yet says “I’ve lost roles because I wasn’t Indian enough. I can’t figure it out, and I don’t want to waste time trying to figure it out.”

After a stint at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, Spender took off for New York with $100 in his pocket and a one-way ticket, Harrison reports.

He looks back on the move as “Pure stupidity. I don’t think I actually thought about it. So, would I do it again? I probably would. I always liked taking risks like that. I don’t recommend it to everybody.”

Clearly, the risk was worth it!

Gwen Florio

Tags: "New Moon", "Twilight", Assiniboine, buffalo post, Chaske Spencer, Fort Peck Reservation, Native American news, Nez Perce, Quileute Nation, Sam Uley

Native actors go beyond Westerns to … werewolves?
Well, werewolves, in the case of Taylor Lautner, who stars in “New Moon,” the just-released second movie in the teen hit “Twilight” series. Lautner says he recently discovered Potawatomi and Ottawa roots; what’s more important, according to this opinion piece in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon, is that director Chris Weitz insisted on using actors of Native descent for the “Wolf Pack.” Spencer is Lakota (Sioux), Meraz is Purepecha (Tarasco), Gordon is Hualapai and Pelletier is Cree-Metis. The piece is by Rod Pocowatchit is from the Pawnee, Comanche and Shawnee tribes.

Indians back on Alcatraz Island after 40 years
Four decades after Indian people occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay – in part to call attention to the woeful treatment of the nation’s tribes – they were back. Yesterday, according to this San Francisco Chronicle story, some of the initial occupiers, as well as others, returned with the government’s blessing. Now, says Howard Levitt, chief of education for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, “the occupation is considered to be a milestone in the self-determination and civil rights movements. We honor that.”

“Fried bread, sweat lodges and Nintendo Wii”
That headline in the Sioux City Journal grabbed us. What the heck was it all about? Turns out to be this story about students at the Augustine Indian Mission School on the Winnebago Indian Reservation south of in Sioux City, Iowa. They were talking about how they’d celebrate Thanksgiving.

Tribes see loss of oil, natural gas royaltiess
Here’s a worrisome Bloomberg News story that says: “plunging oil and natural gas prices and a drop in revenue from lease sales cut the money sent by the United States to tribes, states and the Treasury Department by more than half in fiscal 2009. “Lower energy prices drove down royalties and sapped industry demand for leases,” it says.

Flathead Reservation resident is barrel racing champ
McK’la Gonzalez, a 15-year-old barrel racer from Elmo on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, took first place in National Barrel Horse Association Montana State Championships, youth category, in Great Falls last month, the Char-Koosta News reports here. Her aunt, Bernadine Tenas, says Gonzalez has been barrel racing since she was seven and has three championships buckles. She now qualifies for the World NBHA championships.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "New Moon", "Twilight", Alcatraz, Augustine Indian Mission School, Flathead Indian Reservation, McK'la Gonzalez, National Barrel Horse Association, Oil and gas, Taylor Lautner, Winnebago Indian Reservation, Wolf Pack

Just in time for the Nov. 20 release of “New Moon,” the second movie in the insanely popular “Twilight” teen-vampire series, comes this news that the Quileute Nation has granted access to ReelzChannel to film on their reservation.

That’s a big deal, because – despite the tourist boom on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula that’s a direct result of the “Twilight” books and now movies – the Quileute have steadfastly resisted efforts by media groups to film on their reservation, according to this Indian Country Today story.

Although the people and most of the places in the books by Stephenie Meyer are fictional, the Quileute Nation and the nearby town of Forks are real. The movie’s Taylor Lautner who plays Jacob Black, a Quileute werewolf that vies for the affection of protagonist Bella Swan, is part Ottawa/Potawatomi.

Tribal spokeswoman Jackie Jacobs said ReelzChannel got the nod to film there – for a documentary-style episode on their reservation for the “Twilight Weekly: Spotlight” series – because it showed concern and respect for the tribe and its traditions.

“I was very mindful of protecting this nation from exploitation, and from someone who didn’t really understand the dynamics of this story, just looking for a surface level, ‘Twilight’ fan sort of sound bite,” Jacobs said.

The 30-minute episode highlights students from the Quileute Tribal School, tribal language and culture, budding entrepreneurs, and focuses minimally on the vampire buzz, Indian Country Today reports.

On the show, tribal elder Chris Morganroth III explains the Quileute creation story and how the people are descended from wolves, something that dovetails with “Twilight.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "New Moon", "Twilight", buffalo post, Native American news, Quileute Nation, Stephenie Meyer, Taylor Lautner

Kyla Bearheels, of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is awaiting word on her audition for a part in “Eclipse,” the third movie in the wildly successful “Twilight” series.

Based on the books by Stephanie Meyer, the “Twilight” series focuses the love between Edward Cullen, a vampire, and the teenage Bella Swan. The books have sold, oh, about a bazillion copies and the first movie was likewise successful. The second movie, “New Moon,” is be released Nov. 20, with the third and fourth movies, “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn” are secheduled for June 2010 and 2011.

Bearheels, an actress who attends Central Wyoming College in Riverton, near the Wind River Reservation, traveled to Salt Lake City in June to audition for the role of Leah Clearwater in “Eclipse,” says this Rapid City Journal story.

The good thing is, the casting company – Rene Haynes Casting of Burbank, Calif. – called her and invited her to audition, apparently on the strength of her earlier audition tape when Bearheels was a teenager trying out for “The New World.” Five years ago, Bearheels was one of several teen actresses considered to star as Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell as Capt. John Smith in the Terrence Malick-scripted film.

She didn’t get the part, but she made an impression. The same thing could happen this time around. Bearheels says that as more time passes without being called back, the likelihood of her getting the part diminishes. Still, she says, “it was such an honor to get a call from Rene and to go up for the role.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Twilight", Add new tag, buffalo post, Native actors, Native American news, Standing Rock Sioux, Stephanie Meyer