something that's always rubbed me the wrong way is the books implying all the pack have short hair because if their hair is long their wolf form will also have long hair, esp since i learned a lot of native american cultures place spiritual value on long hair. what are your thoughts on it?
It’s definitely problematic and doesn’t really make any sense, either. I do think it’s important to remember that Native Americans are not a monolith and different tribes have different beliefs and customs, but as you point out, many do assign significance to long hair. I’ve seen a few references here and there to historical Quileutes wearing their hair long (women in two braids and men "sometimes coiled their long hair into a bunch behind their head” [x]) but I haven’t seen anything more in depth so I don’t personally know the finer points of their beliefs on that topic.
eta: many people have pointed out in the notes that regardless of the Quileutes’ particular beliefs, having them all cut their hair is reminiscent of Indian Schools and forced assimilation.
It also just . . . doesn’t really make sense that the length of their human hair would correlate to the wolf fur when other things like color doesn’t matter. Seth is “sandy” colored as a wolf but he’s not blond; Leah is silver-gray but doesn’t have gray hair. So why would the length translate over? Does it apply to other body hair? The more you think about it, the less sense it makes.
I think SM had this image in her head of all the pack looking alike. She has said once before that she might have been subconsciously inspired by the Mormon story of the Stripling warriors, where a group of converts vowed never to fight again, so their sons take up arms to defend them. I don’t know much about these Mormon stories, either, but judging by the artwork that comes up when I google this, they were associated with Native Americans too (and that opens up a whole other can of worms about racism in the Mormon church). She might have wanted them all to look similar to mimic the visuals of an army?
An army where the uniform is cropped hair and jorts.
