Wolf Pack Feels A Responsibility To The Native American Community

The problem of "white washing" or "facepainting" — having a white actor play a role meant for someone of a different ethnicity — is not new to Hollywood, but that doesn't mean that it's come any less under fire in recent years (read this for a really good essay on the subject). Just this year, M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" has received a lot of flack for starring white actors in the film's three lead roles intended for Asians, and "Prince of Persia" came under fire for having its Persian prince be played by the very white Jake Gyllenhaal.

"Twilight" even received some criticism for casting Taylor Lautner, an actor from Dutch, French and German descent, as the film's main Native American character, Jacob Black. While Taylor does claim to have some Native American blood, Summit Entertainment went out of their way to cast Native American actors as the rest of the Quilete wolf pack when "New Moon" came out, and Chaske Spencer acknowledges what a blessing it is that he was cast.
"I'm very fortunate to be here, and statistically I'm not supposed to be here," he told MTV News. "I grew up on three different reservations, so I really like to give back."
He is doing so with his charity, Shift The Power To The People, which is supported by his fellow "Twilight" cast members. It intends to educate the public about the crises facing the Native American population, and ask for their support instead of their money to try to get the government to do something about it.
Still, Chaske said he wasn't expecting just how big of a responsibility came with being a role model for his people.
"Since I'm here, I try to give back as much as I can. But as being a role model, I don't think there's really much of a choice in that matter, but then again, I mean, we're all human. We're not saints, either. You just try to maintain... I just try to give back. That's what I do, and I try to do that as much as I can," he said.

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