The Land Remembers
A Preface to Honor the Quileute People

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To the Quileute People, Past and Present

Be Kind to Wolves is a work of fiction born from love, grief, and a desire to tell the truth. This story is set in and around the land now known as La Push and Forks, Washington; home to the Quileute Nation since time immemorial. While the supernatural elements in this story are imagined, the cultural identity, ancestral presence, and sovereign dignity of the Quileute people are very very real and ever enduring.

This work is a response to the harm caused by the Twilight franchise, which exploited the Quileute name and community without consent, compensation, or care. The fictionalization of Quileute culture as werewolf lore in those books and films perpetuated harmful stereotypes and erased the true history, resilience, and beauty of the Quileute people.

The shapeshifters, Menders, and supernatural elements within my works are wholly fictional and not drawn from authentic Quileute beliefs. These are symbols—of grief, transformation, and survival—used with care and distinction. All Quileute characters are written with cultural reverence and creative integrity, shaped by love for Indigenous youth and communities who deserve stories that reflect their full humanity.

Be Kind to Wolves aims to do the opposite.

It is written to honor, not appropriate. To amplify, not rewrite. And to remember the names, stories, and living legacy of a people too often cast as myth.

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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I acknowledge that the lands depicted in this story—including the beaches, rivers, rainforests, and coastal cliffs of the Pacific Northwest—are the ancestral and unceded territory of the Quileute Tribe. For generations, the Quileute have cared for these lands and waters, surviving waves of settler colonial violence, forced relocation, and cultural suppression.

Today, the Quileute Nation continues to revitalize their (extinct!!) language, protect their coastline, and fight for the return of stolen land—including through the Move to Higher Ground initiative. I encourage readers to learn more, uplift their efforts, and understand the deep connection between the Quileute people and the lands they have always called home.

To learn more, please visit:
🔗 https://quileutenation.org/
🔗 https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/truth_vs_twilight/

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So. I know I gave yall a long ass authors note in the first chapter of this book and this part might sound a little like a voice memo you didn't ask for, but it is so desperately needed. It's important to me.

I am all rez, that shit is so in my bones you can never take it out of me even if I am currently being forced to endure my city ndn activities lol. But I got Rosita Colonia and Big Thicket rez summers throwing rocks and popping fireworks with my cousins at the constantly stationed border patrol across the river to mess with them, running in jelly sandals and our aunties yelling to stop letting the cold air out of the house when we ran in and out the trailer. And this story? It comes from that girl.

We are fascinating people. Not because we're magical. Not because we're tragic. But because we're real—complex, funny, messy, beautiful. We got heartbreak and joy and rage and ceremony. And I wanted to write us in full color. I wanted to write about love that's soft and hard-earned. About grief that turns your skin inside out. About connection to land that doesn't just live in our DNA—it thrums in our dreams. So even though this book is fantasy—glowing palms and spirit wolves and supernatural drama—I hope when you read it, you don't just see magic. I hope you see us.

The way our hearts sound when they remember where home is.

So thank you a bunch for being here.

Keep being kind to the wolves.

—Paloma.