The Quileute Reservation copes with tourists brought by "Twilight"

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Glover says some tribes have chosen to remain relatively cloistered, much like some Hutterite, Mennonite, monastic and other religious communities in the U.S. Others are isolated by geography and circumstance. In 2008, a severe flood destroyed the Havasupai-owned campground and shuttered the tribe's tourism industry for more than nine months. For the first time in years, the reservation was left alone. "In a way, it gave the area a time to breathe," says Billy Jack, the tourism manager at the time. Ultimately, however, the tribe realized an economy without tourists was unsustainable, and it again welcomed hikers the following spring.

Religious and cultural tourism can be done in a respectful way, Glover says; the Vatican, for example, has welcomed visitors for centuries while restricting access to particular spots and special ceremonies. The difference, he says, is that Native religions are often tied to specific locations and objects that are outdoors and therefore more vulnerable to ignorant outsiders. And most Indians have no interest in winning converts or even speaking much to outsiders about their beliefs.

That doesn't mean that tribes always agree on how to proceed. Surveys by Glover and a research collaborator have found widely varying attitudes toward tourism and casinos among neighboring Sioux tribes. And controversy has flared over two Navajo-backed development proposals on the Grand Canyon's southern and eastern rims. The Havasupai fear the southern plan's potential impacts on their water source, while the Hopi say the eastern proposal is too close to a sacred site at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers.

When the Twilight craze first erupted, the Quileute lacked a public relations contact and events coordinator. Ann Penn-Charles, a community leader who helps run the weekly drum and healing circle, says producers of the first movie randomly called villagers in hopes of securing permission to film a scene on First Beach. (It was ultimately shot on the Oregon coast instead.) The producers eventually visited La Push to get a better sense of the community. Tribal Secretary Naomi Jacobson says their ideas of Quileute kids were upended when they visited her cousin's home. "They didn't expect them to be modernized teenagers with iPods and Wii," she says.

Five years have passed since then, though, and the village has adjusted. Jackie Jacobs, the tribal publicist since 2009, has recruited several Twilight actors to visit the school and appear at the annual Quileute Days celebration in July. This festival has become the reservation's biggest tourist draw, and summer stays at the resort now require booking months in advance. When Jacobs asked some kids about how La Push has changed, she got a matter-of-fact response. "You definitely have to look now when you're crossing the street," they told her.

In the resort's main office, handcrafted basket earrings, drums, and decorative canoe paddles share display space with autographed pictures of movie stars. Centuries ago, the Quileute and other coastal tribes bred fluffy dogs for woven dog-hair blankets. Both the breed and art form are lost, though Penn-Charles and her mother knit woolen hats adorned with animals and geometric shapes. They too have adapted to the Twilight fans; one girl commissioned four purple-and-white "Team Edward" yarn hats last summer.

"The economic factor is big for our people who still do their arts and crafts," says Penn-Charles. In the summer, some of the tribe's youngsters sell handmade charm bracelets, rocks painted with wolf paw prints, and "La Push" and "Quileute" stickers, earning enough money to buy back-to-school clothing and supplies.

Group tours offer traditional meals served at the beach --  crunchy biscuit-like "buckskin bread" and salmon cooked on sticks -- along with the chance to sit around a bonfire and hear traditional stories. The outings -- usually arranged through a new events coordinator -- have generated much-needed income, and provided new ways for traditions and tales to be passed down to the next generation.

No one talks much about what might happen when the Twilight phenomenon fades, as it inevitably will. Perhaps, like Supai, the town will get a chance just to catch its breath. But people will still want to escape the "concrete jungle," says Tribal Chairman Foster, and those originally drawn by the books and movies may like the place so much they'll keep coming back.

The recent attention may have helped inspire other, more lasting changes. For decades, the tribe has fought to win back some higher ground. This February, Congress finally passed the Quileute Tribe Tsunami and Flood Protection Act, which transfers 785 acres of national park property and an additional 184 acres of non-federal tribal land into a trust for the tribe -- more than doubling the reservation's size. In addition to the culturally significant floodplain known as Thunder Field, an upland parcel to the south will allow the reservation to move its school, tribal offices, elder center and other crucial infrastructure to safer locations.

Tribal members believe that their welcoming attitude helped make the difference by inspiring Twilight fans to launch social media campaigns on their behalf.

The drum and healing circle offers one of the clearest displays of Quileute hospitality and culture. For one dance, a guest drummer-in-residence from Vancouver Island asks me to mirror his movements. We swoop like eagles around the circle, dipping low first to one side, and then the other. As the tourists snack on cupcakes left over from the Head Start bake sale, women and girls play the part of elk in another dance, tapping ribbon-adorned sticks on the floor. A teenage hunter symbolically spears two of them, slinging them over his shoulder before depositing them gently outside the circle.

Four hours later, after the event, Tribal Vice-Chairperson DeAnna Hobson and I linger under the community center's covered porch. She tells me stories of her youth, worries about the aftereffects of the Japanese tsunami, and describes the tribe's reinvigorated determination to protect itself from a similar disaster. Then she gives me a hug before heading home for the night.

Perhaps the welcome I've received is more effusive than usual; I am, after all, a reporter scribbling furiously in a notebook. Visiting the Quileute may be different for tourists in the crush of midsummer. But I haven't been the only guest welcomed tonight like a long-lost friend, invited to participate in a unique celebration that began with a communal meal and ended with the sacred dance of the wolves.

For more information, a primer on Indian Country etiquette and accommodations at the Quileute Oceanside Resort, visit www.quileutenation.org.

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