[ footprints ] Chief Dan George - Popular actor and chief accomplished much before his death

No doubt you recognize the face of Chief Dan George and remember his acting coupe de grace as 'Old Lodge Skins' in one of the most entertaining and provocative movies of the 1970's 'Little Big Man'.
In it, he plays the wise adoptive grandfather of Dustin Hoffman, a whiteman who switches legions between the European and Cheyenne cultures for survival. Hoffman narrates the memoire as the last living survivor of Custer's Last Stand at the famed Battle of the Little Big Horn, a 122-year-old man named Jack Crabb.
Anyone who's seen the film will remember George's great comic timing and sincere, down to earth manner and attitude as befits a fully actualized 'human being.' Named one of moviedom's most memorable scenes is the part in Little Big Man where Old Lodge Skins goes off to expire because "it is a good day to die." As he lies on the ground, a drop of rain hits him in the eye and he decides "sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it does not" and promptly gives up his spirit quest.
Hailed by critics as perhaps "the first time in a major role in a big budget film a real Indian gets to play one, George is said to have stolen the film with his nonchalant demeanor, spouting wisdom and mixing in a stand-up comic routine while dishing out ladles of humanity.
Amazingly, George came to the movies late in life, at the ripe old age of 60. Before his acting career, he had worked as a longshoreman for 27 years, but had to give that up after he was hit by a load of lumber. When he recovered from his injuries, he did some construction work and then some boom work, and was working as a school bus driver when he got his first acting job, playing Old Antoine in Caribou Country, a series on the CBC. George received acclaim for his portrayal, and when one of the episodes of the show was to be transformed into a Hollywood movie called 'Smith', George reprised the role, starring along side Keenan Wynn and fellow Canadians Glen Ford and Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto in the Lone Ranger series.
George was born in Geswanouth Slahoot on July 24, 1899 on the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in North Vancouver, also known as the Burrard Inlet Reserve.
He went by the name Dan Slahoot, the English version of his childhood nickname, Teswahno, until he went to St. Paul's boarding school at the age of five. There, where the students weren't allowed to speak their Native languages, they changed his name to Dan George, taking his new surname from his father's English name, George.
He became Chief Dan George in 1951 when he took over as chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation of British Columbia, legally known as the Burrard Inlet Reserve. He continued in that role until 1963, when his acting career began. He was also made honorary chief of two other bands, the Squamish and Shuswap.
George won the New York Film Critics Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for his work in Little Big Man. It also earned him an Academy Award nomination in the best supporting actor category, and marked the first time a Native person had been nominated for an Academy Award.
While a great time for George professionally, the recognition from the Motion Picture Academy coincided with a time of great sorrow and personal loss. When his nomination was announced, his wife Amy of 52 years lay in a hospital bed, admitted after treatment for a chronic ulcer condition.
A few weeks later, and less than a month before George was to walk down the red carpet at the Academy Award ceremony, Amy died.
George received acclaim for his work on stage as well. In 1967, he appeared in The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, playing the role of Rita Joe's father. Originally a minor character, playwright George Ryga expanded the part specifically for George. The play, which tells the story of a young Native girl who moves to the city only to meet a tragic, violent death, first opened at the Vancouver Playhouse and was later performed at the official opening of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The play was also staged in Washington D.C., and received critical acclaim wherever it was performed.
His success, and the celebrity status that came with it, made George's life busier, but there were few outward signs that he had become a Hollywood star. He continued to live on the reserve in the same little house he had built for his wife and six children.
George traveled around lower British Columbia with his family and two nephews playing as the 'Chief Dan George Entertainers'. He played stand-up bass, his son Bobby George played the accordian, and nephews Paul George and Arthur George played the mandolin /guitar and bass guitar respectively.
Dan's daughter's Anne, Irene and Marie sang with the group, which played mostly western songs.
George could express himself with the written word, as well, penning a 'Native Anthem' which was given to the 54 bands of the Salish Nation as a national anthem; the north shore Indians would use it before their playoff games, and the ocean-going canoe groups would sing it before their journeys.
Throughout the 1970's and'80's George teamed up with illustrator Helmut Hirnschall and released a number of books, including the beloved 'My Heart Soars' and 'My Spirit Soars'. Excerpted from his 'Words to a Grandchild' is the following poem:

You come from a shy race
Ours are the silent ways
We have always done all things in a gentle manner,
So much as the brook avoids the solid rock
On its search for the sea
And meets the deer in passing
You, too, must follow the path
Of your own race
It is steady and deep,
Reliable and lasting
It is you ­ if you let it happen.

Before his death on Sept. 23 1981 at the age of 82, George received a doctor of laws degree from Simon Fraser University, a doctor of letters from the University of Brandon, and was also awarded the Order of Canada for his service as both an actor and as an extraordinary interpreter of his people.