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Biography of Dan GeorgeName: Dan GeorgeBirth Date: June 24, 1899 Death Date: September 23, 1981 Place of Birth: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: actor, tribal leader Dan George Chief Dan George (1899-1981), a member of the Coast Salish nation, gained fame as an actor relatively late in life. He is best remembered for his role as the Cheyenne elder, Old Lodge Skins, in the 1970 film Little Big Man alongside a young Dustin Hoffman. The success of Little Big Man gave George a platform from which to call attention to the plight of North America's indigenous peoples in the twentieth century.A Vanishing CultureGeorge once delivered an open letter at a Canadian symposium on the matter of progress in the twentieth century and its effect on the indigenous cultures of North America. "I knew my people when they lived the old life," he said, according to a reprint of the speech in UNESCO Courier, "I knew them when there was still a dignity in their lives and a feeling of worth in their outlook; I knew them when there was …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…of a film documentary on his life, Today Is a Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George, which included interviews with his family and Hoffman. The festival director, Mike Smith, spoke about George and the importance of his role in Little Big Man nearly three decades earlier. Smith called it "the first film that really showed the other side of Native people, the love and the respect of family and culture." Further Reading Kael, Pauline, 5001 Nights at the Movies, Holt, 1991.Mortimer, Hilda, with Chief Dan George, You Call Me Chief: Impressions of the Life of Chief Dan George, Doubleday, 1981.New York Times, February 21, 1971.UNESCO Courier, December 2001, p. 16.Windspeaker, December 1998, pp. 18-20.Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 1999.Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 17, Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (March 4, 2002).Notable Native Americans, Gale Research, 1995. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (March 4, 2002). |