A2 - Sunday News, September 27, 1981

do,

By the time I met him he
was probably the most
famous Indian since Tonto.
That’s not meant as a joke.
Quite the opposite.

From the moment he
surfaced as Old Antoine in
the CBC’s Cariboo Country
series, he’ found. himself
trapped in the ultimate
stereotype of an Indian, a
stereotype which found its
classic expression in the role
of Old Lodge Skins in Little
Big Man.

Yet that particular movie
was one of the keys to the
wiser, deeper consciousness
that formed in the 1970's
about life, death and our
humble place in the scheme
of things.

The big scene — Didn't we
all see it? -- came when he
lay down on a hillside and
announced it was time for
his spirit to depart from this
world, but failed to die:

How many actors in the
world could have pulled that
scene off and given it the
depth and humanity that
Chief Dan George did?

Well, nobody.

Any other actor, we'd
have cracked up laughing at
him for being a fool.

But we couldn't laugh at
Chief Dan George. He was
too real. And somehow we
knew he was talking about a
serious thing.

Reality and_ illusion
blurred wonderfully when he
was around. By the time I
got to meet him, it was like
shaking hands with a
hologram, a 3D, human-
sized projection of some
larger-than-life image.

There were people, I
know, who viewed him as
nothing less than the Don
Juan of the Pacific Nor-
thwest, meaning Don Juan,

FOSTER
PARENTS
NEEDED
CALL

733-8111

Province of
Britiah Cotumbia
Mintstry of

Hurnan Hosur O85

strictly

ersonal

by Bob Hunter

Prophet for his time

I met Chief Dan George a couple of times. We
shook hands and | got to mumble, “How do you

sir?” and that was about it.

the old native sorcerer in the
Carlos Castenada books.

Who knows? Certainly
Chief Dan George found a
way to expand his influence -
- spread his teachings — to a
vast, vast audience.

It is perfectly true that he
upgraded the image of native
Indian people among whites,
even if it was at the price of
donning a mask = and
speaking through it to the
rest of us.

Was he a magician? Sure.
Had to be.

But I would like to suggest
that he was something more.

In my view, he was a
Rainbow Warrior, maybe
one of the first.

Tm not sure how many
people remember this, but
back in 1971, a year after his
fantastic success in Little Big
Man, he came out squarely
against the nuclear tests at
Anmchitka Island.

By coincidence, the
world’s arch-cowboy, John
Wayne, just happened to be
passing the West Coast on
his private minesweeper and
had warned Canadians to
mind their own business.

At that time, Chief Dan
George was without doubt
the most famous Indian on
the planet. For him and John
Wayne to be pitted against
each other over nuclear
testing was cosmic, you have
to admit.

There is a 200-year-old
Cree Indian prophecy that
said there would come a
time when the earth was
being poisoned to death by
the white man, when the
Indians would rise up and
teach the white man how to
live in harmony with nature.

Chief Dan George did rise

up. He was on the side of»

Mother Earth, and he was
exactly the kind of man the
prophecy called for.

I hear that when it came
time to die — to really die —
Chief Dan George laid
himself down and let his
spirit, not just his heart, soar

SUN SETS on the life of a great chief. The family of Chief Dan George has asked that
donations be sent to St. Paul's Church in lieu of lowers. (Terry Peters photo)

like an arrow.
If I may presume to say
this: Farewell, grandfather.

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