Legendary Indigenous leader, actor, poet, musician and so much more, Chief Dan George, was born on this date in 1899. A proud member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, he held an eclectic series of jobs before his acting career took off starting when he was 60 when he starred in a CBC television show. George then became a great success for the rest of his career in Hollywood. This included an Oscar nomination for his part in the film Little Big Man. His final role, not long before his death in 1982, saw him acting along with Donald Sutherland and Suzanne Somers in the Canadian movie Nothing Personal.
In Canada’s Centennial Year, 1967, Chief Dan George’s performative poem Lament for Confederation, which put a national spotlight on Canada’s development from an Indigenous perspective, is widely credited with sparking activism among his peoples. In addition, he helped create a better understanding amongst non-Indigenous North Americans of the negative impacts faced by Native peoples across the continent since the arrival of Europeans.
He passed into history in 1981.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.