Chief Dan George Speaks

In the course of my lifetime, I have lived in two distinct cultures

Chief Dan George was a chief of the Tsleil-Wanutuh Nation, a Coast Salish band whose Indian reservation is on Burrard Inlet of North Vancouver, British Columbia. He was an actor, a poet, and a writer. These words were written by Chief Dan George, first appearing in the North Shore Free Press on March 1, 1972

I was born into a culture that lived in communal houses. My grandfather’s house was eighty feet long. It was called a smokehouse, and it stood down by the beach along the inlet. All my grandfather’s sons and their families lived in this dwelling. Their sleeping apartments were separated by blankets made of bull rush weeds, but one open fire in the middle served the cooking needs of all. In houses like these, throughout the tribe, people learned to live with one another; learned to respect the rights of one another. And children shared the thoughts of the adult world and found themselves surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins who loved them and did not threaten them. My father was born in such a house and learned from infancy how to love people and be at home with them.

And beyond this acceptance of one another, there was a deep respect for everything in nature that surrounded them. My father loved the earth and all its creatures. The earth was his second mother. The earth and everything it contained was a gift from See-see-am…and the way to thank this great spirit was to use his gifts with respect.

I remember, as a little boy, fishing with him up the Indian River and I can still see him as the sun rose above the mountain top in the…