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 Culture

George 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...