Chief Dan George 

Learning Objective: To introduce students to Chief Dan George and his values.
As we are not able to visit the North Vancouver Museum we will continue to  learn about Coast Salish culture and about the life and legacy of one Coast Salish person, Chief Dan George.

 

Chief Dan George filled many roles throughout his life. He was an actor, and activist, an entertainer, a poet, a Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a carver, a husband, a
father, a grandfather, and more. We can find out a lot about who he was and what he believed
through his poems.

Divide the class into groups and give each group a poem by Chief Dan George. Tell the students
that they have 5-10 minutes to read the poem (as a group) and to write one sentence reflecting
what they think the poem is about. Remind them to read the poem more than once as they
search for each poem’s meaning.

Then have the students pass their poem to the next group and have the activity repeated. Pass
the poems as many times as you think is useful to learning about Dan George.

Discuss the meaning of the word values with your students and explain that Chief Dan George
expressed his values in poems. As a class discuss what each poem, and determine one or two
words that reflect the values expressed in each poem.