As I wait in gridlock traffic to get on the Lion’s Gate Bridge every morning, I watch the Squamish Nation busily bulldoze tall poplar trees to mount those electronic billboards that look like monitors from space, I wonder what Chief Dan George would think.
Remember Chief Dan George? He was the hereditary chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, close neighbours and relations to the Squamish.
He was also Hollywood’s favourite American Indian, even though he was from Hollywood North, but we live in a town that frequently fills in for New York and L.A. in the movies, so why not?
Before he died in 1981, Chief Dan George was the coolest aboriginal person in the world. He starred with Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man and was nominated for an Oscar. He even had his own “Canadian in Hollywood” postage stamp.
He also took seriously his heritage as a steward of nature, and wrote this beautiful poem:
The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky,
The rhythm of the sea, speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning,
the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me.
The strength of the fire, the taste of salmon, the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away, they speak to me
And my heart soars.
Read it over as many times as you like; there’s nothing in there about electronic billboards that are three metres high and nine metres wide.
These billboards may, as Chief Gibby Jacob of the Squamish Nation says, be just the ticket for bringing in new revenue for the Squamish people, needed to support “vital social and educational programs and services for its community,” but they sure are ugly, and contrary to the spirit of Dan George, who was a wise elder to us all.
Let me make this clear: As a desecration of North Vancouver’s magnificent natural assets, the billboards don’t rival Jimmy Pattison’s garish oceanfront auto mall, but they’re in the same spirit of a fast buck at all costs and that’s not what Dan George was all about. That’s why we all — aboriginal and immigrant — admired him.
I miss Dan George. I miss the poplar trees at the foot of the Lions Gate Bridge. My heart thuds.
