“If you talk to the animals, they will talk to you. And you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them. And what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.”

Born Geswanouth Slahoot, known as Dan Slahoot, on 24 July 1899 in North Vancouver (Canada), the boy’s name was changed at age 5 when he entered a residential school. Dan George was well known for his poetic writing style and in 1974, George wrote My Hearts Soars followed by My Spirit Soars in 1983 (both available today as The Best of Chief Dan George). He was also an actor, appearing in several movies. Dan George was the band chief for a dozen years of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose Indian reserve is located on Burrard Inlet, North Vancouver. He died 23 September 1981.

Canadian actor Donald Sutherland narrated the following quote from his poem My Heart Soars in the opening ceremonies o the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver:

The beauty of the trees,

the softness of the air,

the fragrance of the grass,

speaks to me.

And my heart soars.

Why do I share this with you today??? We often hear quotes from Chief Seattle but other Pacific Northwest chiefs shared words of profound wisdom to teach us yet today.