Native American character actor who made his mark in features late in life with several memorable performances. Chief Dan George first came to prominence with his Oscar-nominated supporting role as the philosophical tribesman who adopts Dustin Hoffman in Arthur Penn's offbeat, time-spanning saga "Little Big Man" (1970). Over the next decade he made half a dozen other feature appearances, often in sizable roles, and he also played Old Sioux in the memorable TV miniseries epic "Centennial" (1978-79). Sometimes his presence signified a bland kind of Hollywood liberalism ("The Bears and I" 1974),