One of the most respected Indigenous actors of his generation, Graham Greene

On my winter walk through the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, near Brantford, Ontario, I stopped at St. Peter’s Anglican Church (1887) and visited the family grave of locally born Ohsweken actor Graham Greene.

One of the most respected Indigenous (Oneida) actors of his generation, Greene appeared in more than 200 television shows and films. His breakthrough role came in the 1990 blockbuster Dances With Wolves, in which he portrayed Kicking Bird, a Lakota medicine man who befriends a Union Army soldier played by Kevin Costner. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. To prepare for the role, Greene threw himself into the work, studying the Lakota language for eight hours a day, seven days a week.

Years later, reflecting on the experience and on the painful legacy of language suppression in Canada, he said, “I don’t even speak my own language — we were taught not to speak it. It’s like forgetting your heart.”

Before finding his way into acting, Greene worked as a steelworker, a welder, and a roadie for rock bands. Yet it was on stage and screen that he discovered his voice, ultimately becoming a trailblazer for Indigenous representation in North American film and television.

Graham Greene is buried in the family plot where his parents, John — a paramedic and maintenance worker — and his mother Lillian, also rest. He died in Stratford, Ontario, on September 1, 2025. He was 73.

St. Peter’s Anglican Churchyard.