Eric Schweig (born Ray Dean Thrasher; 19 June 1967[1]) is a Canadian Inuvialuk actor best known for his role as Chingachgook's son Uncas in The Last of the Mohicans (1992).
In 1987, at twenty years old, he was approached by a producer who suggested he audition for a role in the movie called The Shaman's Source (1990).
Schweig's numerous screen credits (over thirty) include his portrayal of Uncas in the epic motion picture The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Pike Dexter in the movie Big Eden (2000), for which he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Outfest film festival.
Among his period film credits since The Last of the Mohicans, Eric became the famous Mohawk leader Joseph Brant/Thayendanegea for TNT's telefilm The Broken Chain (1993), playing for the first time the main character in a movie (Schweig appeared with Wes Studi again for this motion picture).
In 1996 he appeared as a Comanche protagonist, Buffalo Hump, in the Larry McMurtry miniseries Dead Man's Walk.
His collection of masks are not only successful attempts to reconnect with his heritage and with Inuit art, but his carvings are also necessary labours of psychological resilience facing a traumatized childhood.
His fame as an actor gives him the opportunity to share his life's experience in numerous speaking engagements in Canada and the United States of America.
He is able to make large audiences aware of aboriginal issues, including adoption, the foster care system, addictions, and suicide.
He currently resides in Vancouver BC working at Vancouver Native Health's "Positive Outlook" program where residents of the city's downtown eastside who are HIV positive can gain access to health care, hot meals, and social programming to maintain community connections.