![]() ![]() Depp plays Comanche and is then adopted by respected Comanche elder LaDonna Harris, founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity.Īs Harris' adopted son, Depp is an honorary member of the tribe, but not an enrolled citizen. What makes this film unique for moviegoers is that Johnny Depp was officially adopted into the Comanche Nation in May 2012, in a ceremony in Lawton, Okla. The film's portrayal of Tonto is a continuation of a Hollywood tradition, complete with the stereotypical bare-chested warrior in a feathered headdress. The latest updating of "The Lone Ranger" has cultural advisers as well, from the Comanche Nation. A former chief of the Abenaki Tribe, actor Elijah Tahamont, stage name Dark Cloud, was another early technical adviser for such films as "The Song of the Wildwood Flute" (1910). Griffith's "Indian Runner's Romance" (1909) and other films. Cyr and James Youngdeer, enrolled members of the Nebraska Ho-Chunk Tribe, embraced moviemaking and worked as technical advisers for D.W. And as early as 1908, real American Indians worked as consultants and advisers to filmmakers - supposedly to make the storyline more authentic. Over the last 100 years, images of American Indians have populated Hollywood films so much so that when viewers see an Indian in a headdress they recognize the story as American. Seriously, American Indians have a long and complicated relationship with Hollywood films. But the actor has been adopted by the Comanche Nation, which you note is no small thing. It's easy to think that many American Indians have taken one look at Johnny Depp as Tonto in trailers for this movie and dismissed the portrayal as the worst kind of stereotype. Howe spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain about Tonto and the history of Indians on screen. Tonto was the only on-screen hero American Indians had growing up in the 1950s, says Howe, a Choctaw and a professor of American Indian Studies, of English and of theater at Illinois. ![]() Tonto is not just any American Indian character, says LeAnne Howe, a co-editor of a recently published collection of 36 reviews on nearly a century of films that have portrayed Native Americans. ![]() With the opening of "The Lone Ranger" in theaters July 3, most of the buzz is not about the title character but about Tonto, his Comanche sidekick, played by Johnny Depp in extravagant face paint and with a bird for a headdress. ![]()
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