Tonto Through (Masked) Imperial Eyes

Tonto Through (Masked) Imperial Eyes

Eric Notaro

As I was reading through Pratt's work, I stumbled upon this little article discussing the upcoming Lone Ranger movie being released by Disney. Yes, that's Johnny Depp dressed up like a KISS member with a bird on his head—but more on that later.

I couldn't help but draw a connection to the idea of the anti-conquest particularly from this paragraph of the BBC article:

“And there were the Indians, as native Americans were then called. They were usually depicted as illiterate savages, from whom the West had indeed to be "won", by driving them from their lands and their livelihood, and by killing as many of them as possible. And a few of them, like Tonto, had the wit to see the way the wind was blowing, and signed up with the all-conquering white man whose country the American West was fast becoming” (Cannadine).

While I think Pratt would state it differently, Tonto's role in “The Lone Ranger” still fulfills this niche. Tonto exists alongside the Lone Ranger as a result of conquest and yet he and the Lone Ranger both embody the enforcement of European law—the Lone Ranger as the European-descendant enforcer, and Tonto as a willful participant in the change. Different for his old way of life and his race but existing as a kind of vindication of Western expansion. See? Tonto's fine with law and order being established here, the rest of you should be too.

Though not depicted in a distinctly negative light, his position is defined by being secondary to the Lone Ranger—subject to assimilating into the encroaching European-descendent culture. The aspects of native culture kept alive serve as the equivalent of a character eccentricity. To put it one way: the Lone Ranger is the mysterious man in the mask; Tonto is the Indian. One is defined by a distinct choice in facial-wear and the other is an outsider in the process of assimilation. Tonto's iconic simple, terse dialogue (“Him go that way”) can be seen in the same fashion Pratt discusses Barrow's depiction of the !Kung people:

“By the end of the eighteenth century, the !Kung had ceased to be a serious threat and had acquired the status of a conquered people. In European writings, they began to appear not as vicious savages, but in a new sentimental stereotype, as benign, ingenuous, childlike victims” (Pratt 64).

It's easy to draw parallels between these depictions of the !Kung and the Native peoples of the American west.

Now, as promised, I wanted to touch on how Depp's casting and appearance play into Pratt's ideas. In a previous interview (linked on the above article in addition to here) Depp expresses his dissatisfaction with how Tonto is secondary to the Lone Ranger. He claims that he hopes to reinvent their relationship in some way. What strikes me a bit odd though is the fact that when discussing his family's native heritage he seems to have only a vague idea of his specific heritage:

“Tonto’s treatment especially bugged him because Depp had always been told his family was part Indian. “I guess I have some Native American somewhere down the line,” he says. “My great grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek.”” (Breznican)

I'm not necessarily suggesting that he's lying about his family history, but it seems strange to claim such a strong emotional connection to his roots and yet be unaware of where those roots specifically come from. There is a broader connection though in this inability to distinguish from different peoples. The phrase kemosabe for example can't be traced back to any one particular culture and Tonto's tribe or origins are interchangeable depending on whether referring to the television show, radio show or other media the Lone Ranger has appeared in. As one fan puts it in this article: “I always looked at the Lone Ranger as like your idealized White Man and Tonto as the idealized Native American.” It is interesting then that this “idealized Native American” is one that has joined into European culture and accepted the law of the new settlers. In that sense, Tonto is a depiction of the anti-conquest. The indigenous person who has come to accept the European Utopian authority.

Lastly, I want to touch on Depp's depiction of Tonto in this upcoming movie in relation to these ideas. Look at the picture of Tonto from the EW article and look at the picture in the BBC article. They are strikingly different. With the classic television series, Tonto's dress is simple but still arch-typical/stereotypical. Depp's wardrobe is, without putting any other judgments onto it, extremely different. While he states he has some of Native American heritage in his family, I can't help but think of Pratt in “Eros and Abolition”:

“As critics have noted, the colonized heroes and heroines of European sentimental literature are rarely 'pure' non-whites or 'real' slaves […] they are typically mulattoes or metizos who already have European affiliations […]” (Pratt 98).