Tonto

Tonto made his first appearance on the 11th episode of the radio show The Lone Ranger. Alternatively, Tonto's name may have been inspired by the name of Tonto Basin, Arizona. In the first novel in a series published by Grosset and Dunlap, Tonto is described as a "half-breed." Though credited to Fran Striker, this book was actually written by Gaylord du Bois. Later books in the series were actually written by Striker, and were in line with the continuity from the radio series. In the 2013 theatrical feature film of The Lone Ranger, Tonto is depicted as a disgraced Comanche tribesman and the last of the wendigo hunters. It's revealed that Tonto is actually suffering severe mental illness and survivor's guilt for inadvertently causing the massacre of his tribe by the film's villains. To rationalize what he had done, he convinced himself that the cannibalistic Butch Cavendish was a wendigo, a non-existent monster used in Native American ghost stories to frighten children. The character wears black-and-white face paint and a deceased crow on his head. According to Johnny Depp, who played him, the inspiration for the costume was a painting entitled I Am Crow by Kirby Sattler. In Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, "tonto" translates as "dumb", "moron", or "fool". In the Italian version the original name is retained, but in the Spanish dubbed version, the character is called "Toro" (Spanish for "bull") or "Ponto". ==Tonto's horse==

Tonto first rode a horse named "White Feller" (White Fella/Fellah). When the 1938 Republic movie serial The Lone Ranger was being filmed, it was thought that having two white horses would be confusing, so the producers made "White Feller" a pinto horse, presumably on the theory that, being partly white, a pinto could still be named "White Feller". The radio series, noting that the pinto in the film had gone over well with audiences, decided that Tonto's mount would henceforth be a pinto. For several episodes, Tonto's new horse went unnamed, referred to only as "the paint horse" or simply "Paint". Eventually the name "Scout" was adopted. ==Comics==

Tonto starred in his own comic book, ''The Lone Ranger's Companion Tonto'', 31 issues of which were published by Dell Comics during the 1950s. Later depictions beginning in the 1980s have taken efforts to show Tonto as an articulate and proud warrior whom the Ranger treats as an equal partner. In the Topps Comics four-issue miniseries, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Tonto is even shown to be a very witty, outspoken, and sarcastic character willing to punch the Lone Ranger during a heated argument and commenting on his past pop-culture depictions with the words, "Of course, Kemosabe. Maybe when we talk I should use that 'me Tonto' stuff, way they write about me in the dime novels. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" ==Television==

In the Timeless episode "Murder of Jesse James", Wyatt Logan, one of the main characters, mentions that Native American deputy U.S. marshal Grant Johnson was the inspiration for Tonto. Jon Lovitz played a comic version of Tonto, in a group of other characters who speak little or broken English, on Saturday Night Live. ==Reception==

The portrayal of Tonto has been seen by some Native Americans and others as degrading, notably by Native American author and poet Sherman Alexie. Tonto was originally depicted as not fluent in English and spoke in a pidgin, saying things like, "That right, Kemo Sabe", or "Him say man ride over ridge on horse". In 1975, poet and science fiction writer Paul O. Williams coined the term "tontoism" to refer to the practice of writing haiku with missing articles ("the", "a", or "an"), which he claimed made such haiku sound like Tonto's stunted English. Michael Horse who played Tonto in the 1981 Lone Ranger film had mixed feelings about the role, and worried it was perpetuating stereotypes. Later adaptations of the character, such as The Legend of the Lone Ranger and the Filmation animated series, depict him as being articulate in English and speaking it carefully. Silverheels was not above making a little fun of the character, as in a classic sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson with Carson playing a career counselor and Silverheels playing Tonto looking for a new job after working "thirty lousy years" as the Lone Ranger's faithful sidekick. When asked why he was looking for a new job, Tonto replies, "Him finally find out what Kemo Sabe means!" ==References==