Johnny Depp to Play Tonto, Once Again Depp Has Some Degree of NDN Blood? Perfect Timing!

I'm pissed off, no, better yet I'm f**king outraged at what I am seeing regarding Johnny Depp's desire to speak for Native people through a fictional role on the silver screen via his vision of Tonto. Depp has claimed Native blood on various occasions via the Cherokee Nation, the Creek Nation and the Navajo Nation, most recently standing more concretely with his alleged ties to the Cherokee Nation--in NDN Country saying so, doesn't make it so.

But, if this is what Johnny Depp envisions Tonto to be:



Then I absolutely have to argue that he stole his Native "identity" from the Kirby Sattler painting, I Am Crow. Proof positive:



This whole concept from Depp is ridiculous. His vision to turn ". . . the way Indians were treated throughout history ‍of cinema, and turn it on its head” through the realization of the character Tonto is myopic at best (Linthicum, Albuquerque Journal, 3/8/2012). His comprehension of what has happened to Indigenous people is from the colonizer's perspective. He has no inside first-hand knowledge aside from his sense of how Tonto was wronged in the television series, The Lone Ranger. When the idea of this film came to him, Depp thought, ". . . about Tonto and what could be done in my own small way (to) try to — ‘eliminate’ isn’t possible —but reinvent the relationship, to attempt to take some ‍of the ugliness thrown on the Native Americans" (Linthicum, Albuquerque Journal, 3/8/2012). Has he ever played a Native American role? Yes, in his 1997 film, The Brave. This film was never released in the U.S. (North America) and I wonder why? Because the film is based on the book of the same name by Fletch author, Gregory McDonald--which is steeped in Native American stereotypes, that's why.

There is no escaping the fact that there is a plethora of Native American actors who could play this part infusing it with a realistic portrayal of Indigeneity, but Hollywood in its infinite wisdom, better yet, Johnny Depp, Gore Verbinski, Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney in their combined infinite wisdom believe that Depp's limited claim of Cherokee blood--remember his multiple claims to the Navajo and Creek Nations too--is enough to represent a, none-the-less fictional, Native character. After all, we do suspended disbelief while watching films, so how big of a stretch will it be for us to do so for this production? But that's not the issue. The issue is the continued persistance by Hollywood to negate the Native American in any role that involves Indigeneity. People love Johnny Depp, I get it, but his claims of Indigeneity have gone from the eastern seaboard to the southwest: Cherokee, then Creek and finally Navajo. Really? Really? How many times have we seen this? Too many.

I understand that this film is historical fiction, but that doesn't mean Our image has to be molested and reinvented on the silver screen. That's what Depp claims he wants to "turn on its head." But by concocting some over the top exaggerated caricature of what he thinks Native identity was or is, is doing more harm than good. I cannot say for sure that's what he's doing, but given his previous caricatures of the roles he's played, it's expected.

The counter argument to this is a sophomoric and often moronic one, that implies, "well then only White people should play White people, only Black people should play Black people," and dumbing down the argument to an absurd level, something like, "only police officers should portray police officers." Really? Really? How disconnected can one become? That argument is so off topic that it becomes sadly absurd. Now the argument becomes one contrasting ethnicity/identity with profession. This particular mindset is responsible for the Washington Redskins. Denigrate all you want, your argument is baseless, a foundation rooted in some no doubt sincere but misplaced perspective that one group of people is honoring another, yet without ever asking the other group if they feel honored.

Hollywood and Native American representation is a whole other monster. It's not about depicting portrayals or representations that honor Native Americans and their cultures. In all reality it indirectly concerns Native Americans. It's about entertainment--absent reality, absent truth--and completely commodified. No one actually cares about portraying Native Americans accurately, other than Native Americans and those individuals interested in accurate representations in film, media and elsewhere. The issue is polarizing because one set of people are concerned with the ignorance that is American history, where the Native American has vanished because of American popular culture's perpetuation of a myth they created, all the while wondering why We, Native Americans or Indigenous people, are up in arms over this projected fallacy; and then you have the other set of people, that believe it's only cinema or fiction and that accurate representations really needn't be considered. Unfortunately, that's where they're wrong. It is because of cinema and media and the rest of American popular culture that We as Indigenous people are often considered a vanquished people, represented in stereotypic fashion, because Our voices aren't loud enough to be heard over the din that is American ignorance, even better still, the machinery that is Hollywood and the mechanisms of cultural pedagogy.