"Can someone tell me whether we're supposed to be offended by Johnny Depp's portrayal of Tonto?"
Here it is, the trailer for the Disney/Gore Verbinski flick The Lone Ranger, which will hit theaters in 2013. Depp met with the president and other officials of the Navajo Nation in April, and was presented with blanket. Although the members of the Navajo Nation may not have a problem with Depp's portrayal of Tonto, and we'll have to wait for the movie's release to decide whether or not it's a nuanced character (rumor has it there's a twist regarding Tonto's true race/identity) or just plain old red face. But we do hear him speak pidgin English: "There come a time, kemosabe," he says, "when good man must wear mask." Sigh. A very stereotypical version of how Native Americans talk, despite the fact that when Europeans came to these shores, there were millions of indigenous people who spoke hundreds of distinctly different languages. Anyway, that phrase, "kemosabe," is supposed to get us super psyched for this movie, since that's what Tonto called the Lone Ranger — in lines written by white guy Fran Striker, who penned the series in the 1930s. As this headline puts it, "Johnny Depp Sounds Hilariously Racist as Tonto." Trailer below.
http://jezebel.com/5948542/there-come-a-time-kemosabe-when-johnny-depp-speak-like-indian-in-lone-ranger-trailer
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identified as an Apsaroke man called "Two Whistles." He is wearing a bird on his head. I seem to recall that these types of adornments had a spiritual connotation, or represented a connection between the wearer and a (spiritual guide?) associated with the animal world.
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Image link: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b30185/
Wow. And I cant help but notice that his face is painted, also. Im under the same impression as you regarding the adornments & I dont find it absurd at all considering their spiritual beliefs.
Those commenting on how we should be offended at the idea that a Native American would look such a way dont seem to know much about that particular culture. Thanks for posting that. 
about that since we were in the Scottsdale Schools District. At the time all of the elementary schools were named after tribes. Some were named after well known tribes like Apache, Navajo and Pima. 
Until the next shiny thing pops up and folks who are bored typing on the intertubes will forget about it and move on because having the attention span of a sparrow- we roll like that 
know the answer to that, but I saw something funny a few months ago when I was watching a documentary on Netflix called "Indians in Hollywood" or something like that.
Loads of movie clips and interviews with actual Native Americans.
One group told a story about a movie they were in some years ago. They were told to speak in their native language for the movie...which they did.
The subtitles showed the usual dialogue you see in such a movie, but the reality was that, since they were speaking in their own tongue, they could say just about anything and few people would know.
So they came up with some outrageous dialogue, like "The white men eat buffalo shit", and things like that.
I don't know how they managed to keep straight faces while they made the movie...
The plot thickens. 
Thats perfect.
No way that was a coincidence. As the insulting goes both ways, its actually pretty clever.
so it's MYSTERY TRAIN for me,
Although GHOST DOG and COFFEE AND CIGARETTES are up there too...
Gotta be hard work keeping a dead bird hat looking good.
true, but at least theyre cheap to feed.
(so, salt to suit your palate), the story is told more from Tonto's point of view. Tonto is a partner, and in some ways a mentor, who has his own backstory, demons, and need for vengeance.
The piece interviewed Depp, the director and the producer. It also played a snip from a vintage Bill Cosby routine to illustrate the racist way Tonto was used on TV and radio. (Tonto always went into town, where he was beaten up. As a kid, Cosby yelled at the screen, "Don't go into town, Tonto!"
Coincidentally, on Saturday, I heard an episode of Prairie Home Companion that had a female duo singing the Lyle Lovett song that imagines Tonto telling off the Lone Ranger.
I am going to see the movie and wait until then to make my call on the character. When I was young and knew no better, I loved the syndicated show. I never saw the racism, I just thought the Lone Ranger was lucky to have such a smart, loyal friend as Tonto and a cool horse like Silver. Watching it now, of course, I see it and cringe.
all I could think was that this was a ballsy move by Disney considering that just about every other "super hero" or "action hero" had been done over and over and over and this one hadn't been touched in decades and decades (for obvious reasons and after the big FAIL of the 1981 film). My mother (who remembers the radio and film serials) asked how the heck they could possibly even make it interesting for "action-obsessed" kids and I described (as the trailer ran - but not the one in the OP's post) how Silver was galloping across the roof of a train just before it goes in a tunnel.
I remember seeing re-runs of various iterations of the old serial but more notably, remember watching the animated one in the '60s.
I suppose this (as opposed to the ridiculous "Song of the South"
is perhaps more difficult to reconcile given that the Lone Ranger was a serial, and the imagery was seared into multiple generations (although not so much the youngin's of today because this character hadn't really been recycled in their time until now).
But I do know that the film used a Native American adviser to supervise Johnny Depp's look and mannerisms...........
