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TontoTonto is the name of two fictional characters. Tonto is the fictional robot servant of the Castaka family since the time of Aghnar, and the narrator of their tale in the Metabarons comic book. He was named after the original Lone Ranger character below.
The original Tonto was the sidekick of The Lone Ranger, a Western character invented by George W. Trendle. At the beginning of the Lone Ranger television series, the most well-remembered version today, Tonto (Jay Silverheels) rescues the sole surviving Texas Ranger of a party who was tricked into an ambush by the outlaw Butch Cavendish. Tonto recognizes the Ranger as a someone who had saved him when they were both boys, to whom he referred to by the title "Kemo Sabe",http://www.old-time.com/misc/kemo.html saying that it meant in the language of his tribe, "Faithful Friend", and helps give a decent burial to the other rangers. The Ranger dons a mask and vows revenge – not so much against Cavendish personally as against all who would break the law in such a manner, and begins his travels of the Old West, accompanied by Tonto. Tonto's name means "foolish" in Spanish, but Tonto was anything but foolish and was portrayed as almost an equal partner in the Ranger's work (In Spanish, his name was translated as Toro, Bull). Together, they seem to be capable of righting almost any wrong within the half-hour time frame. (This was by far the highest-rated television program on the ABC network in the early 1950s and its first true "hit".) The radio series identified Tonto as a chief's son in the Potawatomi nation. His name translates as wild one in his own language. For the most part, the Potawattomi did not live in the Southwestern states, and their cultural costume is different from that worn by Tonto. The choice to make Tonto a Potawatomi seems to come from Trandle's youth in Michigan. This is the traditional territory of the Potawattomi, and many local insitutions use Potawatomi names. Significantly, Camp Kemo Sabe, which Trendle attended in his youth, was the place where he learned the meanings of Tonto, Kemo Sabe and the greeting Tai. Later, Silverheels' portrayal was seen by some Native Americans as degrading; Tonto spoke in a pidgin, saying things like, "That right, Kemo Sabe," or "Him say man ride over ridge on horse." Silverheels was not above making a little fun of the character himself, as in a classic Tonight Show sketch with Johnny Carson. (In reality, Silverheels was a Canadian from a First Nations reservation in Ontario.) Probably, his ongoing portrayal of a Native American as a "good guy", rather than an enemy to be fought and destroyed, benefitted Native Americans as a whole. Later depictions beginning the 1980s have taken efforts to show Tonto as an articulate and proud warrior whom the Ranger treats as an equal partner.
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