Just to set the record straight, I'm all for Johnny Depp playing Tonto in the anticipated Disney remake
of The Lone Ranger. Much is being made across Indian Country about Depp playing the trusted sidekick of the masked avenger.

Native people are either furious that a non-Native actor will be playing Tonto, or they are cautiously optimistic that a talented actor like Depp might actually be able to bring out more multi-dimensional sides to Tonto — a characterization that will make Tonto, and therefore Native Americans in general, more human in the eyes of America's movie-goers.

This is why I'm optimistic about this movie. Here is what Depp was quoted as saying in the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly: "I think (The Lone Ranger movie) is going to be good, when we have a chance to put it up on its feet. What we've got so far, screenplay-wise, is really great — really funny.

"I've always felt Native Americans were badly portrayed in Hollywood films over the decades. It's a real opportunity for me to give a salute to them. Tonto was a sidekick in all the Lone Ranger (radio and TV) series. This film is a very different approach to that partnership. And a funny one, I think," explained Depp. (Note the reference to "them" instead of "us.")

But as far as Depp being a non-Native actor, check this out. This quote is from an interview that I found on YouTube. It's from the TV show Inside the Actor's Studio in what I'm guessing took place about 2001. Host James Lipton asks Depp, "Do you have Native American ancestry?"

"My great grandmother had a lot of Cherokee blood," responds Depp. Of course, this response is better than "my great grandmother was a Cherokee princess," which is certainly a red flag for all of us Indians who have heard this time and time again from non-Indians when they refer to their Indian blood.

It appears certain that genealogical research does prove Depp's claim that he is Cherokee, although he is not a citizen of either the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma or the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina (the two main Cherokee tribes recognized by the federal government.) His blood quantum is estimated to be about 1/8. Depp also wrote, directed and starred as a California Indian in a film called The Brave in the 1990s that was not released in the U.S.

Another interesting twist to this plot is that, gossip has it, Depp has expressed intentions to go live on an Indian reservation in order to prepare for his role as Tonto. This is where it gets almost humorous — Depp spending a few weeks with Indians to get a feel for "real" Native life. It's rumored that the rez he may reside in is right here in New Mexico.

Wouldn't it be funny if Depp were to, for instance, hang out with the Jicarilla Apache in an attempt to really get into character and experience what it is to be Native. It could happen. Tonto is by and large considered to be Apache, right?

Why does all this matter? Why do Indians give a flip about who plays Tonto? It's because ever since the invention of "moving pictures," Native people have been misrepresented, misconstrued and miscast by Hollywood filmmakers and the fictional character of the Lone Ranger's sidekick is wholly part of the problem.

My hope is that Johnny Depp, along with the reported director of the film, Gore Verbinski, will have somewhat creative control of the direction this movie takes, and that they will create a version of this American myth that will satisfy those of us who are thirsty for change in our portrayal on the big screen. Who knows? Maybe the film will be released as Tonto and the Lone Ranger.

Harlan McKosato, a Sauk/Ioway, is host of the syndicated radio show Native America Calling, which airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on KUNM, 89.9 FM.