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Say what Johnny Depp?

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Epiphany:

--- Quote ---In the Entertainment Weekly article, Depp also brought up his belief that he has Native blood, which he has mentioned in the past. “My great grandmother was quite a bit of Native American,” he said. “She grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek.” For Depp, his heritage gives the Tonto role an added personal dimension. “If you find out you’ve got Native American blood, which a lot of people do,” he told Entertainment Weekly, “you think about where it comes from and go back and read the great books, Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee or [John Ehle's] Trail of Tears, you have to think, somewhere along the line, I’m the product of some horrific rape. You just have that little sliver in your chemical makeup.
--- End quote ---

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/05/johnny-depps-tonto-may-take-the-lead-in-new-lone-ranger-movie/

Why doesn't he know his actual genealogy?

Epiphany:
Johnny Depp, Cherokee?

http://newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2008/09/johnny-depp-cherokee.html

tecpaocelotl:
Why is Johnny Depp getting the part of Tonto?

Epiphany:
If I worked up his genealogy correctly through public records on ancestry.com - his people are all listed as white in census, nobody tribal enrolled. Depp has claimed that a maternal great-grandmother was Cherokee, I don't see any verification of that.

Bothers me that on one hand his heritage isn't  important enough to him to research but on the other hand it is important enough to him to claim he has Cherokee ancestry and is therefore okay for the role of Tonto.

Depp could very easily find out who his people are, if he hasn't already. Records are all available and we're not talking way back in the mists of time, this is a recent generation he is claiming.

E.P. Grondine:
The thought came to me quite a while ago that Disney has a problem: a "Frontierland" with no NDNs. This is important to them not only in the US, but also in Europe and Japan.

It looks to me like Disney, being the first class organization that it is, decided to re-make "The Long Ranger" with Tonto to solve that problem.

I don't know, does everyone here agree that Tonto is a good Native American character? And thus would make a good role model for young people as well?

(Personally, I thought a nightly festive powwow in Frontierland could have earned Disney a whole whole lot of money, and I still do, and it could provide work for many Native American actors and actresses, dancers, and musicians. I even had the spot for the dance circle picked out - the little space in front of "Thunder Mountain". All I want is 1/2 of 1% of the frybread and buffalo stick sales...)

Depp is one of the finest actors of his generation, and generally any work he does has quality, and thus box office draw. He already has good experience with Disney with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.

Of course, Dustin Hoffman in "Little Big Man" proved (at least to me) that a European actor could deliver a Native worldview, and it looks like Depp decided to play the Tonto role that way.

The problem Disney now has is finding an actor strong enough to play The Lone Ranger against Depp's Tonto.

It is sad that Depp thinks that his ancestry came from rape, and that may explain why he never looked into it further.

I suppose that if Disney can find its Lone Ranger, then Depp will study for the Tonto role. A strange path -  I suppose that if his heritage turns out to be true, someone will have to give Depp the diabetes warning.

What a different world we would live in if the Colonel (reported to have been a fugitive Nazi war cirminal) had not told Elvis to shut up talking about his Cherokee heritage.

The pieces start to fall into place.

(You personally may find my views annoying - please allow me to mention that spanning the two worlds is difficult for anyone, and more difficult with the
effects of diabetic stroke. Composing this post has been an exercise for me, trying to collect my thoughts before I face the rest of the day. And it is going to be a long night.)

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