Actor Johnny Depp has
recently gained scrutiny for basing his depiction of Tonto, in the film The Lone Ranger, on a painting not
derived from any particular Native American tradition. The depiction includes a crow’s body perched
on Tonto’s head.
This depiction, coincidentally, is not entirely inconsistent with the practice of Creek Indians of the Southeast and their relations among the Seminoles.
William Bartram remarked of the Creek Indians that “the junior priests or students…have a great owl skin cased and stuffed very ingeniously, so well executed, as almost to represent the living bird, having large sparkling glass beads, or buttons fixed in the head for eyes….”
Bartram remarked that priests-in-training sometimes wear “this insignia of wisdom and divination” “as a crest on the top of the head,” while “at other times the image sits on the arm, or is borne on the hand.”
Please consult William Bartram, William Bartram on the Southern Indians, ed. Gregory A. Waselkov and Kathryn L. Holland Braund (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), page 123.
This depiction, coincidentally, is not entirely inconsistent with the practice of Creek Indians of the Southeast and their relations among the Seminoles.
William Bartram remarked of the Creek Indians that “the junior priests or students…have a great owl skin cased and stuffed very ingeniously, so well executed, as almost to represent the living bird, having large sparkling glass beads, or buttons fixed in the head for eyes….”
Bartram remarked that priests-in-training sometimes wear “this insignia of wisdom and divination” “as a crest on the top of the head,” while “at other times the image sits on the arm, or is borne on the hand.”
Please consult William Bartram, William Bartram on the Southern Indians, ed. Gregory A. Waselkov and Kathryn L. Holland Braund (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), page 123.
