History Main / TontoTalk

There is a grain of TruthInTelevision in this, as there would obviously have been a point in history when English was not the first language of most North American Indians. However, fiction turned this into a complete caricature which often made Indians look foolish and primitive. Some fiction, particularly cartoons and comics, portrayed Indians speaking this way well into the 20th century.

* On the ''BradyBunch'' three-part episode where they went to the Grand Canyon, at one point Bobby and Cindy get lost in the canyon. When they encounter a Native American boy about their age, Bobby opens with Tonto-like "How!" while putting his hand up. The Indian boy is only confused by that and replies "How, what?" with an American accent. Bobby quickly says, "How are you?".

* SaturdayNightLive had multiple recurring sketch characters (including a Tonto expy and FrankensteinsMonster using this instead of the more traditional HulkSpeak). Several even appeared together in a sketch called "Succinctly Speaking".

* A variant of this was still used, of all places, in ''My Heart Is On The Ground'', a 1999 children's book in the "Dear America" series. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20041204235000/http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/myHeart.html Native reviewers]] called the style "Early Jawbreaker".

--> '''Paul:''' That not big heap medicine, that fucking impossible!

* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' episode "Werewolf of the Timberland". The Canadian Indian named White Feather speaks this way.

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Video Games]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]

* A GreenAesop speech attributed in UrbanLegend to Chief Seattle -- actually written in TheSeventies by screenwriter Ted Perry -- has elements of this, with references to "the smoking iron horse" and "The red man is a savage."
** Seattle made several such speeches, and they weren't nearly as pleasant. His real words are filled with heartbreaking bitterness.

[[AC:{{Radio}}]]
* Tonto from ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'' is the TropeNamer and possibly the trope codifier.
** Language aside, he was portrayed as highly intelligent (actor John Todd's "Hmmm..." could speak volumes), often coming across as smarter than the Lone Ranger. Jay Silverheels in interviews and comedy skits used to make fun of the "him say" stuff.
*** Modern versions, such as the 1981 film and the Dynamite comic series, did away with this, due to the creators wanting to portray Tonto respectfully. The 2013 film, however, brought it back.

[[AC:{{Television}}]]
* Subverted in an animated segment in ''Series/SesameStreet''. Two boys play Cowboys and Indians, with the "Indian" speaking in this manner. A modern-day Indian boy shows up and explains that that's not how Native Americans actually speak.
* The Indian chief in the {{Supermarionation}} series ''Four Feather Falls'' spoke this way. Oddly, he was able to make animals speak fluent English using his magic, so why he didn't cast this spell on himself is unclear.
* On the ''BradyBunch'' three-part episode where they went to the Grand Canyon, at one point Bobby and Cindy get lost in the canyon. When they encounter a Native American boy about their age, Bobby opens with Tonto-like "How!" while putting his hand up. The Indian boy is only confused by that and replies "How, what?" with an American accent. Bobby quickly says, "How are you?".
* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Cigar Store Indian," Jerry gives Elaine the title object as a gift with a note that reads, "Let's bury the hatchet. We smoke um peace pipe." Unluckily, Elaine's attractive friend Winona is a Native American, and Jerry spends the rest of the episode trying unsuccessfully to convince Winona [[MistakenForRacist he's not a racist]].
* Spoofed in the Creator/MontyPython sketch [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a54Ch8-7g6I "Red Indian in Theatre"]]. "She fine actress... she make interpretation heap subtle."

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' used this with the occasional subversion.

Straight usages of this trope have fallen out of favour due to racial sensitivity, although it is still often parodied. A common gag involves a white (or otherwise non-Indian) character speaking to a Native American in this manner on the assumption that this is how all Indians talk, only to receive a bemused response.

* The Indian Chief in ''Disney/PeterPan''. He even performs a musical number about Indians, in which having red skin and saying "how" and "ugh" are presented as the defining characteristics of the race.

* Subverted in ''PeterAndTheStarcatchers'': When the heroes meet Fighting Prawn, chief of the Mollusk tribe, they assume this trope and greet him with "How", to which Fighting Prawn replies "Can we start the conversation along, old chap? I'm getting frightfully tired of 'How.'"

* Some of ''TheThreeStooges'' shorts featured American Indians speaking this way, such as the 1940 short "Rockin' Thru the Rockies".

* ''ComicBook/{{LuckyLuke}}'' used this with the occasional subversion.

[[quoteright:248: [[{{Superman}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tontotalk_3746.jpg]]]]

There is a grain of TruthInTelevision in this, as there would obviously have been a point in history when English was not the first language of most North American Indians. However, fiction turned this into a complete caricature which often made Indians look foolish and primitive. Some fiction, particularly cartoons and comics, portrayed Indians speaking this way well into the twentieth century.

* Subverted in an animated segment in ''SesameStreet''. Two boys play Cowboys and Indians, with the "Indian" speaking in this manner. A modern-day Indian boy shows up and explains that that's not how Native Americans actually speak.

* On the ''BradyBunch'' 3-part episode where they went to the Grand Canyon, at one point Bobby and Cindy get lost in the canyon. When they encounter a Native American boy about their age, Bobby opens with Tonto-like "How!" while putting his hand up. The Indian boy is only confused by that and replies "How, what?" with an American accent. Bobby quickly says "How are you?".

* When the ''Archie Comics'' gang takes a trip out west, they stop at a Native American village. Reggie walks up to an Indian man and says something like:
-> Reggie: Me come from land beyond blue water. How!
-> Indian: Say Alice, come here! Like there's some kind of creep trying to make the scene, but I don't dig him.

* Some of TheThreeStooges shorts featured American Indians speaking this way, such as the 1940 short "Rockin' Thru The Rockies".

* Wumba in ''BanjoTooie'' speaks like this - but then, most of the characters use some form of broken English.

* In a ''{{Family Guy}}'' episode, Peter and Lois decide to enter a community talent show by reviving their old folk act in the '60s ([[MultipleChoicePast or]] [[FloatingTimeline whatever]]) called [[DoubleEntendre "Pocket Full of Peter"]]. They flash back to the longhaired duo playing a song lamenting the plight of Native Americans, which used various speech stereotypes, such as the "ababababababa" sound made by vibrating the hand against the mouth, and at the end Peter speaking the lyric, "How did this happen... HOW" (speaking the last word like the stereotypical Native American greeting, with his hand held palm out).
* The Martians in ''{{Futurama}}'', who are based around stereotyped Indians, speak this way. "[[AsianSpeekeeEngrish Oh no! Martians kidnap Amy! I know it them 'cause they no use good grammar!]]" [[LampshadeHanging remark]] Amy's parents.
* On one occasion WesternAnimation/PepperAnn found out she had some Native American heritage and found some of that tribe, who were your typical modern people, and kept trying to talk to them like she'd seen Indians talk in westerns.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' the kids go to see an old cowboys-and-Indians movie and come out thinking that that's how real Indians act. When an Indian boy moves into the neighborhood they don't believe he's a real Indian because he doesn't talk/act like they did in the movie.

* A GreenAesop speech attributed in UrbanLegend to Chief Seattle -- actually written in TheSeventies by screenwriter Ted Perry -- has elements of this, with references to "the smoking iron horse" and "The red man is a savage."

A variation of YouNoTakeCandle, but one which applies specifically to Native Americans. Although this trope has fallen out of favour due to reasons of racial sensitivity, for decades (if not centuries) American Indians were portrayed in fiction speaking a form of broken English characterised by the phrases "heap big", "ugh" and "how", and verbs conjugated with "um". Trains are referred to as "iron horses", white people as "palefaces" (who speak with forked tongue), a baby as a "papoose", the tribal leader as "Big Chief", money as "wampum" and whiskey as "firewater".

* As [[http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=825:im-pretty-sure-native-americans-were-pretty-fluent-in-english-by-the-70s&catid=30:frames-and-panels-index&Itemid=34 Superdickery has demonstrated]], this was how Indians in the DCUniverse spoke in the 1970s.