So? Who cares if some Indians, some where, at some time wore birds as part of their apparel. The issue is not about wardrobe choices, but about stereotyping. This movie could be set in the late 20th Century where the main Indian character is wearing jeans and a t-shirt and it wouldn't have made a difference.

Well... we know Curtis had props in his bag that he would use if the person he was photographing didn't have his/her own regalia, so I'm not sure I'd use Curtis as a definitive source of headdress. Even if it were accurate, I don't think Deep has the background knowledge to make an informed choice as to what he is doing. With his costume and his celebrity/fame, he's inadvertently adding to the range of ways in which people can play Indian.

The question is will they make Tonto accurate to the Apsaroke ways in general or did they just get lucky with this find? My personal opinion has always been that to judge this issue one needs to look at who Tonto was supposed to be in the story. Tonto was supposed to be Potawatomi. Two bands of the Potawatomi nation live in the west, in Kansas and Oklahoma. Both bands are known to have borrowed some elements of the local culture (especially the Prairie band). What's to say that a person from such a culture could not see a headdress like one of the above, think 'that look cool', and decide to wear it? Just to be different. Not unlike the way some people get funky tattos and piercings. Who said all Indains from culture A or B always dressed one way, and one way only with no variations or intertribal borrowing even back then?

As an Individual who does appear to be white for the most part, I have to say in Johnny Depp's defense he has Cherokee & or Creek ancestry. Like many "white" children of Indian families we often struggle greatly with our identity. I understand that while he may not be a legal Indian on paper he is still native by ancestery. Peter Canoe, an elder in the Ojibwe nation, teaches that all people born from Indian people will be Indian and have Indian Souls. Men would look at the stars at night and name them, because those stars represented all the children that would be born from them. Johnny Depp doesn't advertise his heritage or use it to gain movie roles. While he may not always play typical roles in film, he doesn't have to adhere to "Stereotypical Indian" roles because of his ancestry. In my opinion he is a person to be proud of, not berated. I think we will have to see the movie, because Tonto is the only one who can see the crow. Reports say the crow acts as a spiritual guide. I think I'll have to see the movie before I can say Yay or Nay.

Did they "wear birds on their heads" in ceremony or did they "wear birds on their heads" as an every day thing like Depp's Tonto apparently does?

Here we go again...Hollywood, obviously they have learned nothing over the past 100 years of film making, or simply don't care. I wish I could be more like Chris Eyre and find it hysterical, personally, I find it pathetic. Ignorance and stupidity knows no bounds. The more things change, the more they stay the same! hollywood

Let us remember that Native people in the past did not view the tribe they where in as set into stone, he could easily be a Potawatomi adopted into the Comanche. The Comanche people are located closely to the Potawatomi in Oklahoma, who is to say there are no intermarriages there. The Kansas band of Potawatomi have adopted a lot of Dakota, Osage, Fox, and other lifeways before my band went on the Potawatomi Trail of Death. Although I think that they should keep Tonto as a person from my people (haha, insert a we are the best people joke :) ). Johnny Depp probably didn't get to make the script anyway. Not to mention the Lone Ranger is a historical fiction character to begin with. The first actor who played Tonto was Chinese, so a white guy with some native heritage is an insanely great improvement. Living in this melting pot there are fewer and fewer "full Blooded" Native People. It's a good thing we get to chose who will be our citizens.

Heatheranne, your summation is about the best I have read yet. You are correct and birds most certainly would be considered spiritual guides, they are further messengers and to those that wore or wear them in dance, ceremony and the like, they have special meaning to that person. Your closing statement that we will have to see the movie to have the purpose of the crow and its meaning certainly will be revealed, then perhaps that will bring clarity for all.

Heatheranne would seem to speak with some knowledge behind her and I'm right behind you girl. You speak it like it is and there is no denying the facts!

Heatheranne, facts are facts and you got that girl!

The article and most comments treat the wearing of birds as if it were a style or type of "regalia," when this was far from the case. There was a very specific REASON why some Indians wore birds or feathers in their hair. Some tribes, especially of the Algonquian and Siouan families, subscribed to the belief that human spirits are carried in bird form after death to the place in the sky where spirits are reborn. Wearing birds or feathers in the hair was a way of preparing for death, showing no fear of death, or connecting to the world of the ancestors.

The Jesuit accounts of early contact with Great Lakes tribes record these beliefs. Likewise, the Great Lakes Indians fashioned birdstones that were worn in the hair as part of some kind of death ceremony, and they believed that human hair transmutes into feathers at death.

Such beliefs were especially strong among the Ojibwa, the Potawatomi, the Shawnee, and the Kickapoo. Since Depp portrays Tonto who is supposed to be Potawatomi, it's very fitting that he wears a bird, in keeping with ancient spiritual tradition.