Line #60 Main/TontoTalk


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9	[[quoteright:248: [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tontotalk_3746.jpg]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:248: [[http://www.superdickery.com/im-pretty-sure-native-americans-were-fluent-in-english-by-the-70s/ "The way this guy's talking, I don't know if it's supposed to be some sort of racist caricature or if he's brain damaged somehow..."]]]]
11
12	->'''Josey Wales:''' You be Ten Bears?\
13	''[Beat]''\
14	'''Ten Bears:''' I ''am'' Ten Bears.
15	-->-- ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales''
16
17	A variation of YouNoTakeCandle, but one which applies specifically to Native Americans. For decades (if not centuries) Native Americans were portrayed in fiction speaking a form of pidgin English characterised by the phrases "heap big," "ugh," and "how," and verbs conjugated with "um" (justified, as some native American languages have a feature in which “um” is added to the end of a verb if the speaker is reporting something they saw firsthand, and “ay” if not). Trains are referred to as "iron horses," guns as "thundersticks," 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."[[note]]In Spanish -in humoristic depictions- there's something similar too (the YouNoTakeCandle style), with them conjugating verbs just in infinitive as well as knowing stuff as trains or whiskey as mentioned before.[[/note]]
18
19	While most assume that this is just some baloney stereotype invented by ignorant racists, [[RealityIsUnrealistic it was]] [[AluminumChristmasTrees actually originally]] TruthInTelevision. In the 17th century, Native Americans adopted a pidgin now called ''American Indian Pidgin English'' (AIPE) in order to communicate with white people and members of other tribes. Here are a few recorded real-life examples of AIPE:\
20
21	-> Good Indian, me. Heap good Indian, hunt buffalo and deer.
22	-->-- Ottawa, Oglala Sioux war chief
23
24	-> You silly. You weak. You baby-hands. No catch horse. No kill buffalo. No good but for sit still, read book. Never mind. Me like. Me make rich. Me make big man. Me your squaw.[[note]]In former times, squaw was just the Algonquian word for wife or woman.[[/note]]
25	-->-- A Native American woman proposing to a white man
26
27	Straight usages of this trope have fallen out of favor due to racial sensitivity (and due to the language barrier that AIPE was meant to bridge simply not being there anymore, since the vast majority of Natives are raised with actual, fluent English these days; unfortunately [[https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/saving-americas-endangered-languages most of the old languages]] [[https://hir.harvard.edu/the-death-and-revival-of-indigenous-languages/ are dead or dying]], [[http://www.native-languages.org/revive.htm although there are efforts]] to preserve/[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revived_languages#Native_American_languages revive them]]), although it does get parodied quite frequently. A common gag involves a white (or otherwise non-indigenous) character speaking to a Native American in this manner on the assumption that this is how all Native Americans talk, only to receive a bemused response in perfectly articulate English.
28
29	Occasionally you may even find someone so ignorant as to think this is the Native American ''accent'', which is incorrect, as the accent that Native Americans had before the colonists arrived is the very one that non-native Americans adopted and now speak.[[note]]There is such a thing as a "[[https://www.voanews.com/a/6617390.html rez accent]]", distinguished by inflection, slight softening on consonants, etc. This likely got started in the residential schools where children of many tribes lived together for years and were forced to learn and speak only English. You can hear a lot of people speaking with rez accents on [[https://www.nativeamericacalling.com/ Native America Calling]].[[/note]]
30
31	See AsianSpeekeeEngrish for the Asian equivalent, and StereotypicalSouthAsianEnglish for the South Asian equivalent. Related to BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins. Sometimes the dialect of choice for the MagicalNativeAmerican or, for extra-special UnfortunateImplications, TheSavageIndian or HollywoodNatives.
32
33	See also ElectiveBrokenLanguage, for when a Native American can speak English perfectly and just fakes this trope, either for making fun of white people's stereotypes or for the sake of ObfuscatingStupidity.
34
35	----
36	!!Examples:
37
38	[[foldercontrol]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Books]]
41	* When the ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' gang takes a trip out west, they stop at a Native American village. Reggie walks up to an Indian man and says something like:
42	-->'''Reggie:''' Me come from land beyond blue water. How!\
43	'''Indian:''' Say Alice, come here! Like there's some kind of creep trying to make the scene, but I don't dig him.
44	* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' plays with this trope: the Native American characters in ''Asterix and the Great Crossing'' speak a language consisting entirely of "how", "ugh" and "ole" (the last word being introduced to them by the Gauls, who believe the Indians to be Spanish). The loose film adaptation, ''Asterix Conquers America'', averts this trope by giving the Indians a new language comprised of American place names.
45	* "Little Plum" from ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' peppers his sentences with "um" so much that it becomes almost a self-parody.
46	* This was how Native Americans in the Franchise/DCUniverse spoke in the 1970s.
47	* Parodied in the ComicBook/{{New 52}} version of ''[[ComicBook/DialHForHero Dial H]]'', when Nelson becomes Chief Mighty Arrow (a character who appeared in the original series), he talks this way unless he concentrates on not doing so. Roxie refuses to let him leave the house because he's an offensive stereotype.
48	* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' used this with the occasional subversion, with most of the humor stemming from just how ''odd'' this talk sounds when translated very literally into French.
49	* Played with in a short story in ''ComicBook/FearItself: The Home Front'', in which a bunch of white racists try and stir up American Eagle's neighbors by posing as Native American spirits in the wake of the murder of a white local sheriff. The fact that they resort to using Tonto Talk is part of how Eagle figures out that they're full of shit.
50	-->'''American Eagle:''' Oh please. "Thunderstick"? [[PeacePipe "Pipe of peace]]"? What did you do -- watch ''Pocahontas''? Read some Custer fan-fic?
51	* ''ComicBook/OmpaPaTheRedskin'': Ompa-pa and the other Indians speak this way.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
55	* ''ComicStrip/{{Tumbleweeds}}'': Bucolic Buffalo played this straight, adding "um" to his words. The other members of the Poohawk tribe though averted this trope.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Fan Works]]
59	* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal builds on the canonical introduction of Red Indians. One seemingly submissive Indian employed as a scout by the local {{Expy}} of General George Armstrong Custer addresses him seemingly respectfully, as ''Kemo Sabie''. Then, later on, he watches a bull bison depositing a large steaming heap of kemosabie onto the prairie.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
63	* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters: TheMovie'': The character Big Chief Tiny Head, a villain and more a parody of the stereotypes than an actual Native American, speaks like this.
64	* In ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', the residents of InjunCountry get a whole musical number in which they present the defining characteristics of the race as saying "how" and "ugh" and having red skin. Hey, it was TheFifties.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
68	* Spoofed in ''Film/{{Assassination\|1987}}'' (1987) when a Native American is apparently speaking like this, but is actually a TerseTalker. When Creator/CharlesBronson's character responds in kind, he delivers a long tirade over the idea that an American can't speak good English.
69	* Parodied in (of course) ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' with the chief played by Creator/MelBrooks chanting in Yiddish.
70	* Averted in the negotiations with Cochise in ''Film/FortApache'', where we have a somewhat reverse situation: the focus is not on Cochise not being able to speak English, but on the negotiating officer York not being ''fluent enough'' in ''Apache''. Therefore, York decides to use a Spanish interpreter to interpret for Cochise, who is rather fluent in Spanish.
71	* Played with in Film/DudleyDoRight. In one scene, Nel Fenwick returns to town and Dudley reintroduces her to the Chief of the South Brooklyn Indians.
72
73	-->'''Dudley:''' You remember Nel.
74	-->'''Chief:''' Nel Fenwick! You look terrific. How's it goin'?
75	-->'''Nell:''' Me do well.
76	-->'''Chief:''' Good for you, sugar.
77
78	** Subverted further in that the person Nel was addressing was probably not even a real Native American. Later in the movie, Standing Room Only (one of the tribe members) sarcastically remarks, "Oh, yeah, like we're really Indians," implying that they're not.
79	* In ''Film/TheFriscoKid'', when Avram and Tommy are captured by Native Americans, they attempt some Tonto Talk, e.g. something like, "Me rabbi. Jewish Rabbi. I cross big ocean. I read much book about Indians." The chief is not amused and replies "You don't speak English very well."
80	* In the ''Film/MaAndPaKettle'' movies, Geoduck and Crowbar speak this way.
81	* Invoked in ''Film/{{Maverick}}'' where Joseph, the chief of the local tribe, is being paid by a wealthy Russian noble to give him a "real west" experience including BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins, war drums, and Tonto-speak - to the great disgust of Joseph, who is fully fluent not just in English but in French (which was pretty much the first language of Russian nobility at the time) besides.
82	* Averted in ''Film/TheMissing2003'', where all the Native tribes do speak realistically, though with accents.
83	* Subverted in ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales''. The Comanche chief [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Ten Bears]] [[note]]played by Will Sampson, also known for ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' and ''Film/PoltergeistIITheOtherSide''[[/note]] does tend towards whimsical turns of phrase, and his English is a bit stilted, but he sounds like someone who has learned a second language as an adult rather than a caricature. He even manages to get one over on Josey:
84	-->'''Josey:''' You be Ten Bears?\
85	'''Ten Bears:''' I ''am'' Ten Bears.
86	* Every Indian character talks this way in the Creator/ShirleyTemple film ''Film/SusannahOfTheMounties''.
87	* Some of ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' shorts featured Native Americans speaking this way, such as the 1940 short "Rockin' Thru the Rockies".
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Jokes]]
91	* Used for the obligatory dirty joke: While scouting with the Lone Ranger, Tonto puts his ear to the ground to listen.
92	-->'''Tonto:''' Buffalo come.\
93	'''Lone Ranger:''' That's amazing, Tonto! How do you know?\
94	'''Tonto:''' Ear sticky.
95	* A middle-aged couple traveling through New Mexico were in a cafe and couple of Zuni nearby overheard them talking about [[ScatterbrainedSenior becoming forgetful with age]]. The younger one said "Getting old doesn't have to mean you lose your memory. My great-grandpa is close to 100 and [[PhotographicMemory he remembers everything]]. Just ask him." So the husband says "What did you have for breakfast on this day in 1944?" The old guy says "Bacon and Eggs." Twenty years later, the couple stop at the same cafe and Grandpa is still sitting there. So the husband goes up to his table and says "How!" And Grandpa says "Fried."
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Literature]]
99	* ''Literature/AbleTeam''. Downplayed when the team encounter Nate, a [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veteran]] living with an indigenous tribe in the mountains of Guatemella. He's GoneNative and hasn't spoken English in decades, so he keeps pausing to remember the words.
100	* The Geronimo Brothers of [[Creator/RobertRankin the Brentford Trilogy.]] Neither brother is in fact any kind of Native American, but Paul believes he and Barry are the dual reincarnation of Geronimo and feels obliged to "act the part". Sadly he learned everything he knows about Native Americans from watching old Westerns. Barry tags along because he likes playing dress-up.
101	--> '''Paul:''' If paleface not talking out back of loincloth, that technological miracle of first order. Nobel prize in it for inventor
102	* Completely averted in ''[[Literature/BloodMeridian Blood Meridian]]''. No native characters speak in English; either they have no dialogue, their conversation is in their native language but not recorded in the text, or they speak in reasonably fluent Spanish, as is the case with the Yuma chief [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Caballo en Pelo]].
103	* Aaron Latham's 2002 novel ''Code of the West'' stars a white man who was kidnapped as a boy and raised by Comanches. He speaks fluent English, but when he is using the Comanche language the novel [[TranslationConvention renders his speech into English]] as Tonto Talk.
104	* A variant of this was still used, of all places, in ''My Heart Is On The Ground'', a 1999 children's book in the "Literature/DearAmerica" series. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20041204235000/http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/myHeart.html Native reviewers]] called the style "Early Jawbreaker".
105	-->My teacher, Missus Camp Bell, say I must write in this book each day. She calls it die-eerie. It is the white man's talking leaves. But they talk not yet.... Teacher tells it that I know some English, that she is much proud of me, but wants be more proud.
106	* In the Literature/PhilipMarlowe novel ''Literature/FarewellMyLovely'', a {{Mook}} named Second Planting shows up and engages in this. Marlowe doesn't buy it for a minute, finally telling him to "Skip the pig Latin". The mook's English improves, indicating he ''was'' faking most of it, but it's still a little broken.
107	* Subverted in Patrick O'Brian's ''[[Literature/AubreyMaturin The Fortune of War]]'' : Stephen Maturin habitually greets the Native American hospital porter with 'Ugh' in the genuine belief that it is a civil greeting in his language, until the man politely asks for an explanation.
108	* Very briefly, in [[Creator/DaveBarry Dave Barry's]] radio-based Astonishingly AppropriateInterruption gag article, "Garbage Scan", the ongoing "Bill Doberman" political ad briefly veers into this...
109	-->'''AD:''' "...Him good. Him heap strong. Him your father. Him..."
110	* Played with in ''Literature/TheIndianInTheCupboard''. Little Bear has fairly stunted English, but is shown to be intelligent otherwise, sometimes ''more'' intelligent than Omri, who's just a boy. Inversely, Boone, a white cowboy, has just as terrible English, and also is clever in his own way.
111	* Subverted in ''Literature/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'."
112	** It should be noted that since ''Peter And The Starcatchers'' was published by Disney's Hyperion Books division, this was likely intended as a parody of the Indians in [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan the 1953 movie]], who played this trope totally straight.
113	* Parodied in ''Literature/ReaperMan'': Mrs. Cake's spirit guide, One Man Bucket, is from "one of them heathen Howondaland tribes", and talks like this... but only when he's on the job. He was actually born and raised in Ankh-Morpork, so his exaggerated use of "-um" and talk of spirits and the Happy Hunting Grounds are an affectation for the benefit of Mrs. Cake's customers.
114	* Inexplicably, the Sparra tribe, otherwise entirely based on English sparrows, speak this way in ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', with the additional use of the word "worm" to mean either "food", "anyone that's not a sparrow", or "anything the sparrow dislikes". Probably why they didn't show up again after ''Mattimeo'', when it became less acceptable to use this trope. They are perfectly smart, though.
115	* In a short story set in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Verse, a mercenary company is led by an ork and his Native American second-in-command. Joking around, these long-time friends speak to each other in their respective minstrel-show-dialect equivalents: the Native saying they'll "make-um heap hot for paleface", and the ork replying "smash 'em good, ook ook!"
116	* In ''The Sign of the Beaver'', a children's [[HistoricalFiction historical novel]] by Elizabeth George Speare, an Indian character named Attean is portrayed speaking in a stereotyped pidgin dialect ("What for I read? My grandfather mighty hunter, he not read"), [[ValuesDissonance to the dismay of some modern teachers]] teaching a [[MediaNotes/NewberyMedal Newbery Honor]]-wining book.
117	* In the ''Literature/{{Winnetou}}'' novels, Indians often use the word "howgh" and some other terms like "palefaces" and "firewater", but the Indian protagonist speaks pretty good English.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
121	* Chief Screaming Chicken, a character who is ''exactly'' as painful to watch as the name suggests, talks like this in the ''Series/Batman1966'' episode he appears in.
122	* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': At one point in the three-parter in which the Bunch go to the Grand Canyon, 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?" The boy's grandfather shows up to take him home, played by Jay Silverheels (Tonto) himself!
123	* The Indian chief in the UsefulNotes/{{Supermarionation}} series ''Series/FourFeatherFalls'' 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.
124	* In an episode of ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'', Bertie Wooster (as part of a ZanyScheme) is persuaded to disguise himself in {{blackface}} as an African chief to retrieve a tribal artifact. He naturally assumes that as the "chief" he should speak in Tonto Talk. The [[UpperClassTwit poor dolt]] only succeeds in making everything think he's gone insane. Then to make matters even worse, the ''real'' chief shows up -- speaking the Queen's English in a flawless Oxford accent due to [[MajoredInWesternHypocrisy his university education]].
125	* As the {{Trope Namer\|s}}, both invoked and subverted in ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'' TV show from the fifties. Jay Silverheels' Tonto regularly speaks like this in conversation with any white character, including his friend the Ranger... but one episode shows Tonto negotiating with another Native American chief, and the two of them speak perfect, if rather stilted, formal, and contraction-less, English. Most likely meant to be a TranslationConvention to show that the two are speaking their native language to each other.
126	* On ''Series/ModernFamily'', Cam and Mitchell try to apply Lily to a classy kindergarten that is very keen on finding [[TokenMinority Token Minorities]], and figured Lily is bound to be admitted as a TwoferTokenMinority (being both Asian and the daughter of two gay fathers). Upon realising their competition for the only available slot was an interracial lesbian couple, one of whom was in a wheelchair, Cam resorts to bringing up being 1/16 Native American, and talking like this in the interview as a final Hail Mary.
127	* Spoofed in the ''Creator/MontyPython'' sketch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a54Ch8-7g6I "Red Indian in Theatre."]] "She fine actress... she make interpretation heap subtle."
128	* On ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', a woman tries to endear herself to the son of the man she's dating by talking like this when she sees his Halloween costume--he's dressed as a Native American boy. Unfortunately, the boy's already upset by her presence in the first place--his beloved stepmother died only two months earlier and his {{Jerkass}} father is refusing to deal with either his or his own grief--and her act makes him blow up at her.
129	* ''Series/PressYourLuck'' had a Whammy Indian rowing in a canoe chanting "Ai-yi-yi-yi money money" before his canoe springs a leak and sinks.
130	* In the Australian current affairs show ''Real Life'', indigenous reporter Stan Grant, while interviewing an American actor, showed an OldShame clip of the actor in {{blackface}} portraying an indigenous Australian (with the genuine article as literal {{spear carrier}}s in the background) talking exactly like this.
131	* ''Series/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".
132	* 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]].
133	* 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.
134	* ''Series/{{Timeless}}'': Subverted. Rufus assumes that the Lone Ranger's Native American partner (the one normally called "Tonto" in adaptations) would speak this way, but he doesn't, and is offended that they think he'd try to use "Injun magic" to track the suspects instead of investigation and survival skills. Rufus also learns that "Tonto" is Spanish for "fool" when said partner yells at him for it.
135	-->'''Rufus:''' Whoever wrote ''The Lone Ranger'' sucks.
136
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Music]]
140	* Briefly heard in "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" by Boys Don't Cry, when the words "white man speaking with forked tongue!" are said by a background character.
141	* The French ''Music/LudwigVon88'' made a whole song named ''Mon coeur s'envole'' phrased in that manner. This is meant as a joke.
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Radio]]
145	* Parodied in a 1949 Radio/BobAndRay skit featuring Pronto, sidekick to the Lone Agent:
146	-->'''Pronto (Bob):''' Ug. Lone, that be completely impossible. You would be implicating me in crime, in which I can have no hand.\
147	'''Lone (Ray):''' Huh? Is this Pronto speaking?\
148	'''Pronto:''' Ug.\
149	'''Lone:''' Where'd you get the education?\
150	'''Pronto:''' Me go Harvard. Me [[{{Pun}} Boston brave.]]
151	* Tonto from ''Radio/TheLoneRanger'' is the {{Trope Namer\|s}} 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 and used the term "Tonto talk." Modern versions, such as the 1981 film and the Dynamite comic series, did away with this, due to the creators wanting to portray Tonto more respectfully. The 2013 film, however, brought it back.
152	* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Chief and Mrs. Thundercloud in the episode ''Bartering With Chief Thundercloud.''
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder:Theatre]]
156	* ''Theatre/TheGirlOfTheGoldenWest'' has Billy Jackrabbit and Wowkle speak somewhat like this. The interjection "Ugh!" is a bit overused.
157	* In the original stage version of ''Theatre/{{Peter Pan\|1904}}'', the Indians that live in Neverland speak like this.
158	-->'''Tiger Lily:''' Pirates! Have um scalps? What you say?\
159	'''Panther:''' Scalp um, oho, velly quick.\
160	'''The Braves:''' ''[in corroboration]'' Ugh, ugh, wah.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	[[folder:Video Games]]
164	* Humba Wumba in ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'' speaks like this - but then again practically everyone ([[AnimateInanimateObject and every]]''[[AnimateInanimateObject thing]]'') speaks in HulkSpeak anyway, so the only thing particularly unique about Humba is that she throws in the odd "heap big" every once in a while.
165	* Big Chief Tiny Head in ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'' is the only character to speak specifically with the "um" and "heap" and consistently so. He is not leading anyone, wears attire that does not add up and was introduced as a [[TheConfidant man of great wisdom]] to soon be revealed as working for an an Evil Organisation and simply [[ConMan faking it all]].
166	* Averted in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', where the Native American Nastas speaks fluent English and justifies it as having been schooled while growing up; however, supposed anthropologist [[KnowNothingKnowItAll [=MacDougal=]]] treats him as though this trope applies.
167	* ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders''
168	** Stage boss Dark Horse enters battle with the line "You in heap big trouble!" and then "Me in heap big trouble!" when defeated. However, he doesn't look particularly Native American despite the mannerisms and the game's Wild West theme.
169	** Chief Scalpem[[note]]Wigwam, depending on the version[[/note]], who is an obvious Native American, also speaks this way, saying "Me ready for Pow-wow," and "Me Pow-wowed out" before and after his boss fight, respectively[[note]]in the Platform/SuperNintendo port, his subtitles are reworked to "''get'' ready for a pow-wow" and "''I'm'' pow-wowed out", and his voice files are likewise edited to remove the "me" at the start[[/note]]. His sister, who appears after he's defeated to beg the main characters not to kill him, speaks perfect English.
170	* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the minotaur-like Tauren are thematically loosely based on Native Americans.[[note]]Many in-game races have that kind of loose connection--the Dwarves based on cliche highland Scots, the ursine Pandaren on Chinese, etc.[[/note]] They speak fluent English, but if you click on an NPC, one of the stock responses is "''How''... may I aid you?"
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Web Comics]]
174	* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': Aubrey's aborted attempt to make Native American-themed porn involves her obviously white friends dressing up in BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins and speaking like this, while using the stage names Princess Takes-It-Like-Doe and Chief Thrusting Bull. "Sweet Tonto! Your tomahawk is wampum big!" Jhim says that if it gets released none of them will ever be able to walk into a casino again.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Western Animation]]
178	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'' visit an Indian village where the guide subverts this while {{breaking the fourth wall}}. From the episode "Little Child."
179	-->Confusing, isn't it? Of course, I could clear it all up and speak perfect English. But they're tourists and I don't want to disappoint them.\
180	'''John:''' (''to guide'') Now, uh, we friends. We strangers here. Come-um long way, see-um your people.\
181	'''Guide:''' (''to John'') Me know. Me show you how Indian live. (''does EyebrowWaggle to camera'')
182	** The two Native children in the episode avert this as they both speak clear paleface--er, English.
183	* In a ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode, Peter and Lois decide to enter a community talent show by reviving their old folk act from the '60s ([[MultipleChoicePast or]] [[FloatingTimeline whatever]]) called [[DoubleEntendre "Handful 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 "woo-woo-woo" sound[[note]]the ''tremolo'', which Anglos think is made by vibrating the hand against the mouth -- it's actually made with the tongue, there are really many different varieties, and in many tribes it's the ''women'' who make that sound[[/note]] and at the end Peter speaking the lyric, "How could this have happened... HOW" (speaking the last word like the stereotypical Native American greeting, with his hand held palm out). Although it turns out that they were ''very'' high for this performance and this was merely their own interpretation of how it went. What actually happened was them wailing on their instruments randomly while screaming like lunatics.
184	* 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.
185	* The Martians in ''WesternAnimation/{{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!]]" [[HypocriticalHumor remark]] Amy's parents.
186	* Running Board speaks this way in ''WesternAnimation/GoGoGophers''.
187	* 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 heard Indians talk in westerns.
188	* In the ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' episode "Why Oh Why Wyoming", Dick Dastardly enlists the aid of an Indian, Chief Crazy Buffalo, who talks like this.
189	* The WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker version of ''WesternAnimation/TheBarberOfSeville'' has a Native American walk into the barber shop, speaking like this and wearing a headdress in the 1940's.
190	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when a Native American casino owner is seen yelling over the phone, "Your people have broken many promises to us. Now laundry bill soars like eagle!" It overlaps with ElectiveBrokenLanguage though, as he speaks normally once Bart shows up in his office.
191	[[/folder]]
192
193	[[folder:Real Life]]
194	* 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.
195	* "How" or "Howgh" actually is an Indian word. It's usually more properly written "Hou". It may have started as a word of greeting and "yes" in Creek, spreading to other tribes they traded with, which is how the Lakotah picked it up (they would have said "ho"). You'll also hear the Wazhazhe (Osage) speak this word. Anglo visitors would have heard "how" a lot in council meetings as people agreed with the speaker, like "hear hear!" "Ugh" probably started as a bad transcription of listeners muttering "how". In some places "how" was used ''by'' the speaker to mean "this concludes my statement."
196	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TontoTalk