>
> Now - even more OT than how big the font size is.... :-)
>
> > No, it's Who Knows? in Spanish.
> >
> > Jerry
> >
> > Austin Franklin wrote:
> > >>...Kemo Sab\ufffd...
> > >
> > >
> > > Hey, doesn't that mean "back end of horse" in Apache?
>
> The origin and meaning of the words "kemo sabe", often heard in in Lone
> Ranger stories, are often debated. The first use of the words
> apparently occurred in an episode in which Tonto is helping a severely
> wounded Texas Ranger recover from injuries inflicted by The Cavendish
> Gang. Tonto and the Ranger recognize each other as childhood friends,
> when they called each other "kemo sabe" (faithful friend).
> Fran Striker (senior) was a well-renowned writer of several OTR
> favorites, including The Lone Ranger, Covered Wagon Days, The Green
> Hornet, and Ned Jordan, Secret Agent. His son, Fran Striker, Jr.
> relates the story of the origin of the words "kemo sabe".
>
> Now, About Kemo Sabay (Sabe)-- (It was first introduced as \ufffdsabay,\ufffd
> but soon became \ufffdsabe.\ufffd) WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN?
>
> It is a most interesting question... one that has been pondered and
> investigated frequently throughout the decades. In the past there
> have been scholars who have conducted extensive research and studies
> on the phrase... trying to develop the premise that in Kemo Sabay (as
> with the name Tonto) there was a subtle discriminatory nuance
> intended. Logic usually seemed to dictate that those researchers look
> the dialects native to the southwest for support.
>
> The investigator, student or scholar, must realize that when this land
> was discovered there were already some 220 mutually unintelligible
> languages native the America north of the Rio Grande alone. While it
> may be logical to make geographical associations with the southwest
> and the Spanish language, then put forth suppositions -- when dealing
> in non-scientific areas (such as the creation of fiction) logic can be
> quite misleading and the conclusions drawn quite incorrect.
>
> In addition to writing the scripts, books, cartoon strips, and
> personal appearance scenarios; my father was also charged with
> answering fan letters to the Lone Ranger. He always started his
> replies with... "Ta-i ke-mo sah-bee (Greetings trusty scout)" AND
> this was Dad's only intended meaning of the term. But still, there
> have been many interesting, but incorrect, conclusions drawn (with no
> negative implications intended) about the derivation of the phrase.
>
> Many years ago, a Dr. Goddard, of the Smithsonian Institution, was
> reported as believing that Kemo Sabe was from the Tewa dialect. He
> supported his contention by calling on the "Ethnogeography of the Tewa
> Indians" which appeared in the 29th Annual Report of the Bureau of
> American Ethnology (1916). It seems that in Tewa, "Apache" equates to
> Sabe and "friend" to Kema.
>
> A scholar from the University of California at Berkley hypothesized
> that Kemo Sabe came from the Yavapai, a dialect spoken in Arizona. He
> suggested that my Dad could have asked a source in Arizonia for the
> Indian term for "one who is white," or shown a picture of the Ranger
> (in the white shirt and trousers he wore in the earliest publicity
> photos) and asked for a descriptive name. A Yavapai would respond
> (correctly) kinmasaba or kinmasabeh.
>
> So what's the truth? One must look at practicality rather than logic.
> An article in an old Saturday Evening Post magazine claims that Tonto
> was supposed to be a Potawatomi Indian, from the great lakes area.
> (Now that's practical... at the time Dad had never been west of
> Buffalo, New York and the program was launched from WXYZ in Detroit,
> Michigan.) In research for my book, I came across another old
> reference-- a photograph of a children's camp in the northern part of
> Michigan. The photo was from the early 1930s and showed the camp
> entrance. It was named camp "Ke Mo Sah Bee." The accompanying
> caption pointed out that the name stood for "trusty friend" or "trusty
> scout." These two tidbits from history dovetail nicely and are in
> keeping with the meaning of the term as officially stated for the last
> sixty some years.
>
> It has been written that Jim Jewell, the radio programs dramatic
> director in the early years and a native of Michigan, originally
> suggested the phrase to my dad. In light of everything else, I find
> that to be a credible claim.
>
> Most recently, I became aware of yet another (humorous) meaning of the
> phrase. In his book of humor and observation, noted columnist James
> Smart observes that the New York Public Library defines Kemo Sabe as
> Soggy Shrub. His entertaining collection is appropriately titled
> "Soggy Shrub Rides Again and other improbabilities."
>
> Allow me just one final note on Kemo Sabe... an interesting side
> light. It is usually assumed that Kemo Sabe is how the Ranger refers
> to Tonto. However, in many of the early radio broadcasts, the Ranger
> calls Tonto Kemo Sabe AND Tonto also calls the Ranger Kemo Sabe.
>
>
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