Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisga’a), b. 1955, Tonto’s TV Script Revision, from the Tonto & Lone Ranger series, 2006. Platinum print. Courtesy of the artist.
Tonto scrubs the face of Richard Pratt, founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, whose infamous goal was to “kill the Indian…and save the man.” The Lone Ranger has meanwhile arrested celebrated photographer Edward S. Curtis for making, in the artist’s words, “the idea of genocide beautiful.” Darkly humorous, McNeil reminds us of a chapter in U.S. history that promoted the cultural and physical annihilation of American Indians. He prints his indictment in platinum, a process dear to Curtis.
