Ke-mo sah-bee is the term of endearment used by the fictional Native American sidekick Tonto in the American television and radio programs The Lone Ranger. It has become a common catchphrase. Ultimately derived from gimoozaabi, an Ojibwe and Potawatomi word that may mean "he/she looks out in secret", it is sometimes translated as "trusty scout" or "faithful friend". In the 2013 film The Lone Ranger, Tonto states that it means "wrong brother" in Comanche, a seemingly tongue-in-cheek translation within the context of the plot.
Spelling
, writer of the original Lone Ranger radio program, spelled the word "ke-mo sah-bee".
Meaning and origin
, director of The Lone Ranger from 1933 to 1939, took the phrase from Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee, a boys' camp onMullett Lake in Michigan, established by Charles W. Yeager in 1916. Yeager himself probably took the term from Ernest Thompson Seton, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, who had given the meaning "scout runner" to Kee-mo-sah'-bee in his 1912 book "The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore". Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee was in an area inhabited by the Ottawa, who speak a language which is mutually comprehensible with Ojibwe. John D. Nichols and Earl Nyholm's A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe defines the Ojibwe word giimoozaabi as "he peeks", making use of the prefix giimoo-, "secretly"; Rob Malouf, now an associate professor of linguistics at San Diego State University, suggested that "giimoozaabi" may indeed have also meant scout. There have been jokes about the name "kemo sabe". A Far Side cartoon had the then long-retired Lone Ranger discover that the name meant the rear end of a horse. Homer and Jethro's parody of the Stonewall Jackson song "Waterloo" had the following verse: "The Lone Ranger and Tonto rode the trail / catching outlaws and putting them in jail/ But the Ranger shot old Tonto 'cause it seems / he found out what Kemo Sabe means/ The Lone Ranger he did trust / That old Tonto bit the dust."
In the old Lone RangerTV series, the Ranger's faithful friend and partner Tonto, played by First Nations actor Jay Silverheels for the entire run of the series, was asked in many scenes what "Kemosabe" meant. His reply was invariably, "It mean Trusty Scout!". The made-for-TV movieEnter the Lone Ranger combined the plots of the first three episodes of the Lone Ranger TV series: "Enter the Lone Ranger", "The Lone Ranger Fights On", and "The Lone Ranger Triumphs" into a complete story.
In both, Tonto finds the forever nameless younger brother of a famous Texas Ranger "Capt. Reid" barely alive. A medallion around the young man's neck helps identify him as the same boy who'd saved Tonto after a renegade attack had wiped out his own family some years earlier. Tonto declares the young man, played by Clayton Moore, worthy of brotherhood and, after a "traditional" blood-sharing ceremony gives him the name "Kemosabe" or "Trusty Scout".
Other uses
In the TV series Renegade starring Lorenzo Lamas as "Reno Raines" an ex-cop becoming an outlaw and starring Branscombe Richmond as "Bobby Sixkiller" a Native American bounty hunter, eventually they join forces in partnership doing business together as bounty hunters. In season 1 episode 11 titled "Lyon's Roar" they disagree about their next target and Sixkiller asks Raines "Are you crazy, kemosabe?".
In the TV series The Sopranos, the "Kemosabe" is referred to in Season 1, Episode 2, Interestingly enough, it was also referred to on Mindhunter, Season 1, Episode 2.
Khemosabi, a champion Arabian horse. His owners popularized his show career with a series of Lone Ranger themed cartoons.
