Ke-mo sah-bee (often spelled kemo sabe, kemosabe or kimosabe) is the term used by the fictional Native American sidekick Tonto as the "Native American" name for the Lone Ranger in the American Lone Ranger radio program and television show. Derived from gimoozaabi, an Ojibwe and Potawatomi word that may mean 'he/she looks out in secret', it has been occasionally translated as "trusty scout" or "faithful friend".

Meaning and origin

Jim Jewell, director of The Lone Ranger radio show from 1933 to 1939, took the phrase from Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee, a boys' camp on Mullett Lake in Michigan, established by his father-in-law 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 that 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' (and, in theory, 'he who peeks'), making use of the prefix giimoo(j)-, 'secretly'; Rob Malouf, now an associate professor of linguistics at San Diego State University, suggested that giimoozaabi may indeed have also meant scout (i.e., 'one who sneaks').

In media

Tonto has been represented by the following actors:

Other uses