Johnny Depp Buying Site of Wounded Knee Battle for Native Americans?
Johnny Depp just finished playing a Native American in the film "The Lone Ranger," and now says that he wants to buy the land where the battle of Wounded Knee took place. The actor wants to give the land back to the Native Americans.
"It's very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there," Depp told Mail on Sunday. "And in the 1970s there was a stand-off between the Feds (federal government) and the people who should own that land. This historical land is so important to the Sioux culture, and all I want to do is buy it and give it back. Why doesn't the government do that?"
Depp himself is proud to claim Native American heritage, which is why he signed on to play Tonto in "The Lone Ranger."
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"My great-grandmother on my mum's side, Mae Sloan, had quite the look – the braids, the whole thing. We were told that we were of Cherokee descent, but it's possible it could have been Creek Indian. I remember one story vividly, dating back to the late 1700s or early 1800s. It was a story about an Indian woman who had an affair and then married a white man and within no time at all she was murdered, beheaded," Depp said.
"We always heard that story and we were told that it was one of our relatives and it's stayed with me," he added.
Depp also said that he is willing to "do his best to" pay the $3.9 million for the land.
"It's land they were pushed onto and then they were massacred there. It really saddens me," Depp explained.
And while Depp received flack as a white actor playing a Native American, he was very careful to consult with leaders of Native American communities, including William "Two Raven" Voelker, as an adviser to the film.
"The production was blessed by the Navajo and the Comanche and I got a call from LaDonna Harris, who has been a Comanche activist for many years, to say that she wanted to adopt me into her family and into the Comanche nation. It's a great honor," Depp boasted.
