Tonka (1958)

I remember this movie being shot on location on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon about 100 miles southeast of Portland,OR.. I was 13 at the time. It was during the summer when school was out. Some footage was shot just west of the BIA Agency compound behind the Boarding school and other locations as well. Some of the residents were used as extras and of course all the girls went crazy meeting him.He made us all feel very special while he was there. As I remember, other scenes were shot around Bend Oregon. Thanks Sal for being so gracious.

Sal Mineo eschewed the urban areas which most of his films had him in for the Old West as he plays a young Sioux brave who captures and tames a wild horse he names Tonka. This is a fine film that still holds up well today and gave Mineo one of the best parts he ever had.Sal and his peer Rafael Campos are warriors in training and Sal after trying to capture a brown stallion he admires loses the rope and a bow and quiver of arrows and gets the riot act read him by Sitting Bull. Still he goes out and actually finds and tames Tonka. But a warrior cousin H.M. Wynant claims the horse by seniority. Mineo would rather see the horse anywhere else but with Wynant and he frees him.Through a chain of circumstances the horse gets captured and sold to the cavalry where he's renamed Comanche and he becomes the property of Captain Myles Keogh played by Philip Carey. And that is the background of the story of Mineo and the horse, the Battle of the Little Big Horn where the only survivor on the cavalry side was the horse Comanche.All the players including Custer and Keogh are real people and the Battle of the Little Big Horn is well staged by Disney Studios. And next to Mineo the most notable performance in the film is that of Britt Lomond as General George Armstrong Custer.If you are used to the image of Custer as portrayed by Errol Flynn in They Died With Their Boots On then what Britt Lomond did with the role will be a revelation. For those of you who think that Custer was glory hunting Indian hating fanatic than you will love to hate Britt Lomond. Lomond is best known as Captain Monasterio in the first episode of the Disney Zorro TV series. He was pretty hateful as Monasterio and just as hateful as Custer.Tonka is a nice coming age story told from the American Indian point of view. Kids will universally identify with both Mineo and Campos. Tonka is also one of Disney Studios best films of the Fifties and one of its best ever.

Walt Disney is the reason I now live in Tenn. He is also responsible for my interest in early American history. I seen the 'Davy Crockett' series when it was shown on TV in the 1950's. I have never gotten over it. I have over 350 books on this subject. And, all the movies made about Davy Crockett and The Alamo. Some are better than others, BUT, they are all great!I loved the story of Tonka. I read the book in school and I have many, many books and movies about 'Custer's Last Stand'. I moved to Tenn and was at the 'Crockett Tavern Museum for about 9 years.. I am thankful to Walt Disney for the many historic themes he turned into movies.

I too have seen this movie when I was a child around 6 or 7 years old. I have recently been fortunate to receive it as a gift since it is my favorite movie of all time. It was a "Disney" movie. The color of the mane was something I truly did not pay attention to even on my most recent view of the movie. Looking back, I still did not expect to see history accurately portrayed with the history of Hollywood. To me it was a movie about a horse a brave and the love and respect between them. It was also a store of a Native American and a step to become a man in his culture. It was for entertainment. It is a movie I look forward to sharing with my granddaughter when she is 5 or 7 years. I hope and believe it will deliver to her what it did to me. A movie for the young of a horse and one who is blessed by its present in his life. I can not help still seeing some parts in my own child's eyes.