Indigenous tech group asks Apache Foundation to change its name

A gaggle representing Indigenous individuals in know-how is looking on the Apache Software program Basis to alter its identify, based mostly partially on the inspiration’s code of conduct.

Nonprofit group Natives in Tech writes in a blog post that whereas many organizations have appropriated indigenous tradition, “none of them are as massive, prestigious, or well-known as The Apache Software program Basis is in software program circles.” The group takes subject with Apache co-creator Brian Behlendorf’s explanation for why he suggested the name and its “Spaghetti Western” tropes, in addition to the Basis’s feather brand and its said “reverence and appreciation” for a singular, broadly described “Apache” id.

Within the 2020 self-sponsored documentary “Trillions and Trillions Served,” Behlendorf says he sought a reputation extra evocative than “New HTTPd” or the “Cyber-this or Spider-that” nomenclature that was in style on the time:

I used to be like, possibly one thing a little bit bit extra attention-grabbing, a little bit bit extra romantic, and—to not be a cultural appropriator or something like that—however I would just seen a documentary about Geronimo and form of the final days of the Native American tribe known as the Apaches, proper? Who succumbed to the invasion from the West, from america, and so they had been the final tribe to surrender their territory.

And for me, that just about romantically represented what I felt we had been doing with this net server venture, which was, on the time, Microsoft owned 95 % of the desktops; all they needed to do was give you a browser and a server, and in the event that they owned each hyperlinks, it was form of recreation over.

In a publish authored by Adam Recvlohe, Holly Grimm, and Desiree Kane, Natives in Tech wrote that Behlendorf’s “frankly outdated spaghetti-Western ‘romantic’ presentation of a residing and vibrant neighborhood as useless and gone so as construct a know-how firm ‘for the better good’ is as ignorant as it’s offensive.” The group calls on the Basis to “take the required steps wanted to precise the ally-ship they promote so deeply on their web site” and, in step with the Basis’s code of conduct, “watch out within the phrases [they] select” in any identify change.

The Basis emailed a statement to The Register in response to the nonprofit’s name for renaming. A spokesperson wrote that the Basis has heard the issues and is listening. “As a nonprofit run by volunteers, modifications will want time to be rigorously weighed with members, the board, and our authorized crew. Our members are exploring other ways to handle it, however we do not have something to share at the moment,” the spokesperson wrote.

Varied net sources from the time of the Apache venture’s founding, now discovered largely via the Web Archive (and compiled on Wikipedia), counsel at the very least a concurrent considering for the identify: Its net server began as a collection of patches to the NCSA HTTPd server. In April 2000, Behlendorf told Linux Magazine that others within the group assumed the identify was a pun on “a patchy net server.” However Behlendorf insisted the pun wasn’t his intent. “It simply kind of connoted: ‘Take no prisoners. Be form of aggressive and kick some ass,'” he stated.

The concept of the Apache as a singular, extinct tribe, one which put up a notable struggle within the face of a conquering aggressor, is on the core of Natives in Tech’s grievance. The group notes that there are eight federally acknowledged tribes with “Apache” of their identify, representing “1000’s and 1000’s of residing, respiration individuals.” Notably, a stereotypical “pure, reverent, and easy” depiction (i.e., a “noble savage“) “distances Indigenous individuals from fashionable know-how, the very factor the [Apache] basis represents,” Natives in Tech writes.

Reconsideration of Indigenous-derived names has been underway for a while, with extra momentum lately. Final yr, the Cherokee Nation requested Jeep to change the name of its Cherokee and Grand Cherokee SUVs. Skilled sports activities groups in Cleveland and Washington, DC, have undergone identify and brand modifications lately after a long time of resistance.