Outrage Spreads Over Czech Company’s Use of Native-American Images

A Czech bike manufacturer has come under fire for using Native-American iconography in its branding and promotional campaign, outraging a number of social media users in recent weeks.

The outcry started when the brand, Apache Bicycles, appeared at the Eurobike show in Germany last month. The company was particularly criticized by Native artist Gregg Deal who took to Facebook to lash out at Apache’s misappropriation of indigenous imagery, writing:

“To be honest, I did not expect such negative feedback because of using Apache name as a brand and Native Americans topic for our marketing. We are almost 20 years in the market, we have thousands of customers, business partners and fans here in Europe and we never heard anything bad about our brand. It means that it’s nothing bad here in Europe,” he said.

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According to the site, the company plans to eliminate some model names, including the aforementioned Scalp e-bike model, and remove historic photos of Native American leaders from its marketing.  It will no longer dress hostesses in costumes and war paint at trade shows.

Bárta went on to cite the Czech love of films based on the Karel May character Winnetou, saying that “Indians are our heroes, many people live like them here in Europe. We celebrate them. It never occurred to us that it would hurt anyone.”