‘And Now . . . They’ve Come for the Very Last of Our Possessions’ Resisting the Commercial Appropriation of Indigenous Nations’ Names by Corporations

Corporations in Western countries name their products using names of Indigenous nations in a variety of industrial fields, see, for instance, Inca Cola and Mohawk Vodka, Māori Clothing and Apache http servers. In the auto industry, well-known examples are Jeep Cherokee, Mazda Navajo, Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen Tuareg. Referring to this practice as the commercial appropriation of Indigenous nations’ names (CAINN), this article examines its wrongful character as a peak of historical structural dispossession: after having had their lands and mineral resources taken, then their knowledges and cultures, now Indigenous nations have even their names appropriated for corporate profit. After presenting and explaining the trademark law’s failure in combatting CAINN, this article explores solutions under the Indigenous Data Sovereignty conceptual framework.