Technically, the horse was also imported technology.
Considering that the Apache are a people who are still alive and every bit as modern as the rest of the world, it always amazes me when people expect them to be living time capsules.
It wasn’t an insult. The fact that one person (two if we include you) perceives it as an insult doesn’t make it an insult. Get over yourself.
Anyone who thinks it’s OK for white people to misappropriate the name of a Native can go take a running jump.
John is the ultimate arbiter of everything. Just ask him. He’s always like that.
What should they shout on the way down?
-Joe
Five or six people in this thread alone.
That was kinda the point. 
All US Army helicopters are named after North American indian tribes. (The one important exception was the Cobra of course.)
This. Why the fuck are the Ft Sill Apaches in motherfucking Oklahoma? They sure as fuck didn’t come from there. Give those bastards the Chiricahuas (with the provision that I still get to hike and camp there). And let the fuckers open a casino like every other tribe in the country.
The irony was the traditional Native American posing with traditional dress, but without any traditional weapon of the tribe - rather one invented by the European settlers.
It wasn’t to imply the Apache helicopter was the only helicopter named for Native Americans.
Well, the lever-action rifle eventually became iconic for the Native American tribes even though it they didn’t invent it. This often happens. The British didn’t invent tea. Americans didn’t invent apple pie.
The Apache migrated south from Canada in the 7th century AD, to the southern plains of Texas and Oklahoma. They were forcibly expelled to the less habitable mountains of the desert SW when the Comanche acquired horses.
I don’t perceive it as an insult. I can see where some Native Americans might perceive it as one.
Who are these white people? Are SEALS white? The shooter? The US government?
You are a tall cool glass of strange.
This beatification of Geronimo is as irritating as the former, unrelenting demonization.
At the time, Geronimo was one of the most hated men in America, and for similar reasons. I’m not sure there was an anti-native political message in the apporopriation of “geronimo” as OBL’s code name, but there’s a certain amount of poetic parallelism. Geronimo was also an extremely slippery and elusive Public Enemy #1 with a fanatically devoted following.
He was also a ruthless, brutal bastard. He may not have had the Pecks repeatedly raped and the baby’s brains dashed against the wall, as the lurid old story would have it, but it’s undisputed that he most certainly did have both Mrs. Peck and the baby murdered in cold blood.
And the Little Bird. And the Tarhe, which was named for a chief rather than a whole tribe.
I’m pretty sure drinking hairspray is haraam, so I’m not seeing the connection.
merijeek
In the movie “Hot Shots - Part Deux” a Native American paratrooper (attired as a Chief) shouts out ME !!!
But on a more serious note, do you think if instead of Geronimo, bin Laden’s code name was Abe Lincoln or Ronald Reagan, no pale faces would have been upset? Hey it’s just a code name. Yes, we’d have no problem explaining to the Tea Party folks (and other conservative types) that we meant no disrespect to any former President. Right?
But nobody on this MB cares about the TPers.
Had this been done under Bush, and the code name had been “Gore” or “Clinton”, I’m sure the same folks here saying there’s nothing to this would be completely consistent, and agree that the code name meant nothing. Nothing at all.
Should have used “Belzebub”, or since that may be a tad indicative, “Bubba”.
