"Mapuwho?"

That's probably what Bill Gates thought last year when he received a letter from the Mapuche, a South American tribe whose territory covers parts of southern Chile and Argentina.

The tribe only boasts 600,000 members, but this small band of indigenous South Americans plans to take on software giant Microsoft. The elders of the Mapuche tribe are suing Microsoft over what they say is an unauthorized translation of the Windows operating system into their native language, Mapudungn.

Last year, in a letter to Gates, the leaders of the Mapuche tribe outlined the reasons for the lawsuit: "Mapudung�n is a fundamental part of our culture and it is our right as an indigenous nation to preserve and develop our cultural heritage. ... Your decision to implement Windows in Mapudung�n may be a good contribution to its technical-linguistic development, but the way it has been done has shown a total disrespect and lack of consultation with the Mapuche Nation."

In the coming weeks, the question of whether or not the Mapuche can, in a sense, own their language will be answered, as the lawsuit goes to court in Santiago, Chile. To understand who is right, we need to understand why the Mapuche are upset.

Historically Mapudung�n has been an oral language. As a part of the translation process, Microsoft worked with the Chilean government to develop a written script for this language. The Mapuche are upset that the Chilean government represented them, because the Mapuche are in an ongoing battle with the Chilean government to get official recognition as a distinct tribal group.

The tribe views the translation as a slight, similar to if Microsoft had asked the U.S. government to assist in the creation a Sioux version of Windows. As Aucan Huilcaman, one of the Mapuche leaders behind the legal action, said, "We feel like Microsoft and the Chilean Education Ministry have overlooked us by deciding to set up a committee without our consent, our participation and without the slightest consultation.""

Get the Story:
Andrew Swerlick: Lost in Translation (The Emory Wheel 12/8)

Relevant Links:
Microsoft Chile - http://www.microsoft.com/chile/mapuzugun

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