ABSTRACT

Engaging Native American Publics considers the increasing influence of Indigenous groups as key audiences, collaborators, and authors with regards to their own linguistic documentation and representation. The chapters critically examine a variety of North American case studies to reflect on the forms and effects of new collaborations between language researchers and Indigenous communities, as well as the types and uses of products that emerge with notions of cultural maintenance and linguistic revitalization in mind. In assessing the nature and degree of change from an early period of "salvage" research to a period of greater Indigenous "self-determination," the volume addresses whether increased empowerment and accountability has truly transformed the terms of engagement and what the implications for the future might be.

part |24 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|22 pages

Native American languages and linguistic anthropology

From the legacy of salvage anthropology to the promise of linguistic self-determination

part I|79 pages

Collaboration

chapter 2|14 pages

There’s no easy way to talk about language change or language loss

The difficulties and rewards of linguistic collaboration

chapter 4|21 pages

“You shall not become this kind of people”

Indigenous political argument in Maidu linguistic text collections

chapter 5|22 pages

To “we” (+inclusive) or not to “we” (−inclusive)

The CD-ROM Taitaduhaan (our language) and Western Mono future publics

part II|41 pages

Circulation

chapter 6|23 pages

Future imperfect

Advocacy, rhetoric, and public anxiety over Maliseet language life and death

chapter 7|16 pages

Perfecting publics

Future audiences and the aesthetics of refinement

part |58 pages

Scaling publics

chapter 8|20 pages

“I don’t write Navajo poetry, I just speak the poetry in Navajo”

Ethical listeners, poetic communion, and the imagined future publics of Navajo poetry

chapter 10|21 pages

Labeling knowledge

The semiotics of immaterial cultural property and the production of new Indigenous publics