Debating Dena’ina
This article examines how language, identity and territory are defined and connected in discourses of « language endangerment ». Drawing on fieldwork with learners of Dena’ina Athabascan, an Alaska Native Language, I propose that language, identity and territory are terrains for complex discursive struggles which may reveal how social relations are constructed and contested. I focus on the various actors, past and present, who have defined what counts as Dena’ina, and by extension which linguistic and social practices are deemed « legitimate » Dena’ina. I consider the ways in which the researcher, through their contributing discourses and engagements in the field, are equally implicated in discursive struggles and therefore in the (re)production of ideologies and relations of power.