American Indian Culture and Research Journal

This commentary reflects on the articles included in this special issue of American Indian Culture and Research Journal which develop the theme of “American Indian languages in unexpected places” inspired by Indians in Unexpected Places. The articles develop two related concerns: first, American Indian linguistic practices have been consistently imagined by non-Indians in ways that function to the detriment of Indian desires for justice, recognition, and power. And second, American Indian people have lived lives though complex linguistic engagements which stand in contradistinction to those non-Indian imaginings. In conclusion, looking back at the goals of Indians in Unexpected Places, “expectation,” “anomaly,” and “unexpectedness” aimed to create a kind of tool, a working vocabulary that could move research further into the complicated dynamics of culture and power. The papers in this volume accomplish that goal.