American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Jeneen Frei Njootli conceived the project discussed in this creative piece during a fellowship with the 2014 Newberry Consortium for American Indian Studies Summer Institute (NCAIS) at the Darcy McNickle Center and Newberry Library in Chicago. The focus of the summer institute was “Indigenous Speech, Representation and the Politics of Writing.” Dinjii Zhuh: Productive Disruptions engages archival material depicting the artist’s peoples, who make up the Gwich’in Nation. Since time immemorial they have made their home in the arctic, spanning the border. “Dinjii Zhuh” is the Gwich’in word for “people.” Stanley Njootli Sr., Deputy Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin government, has said that this is the most honest name that Gwich’in can call themselves, as it was what Gwich’in called themselves and each other before the words “Indian,” “Aboriginal,” “Native American,” “Indian Act,” or “First Nations” were part of our vocabularies.