Language, Memory, and Resistance: Investigating Indigenous Cultural Heritage and Sovereignty through Language Ideology Theory in Cherie Dimaline’s "The Marrow Thieves"

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Kurdistan

10.22034/lda.2025.143958.1052

Abstract

This study examines how Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves (2017) portrays Indigenous languages as cultural heritage, embodied inheritance, and tools of resistance through Paul V. Kroskrity’s concept of language ideologies. The novel depicts a future where North America’s Indigenous peoples are hunted for their ability to dream; a phenomenon closely linked to cultural memory and ancestral languages. Thus, the main argument focuses on how the novel presents Indigenous languages as both vital repositories of cultural memory and sovereign, embodied practices that oppose assimilation. Using Kroskrity’s framework, complemented by insights from Leanne Hinton, Teresa McCarty, and Indigenous literary theory, this paper conducts close textual analysis of the novel’s portrayals of language in dreams, stories, and everyday survival. The approach combines literary interpretation with linguistic anthropology, demonstrating how language functions not only as a means of communication but also as an ontological force connected to land, lineage, and collective future. The findings suggest that Dimaline views language as non-extractable and regenerative, challenging both historical policies of assimilation and potential biotechnological exploitation. Furthermore, this analysis advances scholarship on Indigenous language revitalization by emphasizing the embodied and ecological aspects of linguistic sovereignty in post-apocalyptic fiction.

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