Langua Mysteriosa

Saad Fluid like Tó

our langua is mysteriosa

and fluid spit resting on my shiny

lengua

watch out for squish 

switch 

code  

poetic 

shifts so softly you miss it if you don’t know

i switch on and off/off and on my switched

code 

tripped by what surrounds 

my mind 

the time/space of day

minutes switch from one

to another just like my lengua 

with cousins

what we say is hard to nail down

fluid like water on

sitsoo’ 

Other things are fluid, too.  In my conversations and research many Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ say their gender expression is fluid enough to allow for them to span the spectrum of practice and expression of their individual gender knowledge/embodiment.  In a recent interview L Frank Manriquez says their gender pronouns are contextual and can change throughout the day or by need. The language, our language, is the same fluid mechanism for doing life in a way that we made.    

Language and words are fluid changing all the time, becoming stale only to comeback but in their resurrection their meanings and usage change, some troubling terms have experienced revitalization and have been reclaimed with a nuanced definition only discernable by those who it’s meant. 

But the most challenging element of my research into the language of Diné gender is the language.  It would be, or might be easier if I spake my language, but as it is language removal and Christianization have made it so I cannot ask my elders about these words very easily.  Which is fine, all in due time, right? Nooooo, I am very impatient!  

What I have learned about dilbaa and nádleehí people is from records (in English) from anthropological studies on my people.  So i have to take all that with a giant helping of áshįį, you know what i”m saying?  

Anyways, just like my elders waaay back in the 1990s, I want to move toward having meaningful and transformative conversations with other nádleehí ideally in an intergenerational community where we can re-learn the language around Diné gender.  This practice of learning will ripple effects in how we build and re-build our larger communities moving forward.  We can do this by leaning hard into and (re)learning our language, culture, and ceremonies.  For example, imagine a ceremony that is done with representation from all Diné genders…that’s pretty cool.  

We nádleehí are cuties and we just want the feeling of being where we belong, contributing, and being our authentic selves, in context with other Diné, and in our language.

Our story, Diné Bahane’ says nádleehí and dilbaa belong even ceremonially.  To me that’s affirmation of our presence since emergence and via this connection we have inherited the right to fight for liberation alongside all Diné.  And we can fight too, let me tell you!  You want us on your side.  And we know that fighting and dreaming are the same around here and we do slay at both, honey.