Alana Bitsuie

"Linguistic Innovations in Indigenous Governance: A Comparative Study of How Cree and Diné Language Traditions Shape Food Sovereignty and Land Governance Across the US-Canada Border"

Advisor: Dr. Aresta Tsosie-Paddock

Indigenous governance systems encode decision-making logic within language itself — concepts of reciprocity, kinship obligation, and land relationship that resist direct translation into Western policy frameworks. This research conducts a comparative analysis of how Cree language traditions in Canada and Diné and other southwestern US Indigenous language traditions generate distinct yet structurally parallel innovations in food sovereignty and land governance.

Using quantum relational theory as a conceptual framework to express the entangled, non-linear patterns embedded in Indigenous governance, this study asks: how does linguistic structure shape governance differently across Indigenous nations, and what decision-making patterns emerge from Indigeneity itself rather than colonial administrative frameworks? This research extends an active binational partnership with Red Earth Cree Nation and the University of Alberta supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Haury funds will support interviews with Navajo Nation and other US tribal governance leaders, generating comparative data that advances Indigenous food sovereignty and land governance across the US-Canada border.