Speaking place, saving place: Western Apache cultural diversity and public discourse

Public discourse conveys and constructs sophisticated, nuanced and often conflicting notions of place, identity, culture, and religion. Comprehending the significance of place-based discourse is essential to understanding many of the contemporary difficulties facing Native American peoples. This is particularly true of the Western Apache people who constitute their places via discursive engagement. This project examines the Western Apache in their fight to save Dzil nchaa si an (Mount Graham) from a multi-telescope observatory upon its summit. Using discourse and text analysis to examine the public rhetoric, I suggest that the Western Apache understand the mountain as a participatory partner in community viability and Apache identity. I also suggest that the discourse surrounding the Mt. Graham controversy provides a mechanism to understand how Apache discourse links past and present practices and identity as seen through four emerging thematic elements: ethics, relatedness, knowledge, and religious verbiage. Understanding how discourse reveals cultural norms and practices and sustains cultural integrity is important as communicative disjunctures impact the effective responses of Native American and other diverse groups. These issues are framed within the national debate regarding cultural significance and bear directly upon the success of other preservation efforts.