This paper explores the complexities of institutional involvement in Native language programming by looking at a program in Kenai, Alaska. The work contrasts learner goals with stated grant goals in order to investigate the tensions between institutional (university, funding agency) and individual learner goals in a language revitalization effort. Analysis of 19 semistructured in-depth interviews with adult Dena'ina learners revealed that goals of attendees clustered into four categories: fluency, literacy, cultural knowledge, and community building. These four stated goals connected to overarching themes of visibility, healing and resistance. The subsequent discussion highlights the importance of examining the challenges and compromises that come with the inclusion of institutional funding structures in Indigenous language movements. To conclude we raise questions around the larger political-economic conditions in which revitalization movements are situated and possible constraints imposed by the dominant discourses that legitimize them.