This research explores the development of landmark federal language policy in the United States: the Native American Languages Act of 1990/1992 (NALA). Overturning more than two centuries of United States American Indian policy, NALA established the federal role in preserving and protecting Native American languages. Indigenous languages in the United States are currently experiencing unprecedented language shift and NALA is a primary federal resource for Native American language programs. This research examines the local and national contexts and interests in which NALA developed from a grass-roots Native American language movement in the 1980s. The story of NALA stands as a powerful example of traditionally disenfranchised peoples transforming power relationships and creating language policy to support their language education practices and goals.