This case study examines how three American Indian families' language and literacy practices influence their children's emergent bilingual development in a predominately White, urban community in a Northwestern U.S. city. The study explores the families' life stories and their expressions of Indigenous language use and cultural practices. The findings indicate that bilingualism encompasses the participants' identities by supporting the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of urban American Indian families. Yet, the bilingual practice of American Indian families in the urban setting appears to be a complex, contested, intersecting, and simultaneously conflicting space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]