Ethnographic research in the Kumaun region of North India highlights different perspectives on this multilingual context and on national-level policies. Language policies that explicitly or implicitly minoritize certain linguistic varieties influence local discourses about language and education but are also interpreted through the lens of local language ideologies. Ecological metaphors and different scalar perspectives illustrate the complex relationship among languages as speakers of an unrecognized language reinterpret policy and express value for linguistic diversity.