Novel reports of the new detection of Hawai’i Sign Language relate the recognition of a novel language close to extinction and the happy ending of language conservation. By applying postcolonial and disability research scholarship to the reporting, marginalized languages are reframed via an alternative logic. Exploring the tales of disappearance, genealogy, and institutionalization underlying both colonial and ableist discourses in the articles, it is asserted that popular ideas of endangered language and language purity conceal how normative values are applied to language communities and institutionalization, frequently at the expense of those communities. KEYWORDS: Sign language, Hawai’i, deaf culture, colonialism, language preservation