Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
August 28, 2019
Page 5
Museum honors Native langugae revivalist
Y akama linguist Virginia
Beavert has devoted much of her
professional life to revitalizing the
Indigenous languages of the Co-
lumbia River tribes, especially
Ichishkeen, or Sahaptin.
“Why not speak your own lan-
guage?” Ms. Beavert says.
“The Chinese speak their own
language. The Japanese speak their
own language. The Hindus. But it
seems like English is just so over-
whelming this place around the res-
ervation.”
This month the Museum at
Warm Springs hosted the Huck-
leberry Harvest, where the mu-
seum presented the Lifetime
Achievement Award.
The honor this year goes to Dr.
Beavert for her lifetime of work
to preserve and breathe new life
into the Native languages of the
Northwest.
The museum presented the
award at the Harvest, held at the
High Desert Museum in Bend.
Also honored with the Twanat
Award was Howard Arnett for his
legal representation of the Con-
federated Tribes of Warm Springs
on matters involving treaty rights,
tribal sovereignty, tribal law devel-
opment, government-to-govern-
ment relations, and gaming. Howie
has additional expertise in civil liti-
gation and appellate practice.
Lifetime Achievement
Ms. Beavert has been the Wash-
ington State Indian Educator of
the Year, and in 2004 was hon-
ored by the Indigenous Language
Virginia is the co- author of the
Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary with
Dr. Sharon Hargus of the Uni-
versity of Washington, and a
grammar of Sahaptin with Joana
Jansen of the University of Or-
egon.
She is a 2007 recipient of the
Ken Hale Prize, awarded by the
Society for the Study of the In-
digenous Languages of the Ameri-
cas. And in 2008 she was received
the Distinguished Service Award
from the University of Oregon for
her significant contribution to the
cultural development of Oregon
and society as a whole.
Virginia was awarded the Uni-
versity of Oregon Doctoral Re-
search Fellowship, the highest
honor for graduate study at UO.
She earned her Ph.D. in Lin-
guistics in 2012. Her most recent
book is The Gift of Knowledge /
Ttnúwit Átawish Nch’inch’imamí: Re-
flections on Sahaptin Ways.
Institute for her lifetime of work
on language revitalization.
She was a key planner of the
Yakama exhibit at the Smithsonian
Institution’s National Museum of
the American Indian, and has
served on numerous committees
and planning councils related to
the documentation and preserva-
tion of Native languages.
In 2004, Virginia was the re-
cipient of an NEH Faculty Re-
search Award for work on a
Yakima Sahaptin Lexicography.
She has received numerous fellow-
ships, including awards from the
Smithsonian Institute, Dartmouth
College, and the Washington State
Arts Commission.
She has written and published
several articles about Yakima lan-
guage and culture.
The Confluence project
partnered with the Museum at
Warm Springs to present a new
video interview with Virginia and
Phillip Cash Cash (Cayuse) of the
University of Arizona, a portion
of which she spoke in Ichishkiin.
Thank you to museum executive
director, and Confluence project
board member Elizabeth Woody.
Virginia Beavert (top); and cover
of a book (left) by Virginia,
Legends of the Ichiskeen
Speaking People, vol. 2.
Harvest raises $105,000 for museum
More than 200 guests attended
the Museum At Warm Springs
Huckleberry Harvest Celebration
and Honor Dinner.
The event this year raised
$105,000 for the Museum at Warm
Springs. The funding came from
dinner ticket sales, sponsorships,
additional grants and gifts, and a
silent auction.
“The proceeds make it possible
for the museum to continue to
share the Confederated Tribes’
culture, history and art,” said mu:
eum executive director Elizabeth
Woody.
The Huckleberry Harvest and
Honor Dinner give the guests the
opportunity to be immersed in the
beauty and culture of our tribes,
Ms. Woody said.
“We share traditional foods, mu-
sic and art, making this a unique
event,” she said, “one that we look
forward to celebrating year after
year.”
This year’s guest speaker was
Dr. Phillip Cash Cash, of the Nez
Perce and Cayuse tribes.
A renowned linguist and scholar,
Cash Cash spoke to the importance
of indigenous language preserva-
tion in a presentation titled, The
Radical New Plateau Speaker.
This year’s event included two
honorees. Howard Arnett, tribal
attorney, was honored with the
museum’s prestigious Twanat
Award.
Mr. Arnett has served the tribes
for nearly four decades. His areas
of representation include treaty
rights, tribal sovereignty, Indian law
development, government-to-gov-
ernment relations and gaming.
Mr. Arnett is also a longtime sup-
porter of the Museum At Warm
Springs.
Dr. Virginia Beavert of the
Yakama Nation was honored with
the Museum’s Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award.
Ms. Beavert is a linguist and
scholar, and professor at the Uni-
versity of Oregon.
She is a highly respected teacher
and fluent speaker of her language,
Yakama Sahaptin. Beavert has
worked throughout her life to teach
and preserve her Native language.
In August at the High Desert
Museum, the Museum at Warm
Springs and the Confluence Project
recorded Mr. Cash Cash and Ms.
Beavert in conversation in Ichiskin
and English.
Native filmmakers Woody Hunt
(Modoc and Cherokee) and
LaRonn Katchia of Warm Springs
taped the three-hour storytelling
and cultural presentation.
Thank you to the event’s major
sponsors:
The Confederated Tribes of
War m Springs, Ken Smith,
Karnopp Petersen attorneys, the
University of Oregon, the Confed-
erated Tribes of Siletz, Central Or-
egon Landwatch, Brooks Re-
sources, Empire Construction, ASI
Wealth Management, Oxford
Suites and Inns, Pahlisch Homes,
Portland General Electric and
Warm Springs Power and Water
Enterprise, the Gordon Family,
Sunriver Resort, the City of Bend,
Miller Lumber, and Orrick
Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
War m Springs Chief Delvis
Heath, Warm Springs Tribal Coun-
cil Chairman Raymond Tsumpti,
the Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Tribal Council Chairman Delores
Pigsley and other Siletz Tribal
Council members were among the
dignitaries who attended this year’s
Harvest and Honor Dinner.
Citizens of the Coquille Indian
Tribe, Confederated Tribes of
Siletz Indians, Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Modoc, Nez Perce Tribe, Tohono
O’odham Nation and Yakama Na-
tion also joined the evening’s cel-
ebration.