Promotional Information

"I walk hand in hand with knowing the ways of my family and writing them down for those to come”

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Map of Hunting, Fishing, and Food-Gathering Sites
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. The Culture That Made Me Who I Am Now / Inmí Tiinwít Wapíitat
2. My Story / Inmí Ttáwax̠t
3. Life Circles / Wyá’uyt Waḵ’íshwit
4. Experiences and Reflections / Pina’ititámat Waḵ’íshwit
Conclusion / Wánaḵ’it
Appendix: Guidance for Academic Researchers
Ichishkíin–English Glossary
References
Index

About the Author

Virginia Beavert is a member of the Yakama Nation and a native speaker of Sahaptin. She is a recipient of the Washington Governor’s Heritage Award and the Ken Hale Prize of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. She is the coauthor of Ichishkíin Sinwit Yakama / Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary. Janne Underriner is the director of the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon. Virginia and Janne have been working together for the past twenty years.

Reviews

Inspiring and informative. . . . Born in a bear cave in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, raised in a traditional Indian-only speaking household by parents who were shamans, and having served as an Air Force wireless radio operator at a B-29 bomber base during the Second World War, Beavert has spent her adult life tirelessly retrieving, preserving, and sharing Sahaptin knowledge. . . . She began working in her Native language at the age of 12 after meeting linguist Melville Jacobs. Since then she has collaborated with some of the most accomplished linguists and anthropologists. . . . Her passion for and interest in the welfare of her younger readers reverberates throughout every page of The Gift of Knowledge, in which her stated purpose is to record the lifeways taught to her by her family.
*Journal of the West*

A Colombia Plateau ethnographic study like no other, Beavert’s book shows how her own life story is inextricably connected to the plateau culture and language that she presents. . . . An anthropological text rich in personal biographical detail, context, and warm, vivid prose, this is a must-read for those interested in Indigenous Studies, anthropology, history, and the Columbia Plateau. . . . Adds very important contributions to the fields of sociolinguistics, ethnography, Pacific Northwest history, and cultural anthropology. . . . A shining example of intellectual sovereignty.
*Oregon Historical Quarterly*