Virginia Beavert

2008 Distinguished Service Award from the University of Oregon

In the year 2000, Beavert graduated with a masters of education in bilingual and bicultural education from the University of Arizona.

Her parents, Ellen Saluskin, and stepfather Alex Saluskin worked alongside linguist and anthropologist Dr. Bruce Rigsby from the University of Oregon. Their work to develop the Ichishkíin alphabet eventually transformed into the first Ichishkíin dictionary in 1975, which Beavert participated in with her stepfather and Dr. Bruce Rigsby.

When her stepfather Alexander Saluskin (also known as Chief Wi-ya-wikt) became ill in the 1970s, she set out to get a college education in anthropology and language studies. Her stepfather motivated and encouraged her to pursue her education and teach Ichishkíin, to anyone interested in learning.

As early as the age of 12, Beavert began working with Melville Jacobs and other linguists and anthropologists as a liaison and interpreter. In the 1940s, Beavert served in the Women’s Army Corps in New Mexico during World War II for three years. As a result of her distance from Native speakers of Ichishkíin, she discovered it was a struggle to communicate as fluently during a phone call to her mother.

Virginia Beavert (born November 30, 1921) is a Native American linguist.

Beavert was born in a cave of the Blue Mountains during a blizzard, on November 30, 1921. Beavert completed a bachelor's degree in anthropology at Central Washington University in 1986. After teaching at Heritage College on the Yakima Reservation, Beavert decided to return to school to fine tune her methods for teaching language.