Keeper of Yakama language awarded honorary degree (fwd link)

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POSTED ON Monday, September 07, 2009 AT 11:07PM

Keeper of Yakama language awarded honorary degree

BY PHIL FEROLITO
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
USA

When Virginia Beavert was just a teenager, she was appointed by the Yakama
Tribal Council to work with an anthropologist studying the tribe's culture on
the reservation.

Beavert was the only tribal member then who could speak English and several
dialects of the 14 different tribes that make up the Yakama Nation.

"I had to talk to the people in their own dialect," 87-year-old Beavert
recalled.

She had no idea that her translating skills would eventually lead her to helping
the tribe preserve its language.

Now, after playing a key role in developing a 576-page dictionary of her native
language, she has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University
of Washington.

Access full article below:
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/09/07/keeper-of-yakama-language-awarded-honorary-degree