Valaskakis was born on May 9, 1939 to Miriam Van Buskirk and Benedict Guthrie in Ashland, Wisconsin. She was raised on the Lac du FlambeauFirst Nation, Wisconsin to Chippewa and Dutch-American parents. As a child Gail attended a United States Indian school. She identified as an indigenous person throughout her life. She had two children, her sons Paris and Ion. In 1961 Valaskakis graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in Education, majoring in Speech and Drama with a minor in English. In 1961 she entered Cornell University under the Kappa Kappa Gamma Graduate Counselor Scholarship. She received her Master of Arts Degree in Theater Arts from Cornell University. Later, she completed her PhD dissertation entitled "A communicational analysis of Eskimo-Kabloona interaction patterns: Southern Baffin, Eastern Arctic" at McGill University in 1979. Gail passed away in Ottawa on July 19, 2007.
Career
Gail was one of the founders of Manitou College, the first Indigenous post-secondary institution in eastern Canada. She was also involved in the establishment of the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal and the Waseskun House. Gail worked at Concordia University from 1968 to 1998, primarily in the Department of Communication Studies. During her academic career at Concordia University, Gail held numerous administrative positions including: Department of Communication Studies chair, Faculty of Arts and Science Vice-Dean, and Faculty of Arts and Science Dean. While at Concordia, Gail was also responsible for the establishment of the Native Education Centre on campus and was involved in the establishment of the Inter-University Joint Doctoral Programme in Communications with the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Université de Montréal. She retired from Concordia in 1998. In 2000 Valaskakis was hired as the research director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation; she held this position until her death in 2007. Following her death the Aboriginal Healing Foundation research library was dedicated the "Gail Guthrie Valaskakis Memorial Resource Centre" in her memory, in 2011 the resource centre was donated to the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University.
