Superintendent Micah Hill of Missoula County Public Schools delivered a formal land acknowledgment at the Seeley Swan High School graduation and introduced the MCPS Native American student drum group, which performed an honor song for graduates.

Hill said the ceremony took place on indigenous territory, noting that the Swan, Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys are the original homelands of the Salish, Pend Oreille and Kalispel people and that other tribes historically frequented the area, including the Kootenai, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Crow and Kiowa. He said the district honors “the original stewards of this land and their descendants, many of whom still live, work, teach, and learn in this community.”

The superintendent introduced the student drum group led by Sean Whitegrass and Brittney Hunter. Students were permitted to sit for the honor song, and the drum group performed an honor song for the graduates as part of the ceremony.

The remarks and performance were presented as part of the district’s acknowledgement of the land where the ceremony was held and as a moment to honor Indigenous peoples with music and words of recognition.