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Committee reviews bill to protect Native drum honoring songs at graduations after Hinkley controversy
Summary
Senate File 1405 would prohibit school boards from banning an honoring/traveling drum song at graduation ceremonies. Testimony featured Mille Lacs Band leaders and a student who led protests after the Hinkley-Finlayson school board blocked a drum performance; the committee laid the bill over for possible omnibus inclusion.
The Minnesota Senate Education Policy Committee heard testimony on Senate File 1405 on March 3, a bill intended to protect the right of students to include an honoring or traveling drum song at high school graduation ceremonies.
Senator Kunish, sponsor of the bill, told the committee the measure responds to an incident in which the Hinckley-Finlayson School Board prohibited a drum honoring song at the district’s high school graduation. Kunish said the board’s decision “had negative reverberations through the local community” and described the bill’s intent to ensure cultural expressions tied to Native students’ identity can be included in graduation ceremonies.
Virgil Wind, identified to the committee as chief executive of the…
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