Drumming circle to honor Superior High School class of 2025
Jun. 3—SUPERIOR — A new song will celebrate the Superior High School class of 2025 during graduation Friday, June 6. A Native American drumming circle, consisting of past and present Superior students, will perform an honor song at the ceremony.
"It's super exciting and a little bit like a relief, just that our students finally get to be honored in their culture at their ceremony," said Rebecca Scherf, the district's Indigenous family engagement coordinator.
On Dec. 9, the Superior School Board
approved adding drumming to the ceremony.
"I'm glad. I'm really excited, happy that all this got approved, and hopefully throughout the years this will continue," said Troy Howes, American Indian Education drum instructor and cultural teacher.
Early Childhood and Family Engagement Coordinator Jennifer Willoughby, the Indian education coordinator for the district, likened it to any other musical send-off.
"At SHS graduation, it's just one of the multiple songs. The choir will perform, the band will perform, the drummers will perform an honor song," Willoughby said.
It's more than just a song for Native American students, who make up 18% of the student body. Drumming is an integral part of that culture, Willoughby said. It's as important, Scherf said, as language.
"Representation is super important," said Scherf, who graduated from Superior High School in 2004. "It's been proven time and again that when youth have access to their culture in school, they just do better in school. And being able to recognize that and honor that through graduation is just the next step in continuing the recognizing of their culture in their spaces."
A focus on drumming and a series of community events have brought more visibility to the district's
American Indian Education program
this year, Willoughby said. In November, Howes started offering drumming practice twice a week at Superior Middle School. A student from Superior High School initiated a drumming club in February, which Howes also leads.
"In the Ojibwe culture, only males drum on the big drums," Willoughby said, but females can use hand drums.
Girls interested in joining the high school club made hand drums out of elk hide, sinew and steam-bent wooden frames.
On May 20, Howes and a trio of students gathered at Superior Middle School to practice. Seventh grader Jeffrey Stratioti and Jack Pierce, a third grader from Cooper Elementary School, kept a steady beat on the large powwow drum with Howes. Behind them, sophomore Abby McKone followed on her hand drum.
"I grew up around the drum," Howes said. "It means a lot to me to be able to teach the young ones and keep that tradition going, culture going, because in my mind I don't want it to be lost, so they don't think that we're not here, so we're not forgotten. I just want to teach them so that this generation can continue the ways, the tradition."
Future plans for the district's American Indian Education program include hosting a powwow, possibly in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The leaders said they're hoping to one day offer Ojibwe language classes.
"We've had more visibility this year, more communication to families to get involved ... we're hoping to keep growing," Willoughby said.
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