Kolby KickingWoman
ICT
MISSOULA, Montana — Commencement speeches can be approached in different ways, especially this year. This class of graduates endured through the pandemic, and is preparing to enter a world still sore from that global health crisis.
It’s a lot to fit into a short amount of time.
Mandy Smoker Broaddus, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux, said her outline has shifted throughout the week but she knows some of the things she wants to talk about.
“I want to talk about Montana and community,” said Smoker Broaddus, who will be one of the commencement speakers at the University of Montana 2023 graduation. “I want to talk about collaboration and relationships and bring in some of my own personal experience into that. Then also my own family history and heritage as a 50th generation Montanan.”
Smoker Broaddus will also receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the university.
She is one of two commencement speakers, John Shaffner will give the commencement speech for the afternoon ceremony. University of Montana President Seth Bodnar called both extraordinary alumni.
Shaffner is a Hollywood production designer who has worked on a number of television shows.
“Mandy and John are both extraordinary UM alumni whose creative talents have had tremendous impact in the world,” Bodnar said in a press release from the school announcing the speakers. “They are leaders in their respective fields, and it is our great privilege to present them with honorary doctorates.”
Smoker Broaddus was in Alaska when she received the news. After missing a call and listening to a voicemail from Bodnar, she returned the call thinking it had to do with other business.
To her surprise, Bodnar told Smoker Broaddus she had been nominated and selected as one of the commencement speakers.
“I was very, very shocked,” she said. “I think I had to pull over because it was very overwhelming.”
Knowing several Native students in the graduating class, Smoker Broaddus said she is honored and proud to share in this moment of their lives. She noted that this class experienced the pandemic during their college careers and wants to be sensitive to that fact.
Especially recognizing that many Indigenous communities suffered a lot of loss during that time.
“I want to be very respectful and how we celebrate this really important day, knowing that for some of us we have family and friends that won’t be there,” she said.
It’s a bit of a full circle moment for Smoker Broaddus, who graduated from Montana with a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 2002. Before that, she attended Pepperdine University for her undergraduate degree and later earned an additional master’s degrees from UCLA and the University of Colorado.
Born in Wolf Point, Montana, Smoker Broaddus grew up in northeastern Montana before moving to California in elementary school. She would spend her summers back home and wanted to be an educator or a journalist growing up.
She loves reading and writing. Through studying literature, she found a number of Native writers who had an “incredible impact” on her.
“It made me realize that we all have stories that we can tell,” Smoker Broaddus said. “Everyone’s voices can be out in the world, which was something I had never thought of when I was younger.”
James Welch is her favorite Native author, she is fond of his fiction but especially loves his book of poems, “Riding the Earthboy 40.” She also enjoys Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich and Ray Young Bear, among others.
After completing her graduate studies, she moved back to Frazer, Montana, which is located in the Fort Peck Indian Reservation to be the dean of students at Frazer Public Schools. Being a really small town, she joked that she was probably related to half her students.
In 2005, the Montana legislature funded the Indian Education for All Act and she joined the Office of Public Instruction as the first Indian student achievement specialist in the Indian Education Program. She was later promoted to director of Indian Education in 2009.
She said the act is an important bridge builder and works against misunderstandings between different communities and cultures.
“Whenever you teach, Native education, Native history, Native culture, you’re really undoing decades and decades long of education in schools that has been flawed,” Smoker Broaddus said. “That’s really important because students deserve the truth and they deserve all the accurate information.”
During her time at the Office of Public Instruction, Smoker Broaddus worked with Denise Junueau, Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and Blackfeet, who called her a phenomenal role model.
“She is a teacher, mother, advocate and leader who has had significant influence in Montana and the nation,” Juneau wrote of Smoker Broaddus in the UM press release. “She ensures that tribal voices are included at every table she sits at and brings forward a view of building inclusive systems.”
These days, Smoker Broaddus works as a managing consultant for Native and culturally responsive education for Education Northwest a Portland-based organization, continuing her career around education.
While her speech Saturday is addressing students embarking on the next phase of their lives, she also shared advice to Native youth who are taking the next step to pursue higher education. Smoker Broaddus said it won’t always be easy but encourages Native students to find their community.
“Build those relationships, find connections, just build up the support network around you and really lean into that and know that you can trust that space and those people.”
Suffice to say that advice is applicable to UM’s 2023 class as well.
Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute $5 or $10 today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.