By Joseph Martin, Muckleshoot Tribal Education Officer

MUCKLESHOOT — The June 2025 Muckleshoot Graduation Season represents the 24th year that I have been blessed with participating in our annual graduation season for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. I want all of you to know how honored and blessed that I feel to be a part of such a beautiful community here at Muckleshoot! Thank you very much to everyone in our beautiful community for all of your dedication, hard work, support and commitment to achieving excellence in our Muckleshoot Department of Education Programs!

I want to begin by stating that we are extremely thankful to our Muckleshoot Tribal Council, Muckleshoot Executive Committee for Education, the Muckleshoot Higher Education Committee, the Muckleshoot Tribal School Commission, and the Muckleshoot Head Start Parent Policy Council for supporting and sponsoring all of our 2025 Muckleshoot graduation ceremonies.

On Friday, June 13, 2025, we had 925 people gather in the beautiful Muckleshoot Casino Events Center to celebrate our incredible 36 Class of 2025 high school seniors from our Muckleshoot Tribal School. We were joined by Abraham Lucas, Seattle Seahawks Offensive Tackle, who provided our Muckleshoot Tribal School Class of 2025 an extremely inspiring and motivational keynote speech during this special evening.

In the history of our Muckleshoot Tribal School starting with our first high school graduates from MTS in 2001, we have now reached the amazing milestone of having 456 total high school graduates from our Muckleshoot Tribal School!

To put this in perspective, in the nine-year period from 2001-2009, a total of 32 students graduated at the original Muckleshoot Tribal School campus in the old Muckleshoot Community Center.

This means that the old Tribal school averaged 3.5 high school graduates each year for the nine years (2001-2009) before our Muckleshoot Tribal School moved to its new campus in September 2009. Since moving to our beautiful, new campus in September of 2009, for the past sixteen years (June 2010 through June 2025) MTS is averaging 26.5 high school graduates per year.

This was an amazing year for our Muckleshoot Tribal School Class of 2025 and we are all extremely proud of their incredible accomplishments.

I want to recognize our Class of 2025 from Muckleshoot Tribal School and highlight some of their future plans:

Muckleshoot Tribal School Graduates & Future Plans

Benjamin Anderson, Muckleshoot – Washington State University

Austin Baker, Muckleshoot – Green River College

Nekole Bargala, Muckleshoot – Travel & Workforce

Quincy Black, Quileute – Renton Technical College

Luciano Cabanas, Muckleshoot – Transition Program to prepare for work with family landscaping business

Lucio Cabanas Jr., Muckleshoot – Transition Program to prepare for work with family landscaping business

Makayla Courville, Muckleshoot – University of Hawai'i Manoa

Brisela Cruz, Muckleshoot – University of Hawai'i Manoa

Nicole Daniels, Muckleshoot – Renton Technical College

James Fryberg Jr., Puyallup & Muckleshoot – Technical College

Noah Givens, Navajo & Muscogee Creek – Technical College

Tristan James, Muckleshoot – Travel & College

Isabelle James Clark, Muckleshoot – Green River College

Michael John Jr., Muckleshoot – University of Hawai'i Manoa

Jeffery Johnson Coleman Jr., Muckleshoot – Travel & Art College

Sajali Keeline, Muckleshoot, Tulalip & Northern Cheyenne – Travel & Connect with other Native communities & Pursue modeling

Cedar Korndorfer, Muckleshoot & Skokomish – University of Oregon

Jaiden Leonard, Muckleshoot & Cowichan – Travel & Technical College

Lamikah Lozier, Muckleshoot – Travel & Workforce

Larissa Mathias, Muckleshoot, Upper Skagit & Kootenai – University of Montana

Jordan McDaniel, Muckleshoot – Workforce

Marshall Miller, Muckleshoot – Green River College

Leah Moses, Muckleshoot & Yakima – Central Washington University

Kamiakin Offord, Colville – Louisiana State University

Sy Coo Moo Pacheco, Muckleshoot – Travel & Workforce

Athena Phommavong, Yaqui – Workforce

Angelica Rosas, Muckleshoot – Hawai'i Pacific University

Nevaeh Ross, Muckleshoot – Workforce & College

Lydia Sagatu, Muckleshoot – Green River College

Westin Sam, Muckleshoot & Upper Skagit – Skagit Valley College

Silas Simmons, Muckleshoot, Nooksack, Grande Ronde, Siletz, Blackfeet & Chippewa Cree – Technical College

I'Monie Sykes, Muckleshoot, Yakima & Squamish Nation – University of Washington

Annalisa Ulima, Muckleshoot – Moving to Hawaii & College

Mia Vigil, Chehalis – Green River College

Ryder Vigil, Chehalis – Travel & Technical College

Wyndin Weeks, Muckleshoot, Modoc & Warm Springs – Travel & Workforce

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On June 17, 2025, we celebrated an all-time record number of college, technical education and vocational certificate graduates at our MIT Adult and Higher Education graduation celebration at the MIT Casino Events Center. We had 42 Muckleshoot Tribal Members graduate with college degrees in our Class of 2025. This number represents an all-time record number of Muckleshoot Tribal Members graduating with college degrees. We also celebrated an all-time record number of 134 Muckleshoot Tribal Members who earned their technical education and vocational certificates. We want to congratulate all of our Muckleshoot Scholars who tackled this huge milestone of achieving their degrees and certificates in 2025.

Class of 2025 Muckleshoot Tribal Member College Degrees

John Byars – Master of Science in Management and Leadership – Western Governor’s University

Benjamin Calvert – Master of Business Administration – Pacific Lutheran University

Amy Castaneda – Master of Science in Management and Leadership – Western Governor’s University

Caroline Hennes – Master of Science of Public Health – McGill University

Dorothy Laird – Master of Arts in History – Eastern Washington University

Fabian Mendoza – Master of Science in American Indian Studies – Arizona State University

Freedom Bill – Bachelor of Science Forestry Management – Oregon State University

Nicholas Brassard – Bachelor of Arts in Economics; Real Estate Development Minor – University of Southern California

Stephanie Butler – Bachelor of Arts in Community Advocates and Responsive Education in Human Services – Northwest Indian College

Courtney Enfield – Bachelor of Arts in Tribal Governance and Business Management – Northwest Indian College

Patricia Hernandez – Bachelor of Arts in Native Studies Leadership – Northwest Indian College

Janet LaClair – Bachelor of Arts in Tribal Governance and Business Management– Northwest Indian College

Joshua Leifson – Bachelor of Arts in Psychology – University of Washington Tacoma

Warren Oliver – Bachelor of Science Business Administration, Management – Western Governor’s University

Jacob Taylor – Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration Management – Washington State University

Eugene West – Bachelor of Arts and Science in IT Cybersecurity and Networking– Green River College

Alexandria Youngman – Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Production and Design – Seattle Pacific University

Tammie Anderson – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Elma Charles – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Erin Dais – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Tiffany Escalon – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Macy Eyle – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Tamara Huberty – Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences – Century College

Laura John – Associate of Arts and Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship – Northwest Indian College

Trey Lockwood – Associate in Science – Utah Valley University

Darion Lozier – Associate of Science in Mathematics – Riverside City College

Leesa Lozier – Associate of Arts in Public and Tribal Administration – Northwest Indian College

Joseph Marchant – Associate of Applied Science Business Administration – Ivy Tech Community College

Stephen Mendoza – Associate of Science Pre-Allied Health – Los Angeles City College

Carla Milne – Associate in Pre-Nursing DTA – Highline College

Samantha Milne – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Marcellina Morrison – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Anna Moses – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Ezrayah Nelson – Associate of Arts in Communication Studies – Haskell Indian Nations University

Frances Price – Associate of Technical Arts, Chemical Dependency Studies – Northwest Indian College

Angeleka Rodarte – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Jacob Rodrigues – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Juanita Sam – Associate in Applied Science—Carpentry Technology Residential and Light Commercial – Green River College

Sealth Thomas – Associate of Arts and Sciences – General Direct Transfer – Northwest Indian College

Megan Udelhoven – Associate of Applied Science—Nursing – University of Alaska—Anchorage

Hunter Vaiese – Associate of Arts—DTA – Green River College

Natasha Vaiese – Associate in Applied Science—Early Childhood Education and Diversity Studies – Green River College

Our Muckleshoot Tribal Members continue to achieve great success by earning degrees and certificates in higher education through the support of our Muckleshoot Scholarship Program. We all want to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of our Muckleshoot Tribal Members who are achieving college degrees from numerous high level programs across the country.

We also achieved another excellent number of graduates from our Muckleshoot Department of Education programs. If you combine the total number of graduates from Head Start through higher education, it would look like this: Muckleshoot Early Learning Academy (Head Start) – 52; Muckleshoot Tribal School Kindergarten – 19; MTS 5th grade – 32; MTS 8th grade – 33; MTS High School – 33; Muckleshoot students graduating from other high schools – 20; Muckleshoot Adult and Higher Education Division: college degrees – 42; post-secondary certificates – 134; and High School 21 Plus Diplomas – 16; GED Diploma – 1. Our 2025 Muckleshoot Tribal Graduation Season resulted in another excellent number of graduates with a total number of 382.

I want to take this opportunity to salute all of our proud 2025 Muckleshoot graduates and all of our families. I am extremely proud of all the dedication and hard work that our students, families and staff members contributed to making the educational experiences of our students so successful. We are looking forward to every one of our Muckleshoot graduates taking advantage of our Muckleshoot Scholarship Program, achieving their college degree or higher education certificates, and being hired for positions of leadership here at the Muckleshoot Tribe, or in our greater community.

I want to thank each and every person who contributed their time and hard work to make this 2024-2025 academic year and graduation season so successful. We all have witnessed and participated in another historic graduation season for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. Let us also give thanks to our many Tribal Elders and Tribal Leaders whose dreams and hard work have made the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s vision of “education as a lifelong journey” possible.

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Read the July 2025 Edition Section II: Honoring Our Graduates of 2025

Find graduate names and photos for HeadStart, Kindergarten, 5th Grade, 8th Grade, 12th Grade, and Adult & Higher Education Graduations; along with messages to graduates from friends and family.