MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake High School class of 2022 was the first to gather for a graduation ceremony on Lions Fields since 2019, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted social distancing, lockdowns and drive-by graduation ceremonies.

It was also the last with the district’s current mascot.

“This is the 98th and last class of graduating Chiefs,” said Laurel Knox in a short speech as the Class of 2022’s honor speaker at the commencement ceremony Friday. “We should hold pride in that.”

Knox, along with the other speakers at the two-hour-long ceremony on Friday, said graduates of the class of 2022 are well-versed in perseverance, having managed to make it through the pandemic and all it brought to graduate into a fast-moving world.

“We have been living through one too many historic events for my taste,” Knox said, noting that the class which endured so much had close to what might be termed a normal senior year.

“The courage to continue is what counts,” Knox said. “We pushed ourselves to keep going.”

MLHS Principal Triscia Hochstatter told graduates to make a difference in the world through intentional acts of kindness as the best way to do good and make a change in the world.

“Be kind and receive kindness,” Hochstatter said. “We are proud of you. Congratulations class of 2022!”

A state law enacted in 2020 forbids schools from using Native American mascots without the approval of a local, federally recognized tribal government. Earlier this year, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation said the Moses Lake School District could no longer use the Chiefs mascot and had to rename Chief Moses Middle School. The district’s new mascot is the Mavericks after a school board vote in May that adopted a recommendation from a community committee.

"This graduating class marks the end of an era of being the Chiefs,” Hochstatter said after the ceremony. “They certainly have honored the tradition. In the midst of all challenges brought before them, they pressed on. Next year, as we continue to rise above the challenges of the effects of the pandemic in a visionary and intentional way, our time to shine as the Mavericks will ensue."

Jason MacLean, a social studies teacher at MLHS and this year’s featured staff speaker, said he hopes students will look back with gratitude at all the parents, teachers, coaches and staff who pushed them to be better. He encouraged them to focus on their future efforts as much as they did in high school.

“You put in the time and the effort,” he said. “Put in the time and effort into your new adventures.”

McLean wanted graduates to remember something very important.

“You will always be a Chief,” he said.

While senior class speaker Marshall Tibbs as he advised his fellow graduates to remember all the help they had along the way and to leave everyone they cross paths with a little more joy and a little more hope, he also echoed McLean in his final remark.

“Once a Chief, always a Chief,” Tibbs said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.