Western Native Voice Community Spotlight: Chase Comes At Night

Western Native Voice Community Spotlight visited with Chase Comes At Night, Billings-based youth organizer and leader, to learn more about what inspires his activism and community involvement.

Mr. Chase Comes At Night

“I am a senior at Skyview High School. I plan to attend college after high school to earn my Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science. My college choices are: University of Montana, Whitworth College in Washington, and Notre Dame College in Ohio. After undergraduate studies, I plan on enrolling into Stanford Law School. My hobbies are running, dancing, and traveling with friends on road trips. I am currently a part of the Billings Schools Tribal Council, made up of student representatives from the 3 Billings high schools, and a part of the Skyview High School’s varsity track team.”

What has inspired you to pursue leadership roles?

“What has inspired me to take up a leadership role is the negativity that has been circulating the community, specifically pertaining to the view of Native Americans in Montana. What really got me to realize my potential was the faith Marci McLean, Executive Director of Western Native Voice, and Clint Valandra, home-to-school coordinator at Skyview, placed on me. They both started pushing me to start taking up leadership roles from small to large.”

Photo of Chase Comes At Night — Chase Comes At Night wants to see the younger generation become leaders in the next five years.

Who are your biggest supporters?

“My main supporters in life have been my mother Jodi, grandfather Edward, and my father Michael.”

What kind of change do you want to see in your community 5 years from now?

“In the next five years I want to see the younger generations of every background and ethnicity group taking on leadership roles. The leadership role does not have to be on a political scale but on a scale where the world is made a better place.”

What roles does your culture play in your life?

“My culture is my guiding force and provides stability in my life. My sense of identity is very important to the change I work towards in my community.”

How can people, both neighbors and strangers, help?

“The average Joe or the fellow neighbor can help my efforts by doing a random act of kindness each day. In the world we live in today we have lost the thought caring for one another, have not “loved thy neighbor as thyself” and reverted to every man for himself mentality. I believe we have to make good by each other and allow kindness back into the world instead of getting too caught up in our own world.”