About a minute after Mike McGrath was sworn in here this morning as chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, he was put right to work: Swearing in almost everyone else who won statewide offices in November.

McGrath was the first of slate of statewide office holders all but one of them Democrats and, for the first time in Montana history, one, Denise Juneau, was American Indian who was sworn in under the Montana Capitol rotunda about two hours ago.

Officials sworn in today included:

-- Justice Patricia Cotter

-- Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar, R-Billings

-- Public Service Commissioner John Vincent, D-Bozeman

-- Public Service Commissioner Gail Gutsche, D-Missoula

-- Attorney General Steve Bullock

-- State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau

-- State Auditor Monica Linden

-- Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger

-- Gov. Brian Schweitzer

Of those, only Molnar was elected on the Republican ticket.

The hour-long ceremony was held, as these things always are, on the second floor of the Capitol with onlookers piling up the stairs and looking down from balconies one and two floors above.

There ceremony reflected the somber tone under which Montana's newest slate of officials take office: Both the Roman Catholic priest and the Methodist minister who gave invocations asked all state officials to remember the poor.

Father Jerry Lowney, of Carroll College, listed a few more: "the homeless, the jobless, the hungry and those without adequate medical care."

The ceremony also reflected the history made here today: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau was the first American Indian woman to win a statewide office in Montana's history, what Gov. Brian Schweitzer called "400 years" of the state's human history.

Juneau is an enrolled member of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota, where her mother, state Sen. Carol Juneau, D-Browning, is from. Juneau's father is an enrolled tribal member of the Blackfeet Tribe. Juneau, who grew up in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation, could have enrolled in either tribe.

A drumming circle from the Blackfeet Confederacy, a group of four related tribes including the Blackfeet, performed an honor song for Juneau and all the statewide officials after Schweitzer delivered a brief address.

The beat filled the rotunda and their singing ricocheted from the walls.

"Juneau actually my childhood neighbor," said Jay DustyBowl, leader of the group.

Leaders from all eight of Montana's tribal nations attended the swearing in, as well as leaders from a host of countries, including Canada, Mexico, Korea and Japan.

Paul McEvers, a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Council, who came to today's event, said Juneau's swearing-in was "awesome."

Willie Sharp, chairman of the tribe and a retired teacher and principal from Browning, said Juneau's election represents a victory for the notion that voters will vote for the most qualified person, period. He said Juneau will benefit all Montana school children.

"This says a lot about voters and their attitudes," he said.