The Latest News About AIVMO
See the latest news articles, updates, and interviews with AIVMO about the memorial
An American Indian veterans memorial in central Phoenix will likely break ground in 2025. Thirty years in the making, it was founded by a Kiowa veteran, with designs by a Hopi architect, and implementation by a Navajo designer.
In September 2024, EG Publishing posted the following article about AIVMO on their news website, Phoenix Honors American Indian Veterans from All Tribes and All Wars: American Indian Veteran’s Memorial to Break Ground in Steele Indian School Park in 2025. Read the article for more information about the memorial and how to contribute to this historic effort.
In the early 1990s, Kent Ware, Sr., a highly decorated World War II veteran and respected elder of the Kiowa tribe, had a vision of creating a memorial to honor his fellow American Indian veterans at a location that would become Steele Indian School Park. The park now sits on the land that once was once home to the Phoenix Indian School, a boarding school for American Indians from around the country that operated from around 1891 until the Federal Government closed it in 1990.
In May 2024, the host of Native Talk Arizona, Jennifer Veaco, MD, Family Practice Physician at NATIVE HEALTH, spoke with Kent Ware, II and Max Reed about the American Indian Veteran's Memorial Organization. Listen to the interview on the Native Talk Arizona podcast (starting at 11:10 in the video).