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).