AIVA Warrriors Fresno California. The American Indian Veteran's Association, had a meeting on 03/30/2018 at McCoy's restaurant in Fresno, CA.
The visitors were Paula Yang, Ying Yang, for City Council District 5 2018. Yvonne-Cher Skye of Indian Voices, Sharon Simpson tribal council member for the Big Sandy Rancheria. AIVA which stands for American Indian Veteran's Association has a website.
http://fourwindslodge.org/aivaveterans.html.
Officers in attendance were President John Navarro, Vice President Andrew Contraras, Secretary Emil Holqin, Sergeant-at-Arms Gregoria Zuniga, Event Coordinator Robert Vasquez, Public Relations Rene Durant.
Members present included Jose Luis Vasquez, David Contraras, and Baldomero Galindo.
Supporters present included Daniel Delgado, Alfredo Mendoza, Susan Valenzuela, Lorevas Ara Mendez, and Mariette Cuzman.
The President opened the meeting with drum and song. With an invitation to everyone to pray in their own way.
Each of the visitors were presented with medicine, which included a beaded necklace with a sacred symbol pendant, tobacco, and sage all within a pouch. Each had the necklace placed upon their necks by an officer and a pray spoken in recognition of the gift.
The guests were invited to speak, Paula Yang spoke of her father and his service in the Hmong secret guerilla units employed by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. She then continued to speak of her political platform for District 5 and her campaign for City Council. The group members informed her that they could not support her as a unit as they are a non-profit. However if individuals wanted to support her, they could do on their own discretion. She spoke specifically about homelessness, businesses, sidelwaks, infrastructure, Veteran’s, Children and Americanization.
Susan Simpson shared about the upcoming Big Sandy Rancheria 17th Annual Powwow and Gathering May 19th to Math 20, 2018. In 37802 Jose Basin Rd. Auberry, CA 93602. She distributed a flyer to anyone who was interested. A side note, this group participates in the color guard ceremonies. They travel to various events throughout California and into Nevada to show honor to the Veteran’s to instill morale and support of their fellow warriors.
Yvonne-Cher Skye then spoke about Indian Voices, and the desire to connect with their organization so that stories could be shared with our readers about the events that they participate in, about the organization itself, and of course recruitment of new members. The group was quite welcoming, they were enthusiastic about meeting Paula Yang, Sharon Simpson and Yvonne-Cher Skye.
