Yakama Nation dedicates new center to help veterans with services

Tuesday, May 22, 2018  

The Yakama Nation hosted a grand opening on Monday for the new Yakama Warriors Association Veterans Center on its reservation in Washington.

The center will help tribal veterans find the services they need. It will also house the Yakama Warriors Association, whose members worked on the project for more than a decade.

“The Vietnam veterans are the ones that started all this because they did not want our young veterans coming home and facing what we faced when we came home,” head warrior Victor Wood told KIMA.

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) helped dedicate the center. He said Washington is home to nearly 12,000 Native veterans.

"It is fitting and proper that we take this measure now to stand up for our veterans when they come home," Inslee said at the ceremony, NBC Right Now reported . "They have protected our home and now we are going to make a home for them right here in the Yakama Nation."

The facility is located in Toppenish, across from the Yakama Nation Legends Casino.

Read More on the Story:
VA Center to assist tribal veterans opens in Toppenish (KIMA May 21, 2018)
New veterans center for Yakama Nation tribal veterans opens in Toppenish (NBC Right Now May 21, 2018)
Yakamas dedicate Veterans Affairs building (The Sunnyside Daily Sun News May 22, 2018)
Photos: Yakama Warriors Association Veterans Center opens in Toppenish (The Yakima Herald-Republic May 21, 2018)