Native American 'Warriors' an excerpt:
Lt. Ayon, you come from a military family yourself. How did you become interested in military service?
In my cultural background, my upbringing, raised in my home, we were raised to appreciate and respect veterans through cultural events and I wanted to emulate these individuals that I was around growing up, and all the stories that they told and all the things that they have done. Mr. Clevenger is exactly right, I saw from a young boy that the leaders in our world, the majority of them, were veterans. And I wanted to walk down that road as I got older, as well, so I followed in the footsteps of my father and uncles and I joined the service.
Steven Clevenger, you asked every person in your book if they had any reservations about protecting and defending a country that had not always done right by them. What did they say?
I think that�s a natural question. Anybody who is the least bit familiar with taming of America or the west. These people, they�ve been brutalized, they�ve suffered through genocide, forced onto reservations. � So I would ask them, why would you want to risk your life for a country that has done all these awful things to you and your people. � They didn�t consider themselves fighting for the government, they were fighting for their nation, for their people, to protect them.
