KCA Veterans Receive Living Legacy Award
On Thursday, July 31, Kiowa Comanche Apache Veterans received a Living Legacy Award from the City of Lawton for their contributions to the community. The mayor nominates recipients.
The award ceremony took place at Lawton City Hall.
KCA Veterans Commander Kristopher Killsfirst said the award is rare to receive.
“It's only the third time that this award has been given,” he said. “So, the first ones were two Fort Seal units, and now it is to the KCA veterans for our contributions throughout southwest Oklahoma and currently throughout the United States.”
Killsfirst said they’ve been advocates and educators, especially for non-natives who want to know who they are and their history.
“We were created in 2019 with the necessity for the Smithsonian as we went for the National Native American Veterans Memorial up there, and we carried on there as the three groups, the Kiowa Black Leggings, the CIVA and the Apache Native War Society,” Killsfirst said. “We came together specifically for that one time. We'd only supposed to have been together for one year. Here we are, six, seven years later, and we're still going strong, even with more vision of bringing our native warriors.”
He said that two years ago, they traveled to Washington, D.C., to help facilitate the signing of the Native American Veterans’ Charter. He said it was the first time Native American Veterans had a voice before Congress.
“Tonight is just putting the icing on the cake because what we do as individuals is for our veterans and their families,” Killsfirst said. “The recognition that we get is saying that it solidifies that we're doing a job that we're filling a void because that's all we ever wanted. We don't do this for recognition. We do this many times as unsung heroes. Our members in our auxiliary are the backbone of this organization, and I couldn't be more happy as the commander to sit there and accept this award with them tonight because there's so many more veterans and families that we haven't reached. But we're getting to them one at a time.”
KCA Veterans meet every month.
“We do more than just color guarding. We do more than just the ceremonies, that the parades and so forth,” he said. “Those are great, and we love them, but we do so many other things. We do headstones. We do advocacy. There's so much more to this organization, and it happens all 12 months out of the year, and so for them to call upon us and say, ‘Listen, we see what you're doing in the community, and we want to recognize you.’ It's just there's no words for that because it's not me. It's all of our members. They've done this. I just helped head it up.”
The Lord’s Prayer was performed by Isabela Ramirez and Clara Yazzie.
Travis Komahcheet, Ramirez and Yazzie would also perform the National Anthem.
KCA Veterans Princess Mercedez Banderas was in attendance.
The event was part of Lawton’s 124th birthday celebration, which focused on the city’s history.
