By Stephanie Bunker
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Band of Paiutes Social Services Department hosted the 5th annual Child Abuse & Neglect (CAN) Parade and Health Fair for the surrounding communities on Friday, March 29. Friends gathered in the tribal village area to celebrate and learn with each other.
At 10:00 am the parade began with the Moapa Tribal Police cars and sirens. This lead up to the presenting of the American flag held by Native American Elders. The Moapa Band Of Paiutes (MBOP) Social Services included lots of people in their floats, fighting against child abuse and neglect.
The MBOP Senior Center made an appearance with the phrase written in the Paiute language, “Here is the people of old.”
The Native Basketball club walked along in the parade with a banner and a small basketball hoop with a toddler dunking the basketball. The Intertribal Council of Nevada was promoting the child care development fund.
A fun float was the plant trailer, where various plants and flowers were on display.
Kids who were members of the 419 Club got to ride on the Fire truck down the street. A few environmental groups supporting clean air participated in the parade as well as the Moapa Indian Housing Authority. Everyone put effort into making the floats look fun and interesting for the grand parade.
At the Health Fair, which went on throughout the day, groups sent up booths to teach people about their cause.
“Communities can become segregated and unaware of each other so we try to bring the various groups together and learn from one another,” said Dawn Bruce, the MBOP Social Services Director.
Bruce has put this Health Fair and Parade together for the past five years. She said that it has grown bigger each year.
The MBOP Social Services had been doing activities with the kids in the community all throughout the week. Monday they held an Easter Egg Hunt, and played X-Box games. Tuesday, the Tribal Police put on a bike rodeo and a movie night. The Tribe’s Air Quality division sponsored a nature walk, had a demonstration on cultural activities, and worked on parade floats on Wednesday. Thursday was an Earth Day Community Event where residents cleaned up 609 pounds of trash, recycled rugs with t-shirts from areas surrounding the community. They also had a watermelon eating contest.
Bruce expressed the importance of involving the elders with the younger generation.
“The elders get to a point where they feel useless and the young are restless,” she said. “So we bring them together to learn from one another.”
Swinerton Inc. also sponsored a booth at the Health Fair on Friday. The renewable energy company is building the largest industrial solar system in Indian country on the Moapa Reservation. It will produce 250 mega watts of power with a capacity of 350 mega watts.
According to Moapa Band Chairman, William Anderson, the solar plant will be opening up 600 construction jobs beginning as early as this summer.
Anderson said that these jobs aren’t just for those living on the reservation. It will affect and help members in the surrounding communities, he said.
“We have a little of everything,” Anderson said. “We want to get people more active on the reservation. Not just for the natives on the reservation, but to be apart of the community and surrounding areas.”
