Native Americans are at higher risk of COVID-19. The government isn’t doing much to help.
The Navajo Nation has a higher infection rate than any state in America. The U.S. government promised to help, but aid hasn’t come.
Native communities are disproportionately at risk of contracting infectious diseases. Decades of underfunding in reservations has put Indigenous people in danger of underlying conditions; Native people have the highest rates of diabetes, asthma and C.O.P.D. in America, and are twice as likely to die of pneumonia and the flu. Over 25% of Native people under 65 are uninsured.
The 1918 pandemic ravaged Native communities four times harder than the general populous. Unfortunately, conditions in reservations haven’t changed much since then. Families within protected land often live in close quarters with elders, frequently in poverty with a lack of nutritious food and access to sufficient health care. Approximately half of Indigenous people in America live on reservations, many with limited access to running water.
Over 5,500 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Native communities. Over 3,100 of those have been in the Navajo Nation, surpassing the infection rate of any state in the U.S.: 100 Navajo people have died.
And financially, Indigenous people are strained. Relief cannot come soon enough to casinos and tourism — industries heavily relied upon by tribes and non-Native people across the country, with 640,000 employed in totality by the Tribal Gaming industry, the thirteenth largest employer in the country. The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma closed all 10 of its casinos and hotels, furloughing 4,000 employees and facing a loss of $40 million per month. Over 1,000 casinos have closed nationwide.
Tribes banding together to combat the virus
These sovereign nations can act on their own accord to establish and enforce protective measures. Nevada has begun to allow businesses to open; the Pyramid Lake Paiute and Reno-Sparks Indian Colony communities have decided to heighten restrictions. Chairmen of both communities have voiced concern over how quickly the virus could spread through their respective populations of 1,300 and 1,170.
The Paiute have reported the largest outbreak within the Nevada’s tribes, as they’ve returned 24 positives from 58 tests — more than the Reno-Sparks Colony, which reported 13 cases. The total across Nevada’s tribes was reported to be 42 on May 7, with five additional positives coming from the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. The Paiute and Reno-Sparks Communities have begun to work together to trace the origins of each infection, theorizing contact with one another may have contributed to their outbreaks. The tribes will continue to enforce social distancing, closed borders, roadside screenings and curfew hours.
Tribes in Montana — the Chippewa Cree, Crow and Northern Cheyenne — have enforced similar measures. Maintaining the closed borders comes at a cost to the Paiute as Pyramid Lake is a popular fishing destination, where the tribe earns revenue from fishing licenses.
Federal aid has stalled
The Indian Health Service, operating within the Health and Human Services Department, has reported distributing $1 billion in aid to tribes across the country. The I.H.S. has opened three new facilities on Navajo land to combat the spread within the nation. Still, cases are steadily climbing: The I.H.S. reported more than 100 cases across offices in Albuquerque, Phoenix, Nashville and Portland. Tribes from Wyoming to Oklahoma to North Dakota are now reporting outbreaks as well.
The federal CARES Act allotted $8 billion for tribal governments — the largest distribution to Native communities ever by the federal government. But relief has been delayed.
This is because 200 Native corporations in Alaska stood to inherit capital from the relief package, leading a dozen tribal governments in the lower 48 states to sue the Treasury Department to ensure the stimulus reaches communities, not for-profit corporations. The Trump administration sided with the corporations; a District of Columbia Court Judge Amit Mehta sided with the tribal governments, ruling that corporations don’t meet the criteria of a Native Nation, manifesting in a temporary injunction that prevented funds from reaching the Alaskan businesses. New lawsuits for immediate distribution were promptly filed against the federal government, but the funds remain frozen until an outcome is determined.
Disputes with governors: South Dakota case study
And in South Dakota, a dispute over traffic checkpoints between the governor’s office and the Oglala and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes has pitted the state against the sovereign nations. Both tribes established checkpoints along a local highway to contain the spread of the coronavirus in their communities. Upon receiving their first positive case, the tribes shut their borders.
Both tribes were advised by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs against establishing checkpoints without reaching an agreement with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Noem took issue with the Sioux impinging on state and federal roads and ordered the checkpoints vacated through threat of legal action. The governments of both tribes have refused the office’s orders, citing a lack of grounds to pursue a case.
The Oglala Sioux have 50,000 members. Before the relief bill was passed, they had only 24 test kits, six ventilators and four beds available to them at the Pine Ridge Hospital.
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