Native American journalists give voice to the First People during COVID-19
Native American media has taken on the challenge of accurately collecting COVID-19 data for tribes across America in order to advocate for their communities.
By Odette Alcazaren-Keeley
In early April, close to 300 million Americans in almost 40 states were under week three of shelter-in-place orders to battle the coronavirus pandemic. As the daily ticker tape showed national and global statistics of infections and deaths, headlines were dominated by initial data trends pointing to the disproportionate health impacts caused by COVID-19 among communities of color.
For ethnic media journalists, this is not news — deep disparities in health, healthcare and insurance access, nutrition, housing, jobs, wages, and education, are lived experiences amongst their diverse audiences.
Many believe these systemic inequities have made communities of color particularly vulnerable to COVID-19’s devastation. It’s all too familiar — the pandemic is the latest cataclysmic event that has exposed these disparities. And beyond these contexts, some diverse media leaders also point to further complexities.
Ethnic media’s critical role continues to evolve as a major trusted source of news and information, chronicling their communities’ dynamic place in the American mosaic. Its voice is even more crucial in chronicling the COVID-19 crisis for audiences of color.
The coverage of diverse populations through the ethnic media that serve them, cuts across the Maynard Institute’s diversity framework of the six Fault Lines of race, class, geography, gender, generation and sexual orientation, as well as the fissures of religion, ability and politics.
In this piece, voices from Native-American media outlets are highlighted. Some of these journalists have gone through the institute’s Maynard 200 program or are ethnic media partners in the organization’s network.
The full ethnographic picture of the public health ravages of the pandemic is still taking shape.
For one population of color, Native Americans, the comprehensive impacts of COVID-19 are still hidden from the larger view, given the limited data collection among tribal community members across the nation.
NATIVE-AMERICAN MEDIA VOICES
In the Native-American community, the high number of infections and fatalities among Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah have been covered closely by Native-American media. The Arizona-based Navajo Times and Indian Country Today are two of the biggest Native-American media companies in the country.
Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today, member of the Shoshone Bannock tribe of Idaho, and former Maynard Institute board chair, says there are gaps in the data on infections and fatalities caused by the novel coronavirus among the Native-American population. This prompted him and his team to create their own database to track cases among tribal community members across the country.
Their database is a model that has also caught the attention of Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, which has been providing up-to-date global data on the pandemic.
In comparing the number of cases that have hit the Navajo tribe, “some of the infection and death rates are actually higher among some of the New Mexico pueblos,” Trahant said. “San Felipe Pueblo for example, had an infection rate at its peak higher than New York City’s. The main database is the Indian Health Service [IHS], and this is one example of the complexities in the population.”
Indian Country Today’s Trahant explains that “IHS is the old government agency that does healthcare, but since 1975, tribes can take over their own facilities, and now 60% of the system is tribal, not federal. In this context, if you’re a tribal facility, you do not have to report your numbers to the IHS — you can either turn them over to a county health agency, which is what many tribes are doing, so they can collect data that way. But the bottom line is, the IHS data may or may not include those numbers. And so we had to go back from scratch, and figure out how to build a database that included constituent groups from outside IHS . And we actually called the IHS because of that, and tried to distinguish the data.”
Meanwhile, The Navajo Times reported on April 22, “The total number of positive COVID-19 cases for the Navajo Nation is almost 1,300, which includes more than 600 men and almost 700 women with an average age of 48. There are also 49 deaths and the average age among deaths is 65.” The story also confirms that the Navajo Nation will join in a lawsuit with ten other tribes against the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury over COVID-19 funding.
In their coverage in Indian Country Today, Trahant also confirms that, “Without question, there is underreporting of COVID-19 cases among Native Americans. Urban populations for example are rarely counted at this point unless somebody knows somebody and gets the word out to us. They wouldn’t be reflected in any official database.”
For media non-profit Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, it is seeking to surmount information barriers posed by their local tribal council.
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, Founder-Executive Director of IMFA and a 2019 Maynard 200 journalism program fellow, explains, “I’m up here in the northern plains, in North Dakota, we don’t even have stay-at-home orders because our transmission rates are pretty low. I’m very secluded where I live (on the) reservation, but on the other side of the lake, transmission is taking place. We heard there’s probably about 20 cases there.”
Jodi Rave is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and says, “What I’m struggling with, as regards our experience here in my own reservation, is there is a COVID-19 tribal response team. But what I’m observing is they don’t seem to be doing a comprehensive job of communicating to the rest of us what exactly they’re doing.”
Jodi Rave further cites, “My tribe does have a newspaper and a radio station, but all their reporting comes from the messaging of the tribal council.” One of her family members who is part of their tribe’s COVID-19 task force confirms that information about the pandemic and directives for the reservation members are limited, with some disseminated via the tribal website and radio updates that are broadcast “now and then.” Jodi Rave says she’s been faced with an ongoing battle in advocating for more information and press freedom to surmount the tribal council’s wall blocking needed and clearer advisories.
In line with a recent grant they received, Jodi Rave and the IMFA team will work on coverage that seeks to gain more clarity from their tribal council and the COVID-19 response team about the outbreak and how information is being disseminated to members of the reservation.
Meantime, Indian Country Today is also looking closely at the impacts of the economic impasse with the shelter-in-place mandates in a majority of states. This includes, “Corporate activity in Alaska, i.e., what it means when some very large tribal-owned corporations have no business and (the impacts on) tribal casinos,” Trahant said. “Most people think of the big casinos generating a lot of money. But the real benefit of casinos for most of Indian country is that it has been a great job creation program in small reservations where 200 to 300 people may work for the casino or hotel. Now all of that has come to a screeching halt.”
The problem has been compounded by casinos being left out of the Paycheck Protection Program, Trahant said. He did confirm at the time of this interview that many casinos they have been in touch with are continuing to pay their employees.
The news service is also reporting on the decimation of two industries that are important to tribes. “Tribes that rely on oil and gas are being wiped out, because of the collapse of the oil industry,” Trahant says. The ramifications across the board are staggering.
Trahant agrees that the outbreak drew the curtain on the institutionalized disparities including among Native Americans, most prevalent of which are underlying health conditions in their community such as diabetes and heart ailments. He said that the public health crisis has also shown that in some respects the Indian Health Service is more effective than the U.S. health system. But he also agrees with recent reports that there is a significant shortage of hospital beds and resources in Indian hospital facilities for those who need treatment from coronavirus infections.
“Part of it is the rural nature of our tribal locations including reservations,” Trahant said. “For example, in Alaska rural villages many people require air service to get to a local hospital. So the villages have actually shut off incoming people because they know if the pandemic hits, they’re going to have to get to a plane to go to Anchorage to get service.”
The reporting done by these outlets helps to illustrate a more nuanced portrayal of our society and those across the Fault Lines who are impacted by the novel coronavirus. What makes this coverage different is it is being done by people who are part of the Native American community, not by those who are looking at the community. As such, there is a different gaze through which the issues and coverage are viewed and how the people are portrayed.
Odette Alcazaren-Keeley is the Director of the Maynard 200 Fellowship Program at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
