How COVID-19 has affected the tribes
Written by: Benjamin Schuller
As
at this point I’m sure all of you are aware, at the time this is written, we
are undergoing a global health crisis due to the emergence of a novel
coronavirus, referred to as COVID-19. The virus has quickly spread across the
world, and has found its way into Native American communities. These
communities are generally under equipped with medical supplies and facilities,
and struggle to facilitate quarantine since many people generally live under
the same roof with their families, often without running water or enough funds
to acquire the substantial amount of foodstuffs to practice the highest degree
of social distancing (1).
Furthermore, due to complex genetic
markers, Native Americans are particularly susceptible to conditions that put
them in the high risk category for COVID-19, such as hypertension, diabetes,
asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (1). Furthermore, in the 1918 H1N1
pandemic, which COVID-19 draws many comparisons to, Native Americans were
affected as much as four times as severely as the average population (1).
Furthermore, tribes are being
subjected to extreme financial issues due to the closing of their casinos, and
the Federal government’s lack of interest in providing relief quickly to tribes
(1). Tribes are undersupplied to an egregious degree, one Sioux tribe of 50,000
has been equipped with six ventilators, four quarantine specific beds, and
twenty-four test kits (1). Everyone is short of test kits, but not to this
degree, and Americans have yet to run out of ventilators in any of the state
hospitals, so why the tribes? It’s simple, this egregious disparity is a
glaring example of institutionalized racism. When asked about the supply
situation, Meredith Raimondi, a spokeswoman for the National Council of Urban
Indian Health Centers, stated that, “It
really seems like Indian Country is going to continue to be last on the list
and it's really concerning at this point,” as told to ABC news (2).
Furthermore, Native American tribes
rely on their elders to carry many deep rooted cultural traditions, and since
COVID-19 is known to disproportionately affect the elderly, this puts the whole
of Native American culture at risk (2). Despite the New Mexico governor telling
President Trump about the lack of medical supplies in her state, and warning
that the Navajo nation is at risk of being wiped out, the Federal response has
been deemed by many to be unsatisfactory, with one of those people being Navajo
President Jonathon Nez, who states, "We feel that the United States
government once again has ignored or even left out the first residents, the
first people, the first citizens of this country: Indigenous people." (2).
Interestingly enough, many tribes have gone as far as implementing curfews,
something not being done in the rest of the United States (4). According to
Business Insider, COVID-19 has claimed more lives in the state of New Mexico
inside the reservation than outside (3). Whenever the tribes can get the
funding to deal with this is patently unclear, the delay putting thousands of
Native American lives at risk (3). Between the Navajo hospitals and the IHS
contributions, there are only 99 ventilators, 52 isolation rooms, 170 hospital
beds, and 46 ICU beds spread across 24 hospitals in the Navajo nation (3).
Clearly, the tribes are underfunded, understaffed, and undersupplied. The
Federal government refuses to make swift and decisive actions, instead biding
its time behind the windows of bureaucracy and waiting for it to get sorted
out. Unsurprisingly, most businesses have already received their bailouts at
the time this article was written, which really goes to show the priority of
our government. I hope with this article I can educate about the vital
situation tribes are currently facing, and what you can do about it. Contact
your state representative about expiditing the process of tribes receiving
federal COVID-19 funding, because people are dying, and more people are going
to die because of how unprepared the tribes are to deal with a pandemic. Native
Americans have suffered greatly in the last few hundred years, largely due to
the actions of my own ancestors. I don’t think they deserve to suffer any more
than necessary, particularly when the severity of the virus on a location is
partially determined by the amount of medical supplies allocated to fight it.
This isn’t a drill, this is history being made right before our eyes and giving
us a chance to act. I repeat, contact your representatives. It matters.
Sources:
(1).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/04/04/native-american-coronavirus/
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