COVID-19 attacks Navajo Nation
Road closures, mask mandates and weekend curfews have not stopped a troubling upward trajectory of coronavirus-related deaths on the Navajo Nation, a high desert landscape with underfunded hospitals and overburdened doctors stretching across three states.
As more states begin to ease stayat-home orders, a desperate attempt to halt coronavirus cases is underway on the country’s largest reservation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. But such efforts have proved difficult, because of the remoteness of the reservation and the lack of electricity and running water in some homes.
“We’re getting the message out through radio ... from word of mouth, door to door. There shouldn’t be anyone who says they don’t know what’s going on with COVID-19,” Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said during a virtual town hall this week. “It’s up us to translate to our grandma and grandpa; it’s our obligation to keep our citizens safe.”
The crisis is compounded by the population’s prevalence of preexisting ailments, which makes members more susceptible to the virus. Cassandra Begay, a local activist, said abandoned uranium mines have led to higher rates of cancer on the reservation — health conditions that can prove deadly if a person contracts COVID-19.
“We’re vulnerable,” said Begay, who grew up on a rural stretch of the reservation with no running water or electricity.
On Wednesday, the Navajo Nation reported nearly 2,500 confirmed cases and at least 75 deaths — more than in all of Utah, where about 60 people have died.
A day earlier, Navajo Nation officials, who represent 175,000 residents, traveled to Phoenix for a roundtable meeting with President Donald Trump that, among other things, included discussion about the virus’s toll on Native American populations.
In March, Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus package that included $8 billion for Native American tribes. Roughly $1 billion is allocated for the Indian Health Service, a notoriously underfunded federal agency that oversees health care on reservations.
From the outset, Nez expressed concern that the federal government is forcing individual tribes to apply for their share of the $8 billion. A coalition of tribes, including the Navajo Nation, filed a federal lawsuit in recent weeks against the Department of the Treasury, seeking to keep the money out of the hands of Alaska Native corporations. Established through a 1971 law governing how Alaska Natives manage their land, these corporations have boards of directors and shareholders.
There are 574 federally recognized tribes and 237 Alaska Native corporations. A judge recently ruled that, for now, the money should go only to the recognized tribes.
Hours after the meeting with Trump on Tuesday, the Navajo Nation announced it would receive roughly $600 million in federal funds from the stimulus package to address its coronavirus crisis.