Pandemic-ravaged Indigenous communities receive vaccines
Shipments arrived Monday at Navajo Nation distribution centers in Arizona, New Mexico
The first doses of the novel coronavirus vaccine are being administered in Native American communities from the desert highlands of New Mexico to a coastal fishing tribe outside Seattle as the federal government and states rush to protect one of the most vulnerable U.S. populations.
The two-pronged effort includes a massive logistical operation by the federal government’s Indian Health Service focusing on vaccinating health care workers at sovereign Indigenous nation clinics across the country and urban clinics serving off-reservation Native Americans.
The agency’s initial allotment of about 22,000 vaccine doses from Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech arrived Monday at distribution centers on vast portions of the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico and in urban places like Phoenix, where hundreds of health care workers who care for Native Americans got vaccinated Thursday.
But many tribes selected a separate route to receive vaccine deliveries through state health agencies that in some cases have more enduring and trusting relationships with tribal communities. That system is spiriting vaccinations to small tribes like the Acoma Pueblo, known for its mesa-top “Sky City” in the New Mexico desert.
Native Americans have been disproportionately sickened and killed by the pandemic — despite extreme precautions that have included curfews, roadblocks, universal testing and the suspension of business at casinos and artisanal trading posts.
The Lummi Nation, a tribe of 5,000 members living on an oceanside Washington state peninsula, began vaccinating Thursday with 300 doses as it fights surging cases with a shelter-in-place order.
Tribal elder James Scott, a facilities worker at the reservation’s community clinic, was the first to be vaccinated.
In coming days, shots will go to tribal police, food program workers, long-term care residents and health care workers.
“We are so happy I can’t even describe it,” said Dr. Dakotah Lane, medical director of the Public Health Department and a Lummi Nation member, as he stood in line to get his shot.