Navajo Nation enacts 6th weekend-long curfew
While discussing on Thursday plans to enact a sixth 57-hour curfew for the Navajo Nation this weekend, President Jonathan Nez expressed frustration about people not abiding by the order.
“I’m pretty frustrated guys, as your president, I’m being honest with you,” Nez said during an online town hall streamed from a food distribution site in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. “Let’s work together, how hard is that? How hard is it to work together and just staying home for 57 hours?”
Specific details about the curfew have not yet been provided by the tribe’s officials, but the previous curfews each began at 8 p.m. Fridays and ended at 5 a.m. Mondays. Aside from essential employees and people traveling for emergencies, Navajo Nation residents are required to stay home during the curfews, officials previously announced.
“We love you, that’s why we’re saying this; we want you to live a long life, everyone, that’s why we’re doing this, that’s why we have some tough love messages,” he continued.
Nez’s comments followed what he referred to as “a big spike” in positive COVID-19
cases and deaths. Late Wednesday, the Navajo Nation reported 147 new identified cases and 16 additional deaths, bringing the tribe’s total to 3,392 known cases and 119 confirmed deaths, according to a press release.
Nez noted during the town hall that the tribe was aggressively testing, with about 8%— or 20,928 people — of its population having been tested, he said. He added that the tribe’s total number of known COVID-19 cases included people who might have recovered; however, he did not indicate how many were deemed recovered but said officials were working to compile that data.
According to Nez, most of the Navajo Nation’s new positive cases reported on Wednesday were in the tribe’s Shiprock Service area, which includes some remote communities in Arizona and Utah, as well as most of San Juan County in New Mexico, just north of Gallup, New Mexico.
“Of course we’ll find out later but the assumption is, the reason for the increase in those numbers is, the shutdown in Gallup, New Mexico,” Nez said about the border city’s lockdown between May 1 and May 10. “Because of that, people shifted into these other areas and we’re supposed to be staying home, ladies and gentlemen, during curfew, not packing your bags on a Friday to get out of the curfew. Stay home, that’s the bottom line.”
Several people commenting on Nez’s and Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer’s Facebook posts said they believed the weekend curfews were not enough, suggesting a full lockdown. Others said they believed the curfews weren’t working at all.
“A lot of these people that are complaining saying ‘stay home, stay home, stay home,’ they don’t realize the other aspect of it that home is not adequate to most families...so in a lot of places you have to travel 40 or 50 miles just to get what you need,” said Daniel Lincoln, a resident of St. Michaels, Arizona.
“It’s like floodgates, you know, you’re holding back the water and once you release that water it goes rushing down the hill uncontrollably and that’s what these lockdowns are doing,” he continued.
Nez during the town hall said a full lockdown would not be possible due to having about 200 police officers who have to patrol more than 27,000 miles of tribal land that spans three states: Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
On Thursday, Nez also announced the new curfew order would require all businesses to close — including ones deemed essential and previously allowed to remain open during other weekend curfews.
“This time, no businesses will be open on the Navajo Nation ... now that I said that everybody’s going to be running to the store,” Nez said. “Come on guys, please help each other out during this time; don’t be selfish, don’t just think of yourselves, we got grandmas out here that have been hunkered down for many weeks now and they’re finally getting some aid and some resources to help them out.”
For the last five weekends, Navajo Nation residents were ordered to stay home for 57 hours in an effort to curb further spread of the new coronavirus. Officials previously stated that curfew violators would be issued criminal nuisance citations that could include a fine up to $1,000 or 30 days in jail.
According to the Navajo Police Department, 824 citations were issued during the Navajo Nation’s first four 57hour weekend curfews. Of those citations, 494 were for curfew violations while the rest were for traffic violations.
The department has not yet provided the number of citations issued during the Navajo Nation’s fifth weekend curfew.