Coronavirus laying bare the dire needs of Indian Country

Bureaucratic indecision and tribal litigation delayed emergency coronavirus funding to tribal governments by nearly six weeks, likely exacerbating the spread of the virus in Indian Country and laying bare inequities on tribal lands that have existed for generations.

In late March, Congress approved and President Donald Trump signed the $2 trillion CARES Act that includes $8 billion for tribal governments to use for such things as offsetting costs of protective equipment, paying for law enforcement at roadblocks and the deep cleaning of facilities. The U.S. Department of Treasury announced this week it is distributing $4.8 billion of that while the remaining funding is tied up in court. The money is being distributed to the 573 federally recognized tribes, including 22 in New Mexico, based on population estimates.

The Navajo Nation Council is working on a spending plan for the money as the disease continues to ravage the reservation and the state’s northwest corner. The Navajo Nation spans New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and has the third-highest rate of coronavirus cases in the United States, behind New York and New Jersey. As of Wednesday night there were 2,654 coronavirus cases on the reservation, with 85 COVID-19 deaths.

It’s unacceptable it took nearly six weeks after the CARES Act was signed into law to distribute any of the money — the handwriting has been on the wall for weeks. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez penned an op-ed to the Journal published April 1 warning “this is a fatal health care disaster in the making.”

Since then, the COVID-19 death toll on the Navajo reservation has mounted, resulting in curfews; stay-in-place orders; roadblocks outside Gallup; furloughs of Navajo Nation employees; closing of parks, schools, businesses and gaming facilities; creation of emergency hospitals; and Navajo Nation-produced TV commercials encouraging tribal members to stay home.

The initial delay in distributing funding was due to an impasse between The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Indian Health Service about how the money should be used by tribal governments. The $8 billion later became tied up in court when the Navajo Nation and several other tribes sued the Treasury, arguing regional and village entities owned and operated by Alaska Natives on a for-profit basis do not fit the CARES Act definition of a tribal government.

While the Treasury is starting to disburse $4.8 million, the remaining $3.2 billion is being held back until the litigation determines the eligibility of the 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations.

The pandemic has shown tribes in New Mexico have dire needs that must be addressed. It’s shameful it took a deadly virus to throw light on the fact 30% of homes on the Navajo Nation lack running water. (FYI that makes it hard to wash your hands.) Many Navajo Nation tribal members have to regularly drive to water stations in Gallup to fill water containers. The Bureau of Reclamation’s Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project — four decades in the making — should be connected ASAP so it serves the homes and businesses on the Navajo and Jicarilla Apache nations as well as Gallup. In this day and age, everyone deserves to have clean, running water.

And the pandemic has also spotlighted the desperate need for the long-overdue replacement for the Gallup Indian Medical Center as officials stand up field hospitals, send some cases to a local high school gym and fly COVID-19 patients to hospitals in Albuquerque.

The pandemic has laid bare the tough reality our fellow Americans and New Mexicans live with in Indian Country. How sad it took a pandemic to make the nation aware. Sadder still if our leaders don’t act to change it.