Marine helps families with limited access
Team brings food and supplies to people on the Navajo Nation
A Navajo Marine, Colin Tsosie and a team of volunteers have been working long hours, sometimes 12hour days, since April 2020 to make sure everyone is cared for, especially those who live in remote areas of the Navajo Nation.
The COVID-19 pandemic left many at-risk people in remote locations without access to food and necessary supplies.
Tsosie led the Navajo and Hopi families COVID-19 relief fund’s Chinle distribution team. This relief effort brought necessary food and supplies to at risk groups through contactless delivery.
Even with the assistance wasn’t always easy.
“At the beginning oftentimes they’d give us locations ... a lot of times they’d give us directions like three miles from a windmill or a wash or a tire that’s randomly out there. That’s often the directions they’d give us,” said Tsosie.
The relief effort led by Tsosie and his team covered thirteen communities including Chinle, Blue Gap, Cottonwood, Whippoorwill, Nazlini, Low Mountain, Tsaile, Lukachukai, Round Rock, Rock Point, Red Mesa, Mexican Water and Cove.
The long hours and hard work were worth it to Tsosie, who said he was grateful to help.
“It was very rewarding,” Tsosie said. “There was one time we were delivering food boxes and there were 3-4 kids that ran to the window and the mother came out and broke down crying. That was one time in the very beginning that like I don’t know it sunk into me. The intrinsic motivation really pushed me to keep going.”
Distribution efforts for these communities were organized into three-week cycles. They would start with a week in Chinle and then move on to satellite communities grouped by distance and location. The team would distribute anywhere from 800 to 1100 food boxes
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it at each location.
“It was a contact-free drive through service,” Tsosie said. “A lot of people had pickup trucks so they would just back up the bed of the truck or we’d have them pop the trunk open.”
Text messaging was an integral part of the food delivery process, especially for those who live in remote locations without clear directions.
“At the very beginning when we did deliveries we would text them ahead of time because we’re in a remote area so that’s the best way to contact them . ... We can call them but most likely a phone would cut out. We would text them and get the location, like drop pin through Google maps, and that’s how we found the location. Once we delivered the food they would send a text messaging appreciating what we’re doing,” said Tsosie.
Since the end of March 2021 when COVID-19 cases started to decline across the Navajo and Hopi nations and vaccine rollout increased, Tsosie and his team have tapered off food, but they have continued PPEonly distributions.
Tsosie was recently mobilized and will return to serving his country in the Marine Reserves. Relief Fund Interim Executive Director Ethel Branch said everyone will miss his leadership dearly.
“Colin truly embodies the best of what it means to be Diné. His hard work, discipline, dedication, professionalism, and deep love for his people will be greatly missed,” Branch said.