Coronavirus is a ‘monster that snuck into our homes,’ says Navajo Nation president
The coronavirus pandemic has been surging in tribal communities, including the Navajo Nation, which chose to lockdown for nearly a month last week in response to the spike in cases.
According to the Navajo Nation Department of Health, there are more than 15,000 positive cases in the tribal community, which spans across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. That represents nearly one-tenth of the roughly 170,000 Navajos that live on the Nation.
“We are dealing with this monster that has snuck into our homes, in our communities, and our nation,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. “And you can see that happening all across the country here with record breaking numbers.”
Nez said the Navajo Nation is more like “an island” of the country. “You'll have some impact from what's happening off our Nation.”
With large wealth, health, and education disparities impacting Native Americans, Nez said tribal communities are particularly at risk with COVID-19.
“We do have a large percentage of the most vulnerable population here,” he explained. “With our elders having these types of illnesses, you know, we're doing our very best to protect our most vulnerable, and protect our way of life, and our culture, and tradition. That's usually in our elders as wisdom, and we try to hand that down to our younger generation as well.”
Disparities in infrastructure create an environment that allows the virus to thrive, Nez explained.
“I think 30%, 40% of our Navajo people don't have running water or electricity,” he said. “And, if you're getting information from CDC or NIH, telling you to wash your hands with soap and water and you don't have running water, it's going to be very difficult for taking care of yourself or personal hygiene.”
Moving forward, Nez said, Native Americans are hopeful to the future, especially under a Biden administration.
Voter turnout in some of the larger precincts on tribal lands rose 12% to 13% this year, helping President-elect Biden to win the state of Arizona in the election.
“People wanted to move away from this divisive rhetoric and this type of encouragement of discrimination and to really move forward in healing,” Nez said referring to the Trump administration, adding that Native Americans got “a glimpse of the partnership and a really good partnership that we've had with President-elect Biden when he was the vice president. When the Obama and Biden administration was there, we were able to go to the White House. And the door was open about … how we could collaborate and fulfill these commitments that were made.”
As “first citizens” of America, he explained, American Indians have always been pushed aside and been given “broken promises” from the federal government.
Better infrastructure should be at the top of the Biden administration’s priority list, Nez said.
“We want water. We want electricity, telecommunication and broadband, better roads. Rebuild some of these bridges,” he said. “These are the commonalities that we can all, I think, agree upon.”
“And I hope, the next four years will bring some positive change and to improve the quality of life for the First Peoples of this country,” said Nez. “There needs to be a lot more attention in tribal communities.”
Kristin Myers is a reporter and anchor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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