Navajo Nation sees rise in coronavirus infection
From Greg Long, minister to the Navajo people, when asked about the reported rate of infection in Navajo Nation:
The dire situation in my opinion is environmental, of public health concern, economic and social and much of it also involves bureaucratic red tape - Federal, State (AZ, NM, UT, and CO), and local Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and San Juan Southern Paiute (these are Native tribes actually exercising viable tribal sovereignty within the Navajo Reservation geographic boundaries). And then, you have to throw in additional tribal interests - those surrounding tribes which technically fall within an area termed "Navajo Area" but are technically located outside the Navajo Reservation geographic boundaries - the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, Jicarilla Apache Nation, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, Kaibab Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai, Yavapai, and the Western Apache - Tonto, White Mountain and San Carlos. Commensurate with all these are the exertions placed upon the Navajo Nation from all counties, communities, municipalities and metropolitan areas associated with the "Navajo Area" of the Four Corners region of the United States - and then, I cannot fail to mention corporate or business interests either! So I see both an advantageous and dysfunctional landscape, which I will label "Status Quo" confounding the situation along with the present reality simply facing every Navajo person; this present reality we call "Life." This is a most complex topography upon which Covid-19 has been thrown in!
The Navajo Department of Health reported yesterday 4253 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 146 deaths for the Navajo Nation (Reservation). Now this total does not include border town communities like Cortez and Durango in Colorado nor Albuquerque, Grants and Gallup in New Mexico nor Winslow, Flagstaff and Phoenix in Arizona where there are large populations of Navajo people. This total also does not include the Navajo population found in major metropolitan areas of the United States like Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Fort Worth-Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, etc. The Navajo Nation consists of 4 reservations containing a minimum 173,667 residents; however, an overall Navajo population indicator is approximated as 356,890 according to a 2016 US Census. I will not attempt to minimize or inflate the Corona Virus outbreak for the Navajo Nation - I am only presenting reported numbers thus far, but I do think the number of affected Navajos is a number higher than is actually being reported.
I think the rampant and dire Covid-19 situation of the Navajo Nation as being reported by the media is massively compounded by the following factors:
Lack of electricity and clean running water for rural Navajo homes
lack of improved graded and/or paved highways and byways
Great travel distances to obtain food, gas, medical needs/supplies, education, etc.
Navajo history, culture, language and arts; i.e., cultural and language disparity between elder and youth, a danger of permanently losing traditional Navajo culture and language, Navajo cultural differences inhibiting the proliferation of Western educational ideals, propensity of tribal youth preference for adopting foreign cultures, tribal members' lacking knowledge of the Navajo historical context and its future prospective for posterity's sake, failure to propagate traditional artforms from one generation to the next
Federal Trust Land designation relegating the entire Navajo Reservation as bearing zero net worth (no property value)
Tribal infrastructure in deterioration; i.e., Federal, State, local and tribal funding being hoarded or misappropriated or stolen; lack of competent tribal leadership; Navajo Nation chapter instability; Navajo Housing Authority malfeasance; advent of Navajo casino operations; Third World conditions, etc.
Substance abuse; i.e., generational PTSD resulting in substance abuse, boarding school experience prompting substance abuse, non-Navajo stereotypes that all Indians are drunks, the Navajo Reservation being of "dry" designation, "Homeless" Navajo men and women with substance abuse issues in bordertown communities
Global warming - climate change, drought, invasive plants, bark beetle infestations, pollution, etc.
Land and water use issues, i.e., grazing permits, homesite leases, business site leases, livestock, farming, sacred mountains, non-Navajo recreational and tourism ventures, Navajo-Hopi Partitioned Lands, Bennett Freeze, Coconino Aquifer, Navajo Aquifer, Colorado River, San Juan River, Little Colorado River, Rio Grande
Corporate and business ventures, i.e., Uranium, coal, petroleum, hydrological impoundments of sacred rivers and ecosystems, electricity production, railroad and interstate commerce
Employment and unemployment rates, i.e., youthful population migration to work centers off the reservation, 50% plus unemployment rates on the reservation proper
Elder Abuse, i.e., social security checks being stolen by younger generations, children and/or grand children confiscating livestock and/or homes from the elderly and their subsequent committal to a nursing home, "Abandoned" Navajo elderly left vulnerable in widespread remote localities reservation-wide having to eke out livelihood by themselves
Domestic Violence
Sexual Abuse
Jailing and/or prison confinement of Navajos greatly disproportionate to actual population index measures
Suicide
Compromised ethical and moral moorings
Rampant witchcraft
Inability of the Navajo church to curtail or even recognize imminent dangers listed above
Inability of the Navajo church to positively address these imminent dangers and make long-lasting positive changes to Navajo society
Granted, this is only a cursory glance at our "rampant and dire situation" and the Covid-19 epidemic certainly compounds the picture immeasurably.
Greg and Sheila Long lead Selah Navajo Ministries in Flagstaff, Arizona.