Column
MAY 07, 2020
By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Diné/Navajo people hard, inflicting the highest per capita infection rate in the country after New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the country, larger than West Virginia, straddling Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Half of the over 300,000 enrolled members reside on the reservation. Navajo President Jonathan Nez has issued some of the strongest stay-at-home measures in the country, including a weekday evening curfew and a complete, stay-at-home curfew for the entire weekend. Nearby Gallup, New Mexico, with a large Diné population, has enacted a complete lockdown, with the National Guard prohibiting entry.
As of May 5, despite these efforts, there were 2,559 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation and 79 deaths. Among the victims, 28-year-old Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved champion of Navajo culture and a community leader. She left behind her partner, Robby Jones, and their 1-year-old daughter, Poet.
“She really loved her family — her parents, her sisters, her nieces and nephews. She loved her elderly. She loved children,” Jones said Tuesday on the Democracy Now! news hour. “She was a kind and hardworking lady, and she was warmhearted. She would do anything for her family.”
Jones is a detention officer with the Navajo Department of Corrections, and contracted COVID-19 at work. “When she was taking care of me, I guess she contracted it,” he said. “She started showing symptoms — shortness of breath, body aches, loss of taste and smell. By the time I started feeling better, … that’s when she started feeling sick.”
Valentina Blackhorse tested positive for COVID-19 on April 22. She died the next day. She had won numerous pageants, being named Miss Western Navajo and Miss Diné College, among others, and hoped to run for office in the Navajo Nation government one day.
Dr. Michelle Tom, a member of the Navajo Nation, is a family physician in Winslow, Arizona, just across the Navajo reservation line. She spoke about Valentina’s death on Democracy Now!: “It’s a reflection of what we’re going through as a people, and it correlates with what this virus can do to our young and someone who was very motivated, loved our culture, spread our rich and strong culture, and our language. That’s what we’re trying to fight for,” she said, adding, “She was going to lead our next generation. It was a hard loss for our community.”
The Navajo Nation, along with the nearby Hopi, Pueblo, Zuni and Gila River indigenous communities, have endured despite centuries of genocide, oppression and systemic racism and poverty. The novel coronavirus pandemic is afflicting them disproportionately, as it has African American and Latinx populations across the U.S. Access to water is challenging on the Navajo reservation.
“That’s from a long state of histories with treaties and our relationship with the [federal] government,” Dr. Michelle Tom explained. “Our infrastructure for water has never been at the capacity where we can provide water for everyone on the reservation. So, you’re telling people to wash your hands for 20 seconds, and yet people are trying just to get water just to drink and to cook with.”
President Donald Trump made a rare trip Tuesday, visiting an Arizona N95 mask factory, where he ignored factory rules by not wearing a mask. Guns ‘N Roses blared from a factory sound system, playing the song “Live and Let Die.” It’s not clear if it was a coincidental music choice or not.
Trump also met with elected officials, including Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer. The Navajo Nation joined a lawsuit filed by numerous native tribes against Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for his abject failure in disbursing $8 billion promised to Native American tribes in the CARES Act.
“The amount of money that’s being sent to ‘Indian country,’ as we call it, is the largest amount in the history of the U.S. And you deserve it. And you’ve been through a lot,” Trump said to VP Lizer. “The Navajo Nation will soon receive over $600 million. That’s a lot. Should I renegotiate that? Can we renegotiate that?” (Laughter.)
There was no laughter back on the Navajo Nation. “Today, the federal government announced that they intend to release a portion of funds appropriated by Congress over one month ago to tribes to help fight COVID-19, but I’ll believe it when I see it,” President Jonathan Nez, who himself tested positive for the virus, replied. “We couldn’t sit around and wait for those dollars, so we’ve had boots on the ground in nearly 20 communities giving out food, water, firewood, protective masks and other supplies … We lost many of our beloved relatives and family members to this virus, but our teachings also tell us to move forward. We will and we are.”
Remembering Valentina Blackhorse, Beloved 28-Year-Old Navajo Community Activist Who Died of COVID-19
MAY 05, 2020
GUESTS
Robby Jones
Valentina Blackhorse’s partner. He is from the Navajo Nation.
Image Credit: Courtesy Vanielle Blackhorse
After New York and New Jersey, the next highest number of coronavirus infections per capita in the United States is in the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country. We go to Kayenta, Arizona, to speak with Robby Jones, a member of the Navajo Nation and the partner of one of those to die from the virus: 28-year-old Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved community leader who promoted Navajo culture and left behind a daughter named Poet.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: New York has the most documented cases of COVID-19 in the country, followed by New Jersey, but we begin today’s show in the place with the third-highest number of coronavirus infections in the United States per capita: the Navajo Nation. With a population of some 350,000 in territory that spreads over 27,000 square miles, the Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the country. The rural community is reported having nearly 2,300 known cases of COVID-19 and 73 deaths as of Sunday. One of those to die from the coronavirus is a 28-year-old woman, Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved community leader who won multiple pageants, promoted Navajo culture and education. She leaves behind a daughter named Poet. Her sister, Vanielle Blackhorse, says Valentina had hoped to enter politics in the future. She spoke to New Mexico’s KRQE.
VANIELLE BLACKHORSE: My sister, she — she wanted to see her daughter grow up, and be there for her and encourage her, and, you know, encourage her to run in pageants, just like she did.
AMY GOODMAN: Valentina Blackhorse may have contracted the virus while caring for her partner, Robby Jones, a detention officer for the Navajo Department of Corrections, who says he could have been exposed at work. Valentina died on April 23rd, just one day after her coronavirus test came back positive.
Well, for more, we’re joined now by Robby Jones.
Robby, to begin with, our deepest condolences for the loss of your partner, Valentina.
ROBBY JONES: Thank you. Thank you about that.
AMY GOODMAN: I know you are just still reeling, for you and your daughter, your family, your whole community. Can you tell us a little about Valentina?
ROBBY JONES: Valentina, she — you can say she really loved her immediate family — her parents, her sisters, her nieces and nephews. She loved her elderly. She loved children. She was a kind and hard-working lady, and she was warmhearted. One thing she would do, she would do anything for her immediate family. She always tried to take care of them as much as she could.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Robby, could you talk a little bit about her involvement in the community, the issues and the concerns that she had about the Navajo community?
ROBBY JONES: OK. For that, she was barely getting into that. She always wanted to help out the community. Where she worked at was Department of Community Development, where she was beginning to learn how the Navajo Nation would work and how the chapter houses in each part of the Navajo Nation, how they would provide for the community. So, she was slowly learning how to be involved in that type of work. So, she was slowly getting there. So she was just an office specialist, but then she was — at that time, she was learning a lot. And she really wanted to put herself in the community. I’m pretty sure if she was still here, she would have applied for a different — not a different job, but then she would accede into something more that would help her community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And —
ROBBY JONES: But then, as — I’m sorry. Go ahead.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when she became ill, could you talk a little bit about the experience that she had there, in terms — because, obviously, she died quickly after testing positive, within a day of being tested positive. Could you talk about her experience from the time she got ill ’til the time she sought treatment?
ROBBY JONES: OK. When she first got sick, it was basically a week. She started showing symptoms of being — shortness of breath, body aches, loss of taste and smell. During that time, when she was taking care of me, I guess she contracted it. So, like, I did — a little week, over — by the time I started feeling better, and that’s when she started feeling sick. And I took advantage of me recovering to take care of her. We, her parents and I, advised her to go to the clinic, but then she was afraid to go to the clinic. She didn’t want to get admitted. So, one day, she just felt horrible. She wasn’t feeling too good. So, probably the first day she got sick, four days after, that’s when I took her to our nearest clinic. And that’s when they tested her. So, and then, the next four days later, that’s when she tested positive for the COVID-19.
AMY GOODMAN: She was brought to the Kayenta clinic — is that right, Robby? And they had hoped to bring her to the hospital in Flagstaff, but she passed away before in the clinic?
ROBBY JONES: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Robby, do you think you contracted coronavirus, the coronavirus, from your work in the detention center? Where do you work?
ROBBY JONES: I believe so. I believe one of my co-workers, he had — he tested positive for COVID-19. At that time, we didn’t know that he went to get tested again, and this time it came out positive. So, a few days later, that’s when we were notified that he was tested positive for the virus.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your daughter, Poet, has she been, obviously, informed of what happened with her mother? Have you been able to be with her at all, or are you still self-isolating?
ROBBY JONES: I haven’t been with her close to a month. Since my first sign of COVID-19, I told Valentina to drop off our baby with her parents’ house. So it’s been almost a month I haven’t seen our daughter. And our daughter is only 1 year old. I haven’t actually spoke with her yet.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you given the proper equipment, protective gear, Robby, at work?
ROBBY JONES: During that time, the only thing that we didn’t have were masks. It was during that time where the whole United States had a huge shortage on the protection gear. So we had gloves. We had cleaning supplies to clean around the area. But the only thing we were vulnerable to was, I guess, when people cough. So, we didn’t have masks at all.
AMY GOODMAN: Robby, Valentina was trying to promote COVID awareness in the Navajo Nation, among the many things she did about promoting Navajo culture, since you are a hot spot in the United States, one of the worst affected per capita, the Navajo Nation?
ROBBY JONES: Yes, especially with her immediate family. You know, she would always tell us to wear a mask, wear gloves, make sure to disinfect everything, because she was pretty afraid. Even before the Navajo Nation got hit hard, she was pretty aware, and she just wanted her family to be safe.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how would you like the world and the community to remember Valentina?
ROBBY JONES: I would say she was a kindhearted person. She would put others before herself. If she knew someone needed help, she would help them. I know that she loved her elders and she loved her children, or the children in general, especially the people who are in need.
AMY GOODMAN: Robby, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Robby Jones, Valentina Blackhorse’s partner. Again, our deepest condolences. Robby Jones, speaking to us from the Navajo Nation, where he is a detention officer.
When we come back, we’re going to speak with two doctors who have been working on the reservation, the largest in the country, the most significant hot spot in this country per capita, third in the United States with coronavirus infection, after New York and New Jersey. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back with them in a moment.
Navajo Nation Suffers Third-Highest COVID-19 Infection Rate in U.S. with Limited Healthcare & Water
MAY 05, 2020
We get an update from two doctors treating patients with the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Michelle Tom is a member of the Navajo Nation and a family physician treating COVID-19 patients at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center and Little Colorado Medical Center in northern Arizona near the Navajo reservation. In Gallup, New Mexico, Dr. Sriram Shamasunder is leading a medical volunteer group of 21 nurses and doctors from the University of California, San Francisco as part of the HEAL Initiative. He says the coronavirus hit harder on the Navajo Nation due to a “trajectory of an underfunded health system,” and notes the Indian Health Service is funded at one-third the rate per capita as Medicare. “The level of inequity that you’re seeing … it’s part of this pattern.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic. Juan González is in New Jersey. It’s number two for coronavirus infections. And now we’re going to number three, per capita, Navajo Nation, as we continue to look at how the Navajo Nation has been so hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, highest number of coronavirus infections per capita in the United States following New York and New Jersey. The rural community has reported having nearly 2,300 known cases of COVID-19, 73 deaths as of Sunday. The Navajo Nation is the largest Indigenous reservation in the United States with a population of some 350,000, a territory that spreads over 27,000 square miles.
As we turn now to two doctors who know this land well, on the ground treating patients. Joining us from Gallup, New Mexico, Dr. Sriram Shamasunder is a leading medical volunteer — he’s leading a medical volunteer group of 21 nurses and doctors from University of California, San Francisco, where he’s an associate professor of medicine, to the Native American reservation near Gallup. He’s the co-founder of the HEAL Initiative, which has worked across nine countries, including Navajo Nation, since 2015, promoting health equity. And joining us from Winslow, Arizona, Dr. Michelle Tom, member of the Navajo Nation, family physician, treating COVID-19 patients at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center and Little Colorado Medical Center in northern Arizona near the Navajo reservation. She was a basketball star in college at Arizona State University.
We welcome you both, Doctors, to Democracy Now! Dr. Tom, let’s begin with you. You work in the clinic where you were born. As you listen to Valentina’s story, a 28-year-old Navajo woman who suddenly died after being diagnosed with COVID-19, your response? Can you put it in the context of what’s happening right now in the Navajo Nation?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: It just kind of is a reflection of what we’re going through as a people, and it correlates with what this virus can do to our young and someone who was very motivated, loved our culture, spread our culture, our rich and strong, and our language. And that’s what we’re trying to fight for. You know, there’s not many who really promote really great things, who is a young person, and she was one of them. And she was going to lead our next generation. And so, it was a hard loss of our community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Tom, why do you think there has been such a devastation in terms of COVID-19 throughout the Native population, especially in Navajo Country?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: I think the spread — we’re a very matriarchal society, and we have a connection to the land and to our community. And so, we really concentrate on the community. And when someone is sick, we tend to be there for one another. And we live in multigenerational homes. So, the contact of that and the spread is obviously more than we wanted, but that was just part of our culture, is to help one another and to visit one another and encourage one another. And being with a very strong family and all these strong ties, that was probably — you know, it’s multifactorial, but that was one of the reasons.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the external conditions confronted day to day? For instance, as much as 40% of people in the Navajo reservation do not have running water, how that affects their ability to combat this disease?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: Oh, absolutely. And that’s from a long state of histories with treaties and our relationship with the government. We’ve had — set aside for certain things like that, and our infrastructure for water has never been at the capacity where we can provide water for everyone on the reservation. So, you’re telling people to wash your hands for 20 seconds, and yet people are trying just to get water just to drink and just to cook with. And we know that water is part of a healthy body. You know, so, when you’re trying to have people wash things all the time, we are struggling with just clean water in general.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Dr. Sriram Shamasunder into the conversation. You’re leading this group of volunteer doctors and nurses from San Francisco to Navajo Nation. You’re in Gallup, that is put under lockdown right now by the governor because of this massive outbreak. You’ve described treating four generations of one family. Talk about your work that you’ve been doing there for years.
DR. SRIRAM SHAMASUNDER: Yes. So, I helped co-found the HEAL Initiative, which is a global health immersive fellowship that trains and transforms frontline health professionals to make serving the underserved a lifelong choice. And so, over the last five years, we’ve had 150 frontline health professionals come through our program. And half of them are U.S. doctors or nurses, and the other half are either Navajo or from countries such as Haiti or Mexico or Malawi or India. And so it’s this really diverse community of frontline workers that are trying to get better at serving underserved populations.
And we worked in Navajo Nation for the last five years, since 2015, and had partnerships. And I think it’s important to know that before COVID-19, Indian Health Service, Navajo population, what we’re seeing right now is this trajectory of an underfunded health system, where IHS is funded one-third the rate per capita as the VA or Medicare. And the level of inequity that you’re seeing and the COVID cases that you’re seeing in Gallup, as well as Chinle, it’s part of this pattern. You know, in Michigan and Chicago, we know that in Michigan, 14% of the population are Black folks, and yet 40% of the deaths are Black people. And in Navajo Nation and in New Mexico, 11% of the population is Native American, but you see almost a third of the cases, of COVID cases, being Native American.
And I think in — I’ve been practicing both in Gallup, New Mexico, with our team of volunteers, as well as Chinle, Arizona. In Gallup, I think what’s amazing is that I am running a sprint, but my colleagues, like Dr. Tom, have really been running this marathon for a long period of time. And so, in Gallup, they’ve done an amazing job. I think you’ve have seen this incredible local leadership, where they’ve been able to put 125 unsheltered people, community members, into motel rooms and have a collaboration to take care of them, as well as stop community spread.
And in Chinle, Arizona, this last weekend, I was taking care of patients. And like you mentioned, Amy, there’s been four generations — a great-grandmother, a grandmother, a mother and daughter — that were all hospitalized. And I think that this is what the Navajo — my Navajo colleagues have been dealing with for the last six weeks. And the surge is upon us, where, taking care of a grandmother this last weekend, we’re always deciding whether these facilities can manage.
And it’s such a humbling disease, because a lot of the facilities that we’re in, once you intubate the patient, you have to transfer them to Phoenix or Albuquerque. And so, all the providers are trying to learn what is the trajectory, because every time you intubate a patient, it’s just one more level beyond what we deal with in San Francisco, because the Navajo people, where the land is so sacred, they are going to wake up isolated in another city, such as Phoenix or Albuquerque. And I think that that is humbling. So, the providers, the Navajo providers, are trying to see how much can they take care of their patients in their facilities, and when is it not safe anymore and they’re going to have to transfer patients out.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Dr. Shamasunder, I wanted to ask you about the extraordinary mobilization of the tribal authorities to combat COVID-19, and also how the government of New Mexico, the state government, has responded. Obviously, there was a lot of reports about the state invoking the Riot Control Act and sealing off Gallup. Could you talk about both, the state response and the tribal government response, especially in view of what we’ve been seeing of the relative inaction at the federal level on this disease?
DR. SRIRAM SHAMASUNDER: Yeah. I think that the incredible resourcefulness and resilience of the Navajo people is totally apparent when we come here. We actually met with President Nez, the Navajo president, when we arrived. And he’s really been on the forefront of having people shelter in place. And really, you know, like Dr. Tom was saying, when you’re trying to shelter in place and you live with eight or 10 people and this expansive definition of family where the community is so connected, you’re going to have community spread. And so, the outbreak, I think, in Navajo Nation is not a lack of leadership. I think President Nez has been incredible at having these weekend lockdowns, which is extremely difficult for the Navajo people, and is really leading with wearing masks in public, and so doing all the right things, I think, from the national sovereign level. And he’s been very vocal to say that the federal response has been extremely slow.
And that’s what I’ve seen in Chinle, Arizona. We have HEAL fellows that are behavioral health coaches, that are not — are usually not taking care of COVID patients at this time, so they’ve taken over the cafeteria and are making PPE and sewing PPE, and so the whole cafeteria has folks sewing PPE. So, I think you see, from the top of the Navajo leadership to the citizens and health professionals, really leading an incredible response. And the federal government has just been incredibly slow.
And then, obviously, Gallup is a border town, which is not under jurisdiction of the Navajo government, but it is an area where a lot of Navajo people come to get groceries, come into town, and there’s a lot of activity. And it’s the second-highest caseload of new cases in the country in the last two weeks. And, you know, I’m here. I’m going to go on shift later today. And the Gallup providers have just said — earlier, last week, they said, you know, “I don’t think we need you.” And this week, they’re saying, “We’re getting exhausted. The surge is just coming and coming, and there’s more and more patients. And we need you to help out and do some shifts.” And I think the New Mexican government has been strong and really almost following the lead that the Navajo president has put in place.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Dr. Michelle Tom, we have 30 seconds. What you feel the rest of the country should understand, especially with compromised healthcare, in general, in the area, due to poverty, due to uranium mining and how that compromises the health of so many people?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: Yes, it’s just access, just funding. And it’s kind of made our work harder. But like Dr. Sri said, we’re coming together as community. I’m proud of our nation. I’m proud of the facilities I work for. And yeah, just getting the public health notice out there, of just wash your hands, social distancing, maybe hand sanitizer, and really just listening to our leaders right now, and healthcare professionals. So, you know —
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much, Dr. Michelle Tom —
DR. MICHELLE TOM: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: — speaking to us from Winslow, Arizona, Navajo Nation family physician, one of the few Navajo doctors on the reservation. And Dr. Sriram Shamasunder, associate professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, has led a group of doctors and nurses to Navajo Nation, has been doing that since 2015, and in Gallup, New Mexico, right now, which is under lockdown.
When we come back, the pandemic in prisons. We go to one prison in Ohio where 80% of the prisoners have tested positive, half the staff. We’ll go to Marion. And we’ll talk about prison abolition. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the audio premiere of Steve Earle’s new song, “Union, God, and Country,” from his latest album, Ghosts of West Virginia, that will be released May 22nd and centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed 29 men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. Steve Earle says, quote, “West Virginia was the most unionized place in America until very recently. Upper Big Branch was the first non-union mine on that mountain — and it blew up and killed 29 men. This is a song about better days,” he said.
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By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Diné/Navajo people hard, inflicting the highest per capita infection rate in the country after New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the country, larger than West Virginia, straddling Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Half of the over 300,000 enrolled members reside on the reservation. Navajo President Jonathan Nez has issued some of the strongest stay-at-home measures in the country, including a weekday evening curfew and a complete, stay-at-home curfew for the entire weekend. Nearby Gallup, New Mexico, with a large Diné population, has enacted a complete lockdown, with the National Guard prohibiting entry.
As of May 5, despite these efforts, there were 2,559 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation and 79 deaths. Among the victims, 28-year-old Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved champion of Navajo culture and a community leader. She left behind her partner, Robby Jones, and their 1-year-old daughter, Poet.
“She really loved her family — her parents, her sisters, her nieces and nephews. She loved her elderly. She loved children,” Jones said Tuesday on the Democracy Now! news hour. “She was a kind and hardworking lady, and she was warmhearted. She would do anything for her family.”
Jones is a detention officer with the Navajo Department of Corrections, and contracted COVID-19 at work. “When she was taking care of me, I guess she contracted it,” he said. “She started showing symptoms — shortness of breath, body aches, loss of taste and smell. By the time I started feeling better, … that’s when she started feeling sick.”
Valentina Blackhorse tested positive for COVID-19 on April 22. She died the next day. She had won numerous pageants, being named Miss Western Navajo and Miss Diné College, among others, and hoped to run for office in the Navajo Nation government one day.
Dr. Michelle Tom, a member of the Navajo Nation, is a family physician in Winslow, Arizona, just across the Navajo reservation line. She spoke about Valentina’s death on Democracy Now!: “It’s a reflection of what we’re going through as a people, and it correlates with what this virus can do to our young and someone who was very motivated, loved our culture, spread our rich and strong culture, and our language. That’s what we’re trying to fight for,” she said, adding, “She was going to lead our next generation. It was a hard loss for our community.”
The Navajo Nation, along with the nearby Hopi, Pueblo, Zuni and Gila River indigenous communities, have endured despite centuries of genocide, oppression and systemic racism and poverty. The novel coronavirus pandemic is afflicting them disproportionately, as it has African American and Latinx populations across the U.S. Access to water is challenging on the Navajo reservation.
“That’s from a long state of histories with treaties and our relationship with the [federal] government,” Dr. Michelle Tom explained. “Our infrastructure for water has never been at the capacity where we can provide water for everyone on the reservation. So, you’re telling people to wash your hands for 20 seconds, and yet people are trying just to get water just to drink and to cook with.”
President Donald Trump made a rare trip Tuesday, visiting an Arizona N95 mask factory, where he ignored factory rules by not wearing a mask. Guns ‘N Roses blared from a factory sound system, playing the song “Live and Let Die.” It’s not clear if it was a coincidental music choice or not.
Trump also met with elected officials, including Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer. The Navajo Nation joined a lawsuit filed by numerous native tribes against Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for his abject failure in disbursing $8 billion promised to Native American tribes in the CARES Act.
“The amount of money that’s being sent to ‘Indian country,’ as we call it, is the largest amount in the history of the U.S. And you deserve it. And you’ve been through a lot,” Trump said to VP Lizer. “The Navajo Nation will soon receive over $600 million. That’s a lot. Should I renegotiate that? Can we renegotiate that?” (Laughter.)
There was no laughter back on the Navajo Nation. “Today, the federal government announced that they intend to release a portion of funds appropriated by Congress over one month ago to tribes to help fight COVID-19, but I’ll believe it when I see it,” President Jonathan Nez, who himself tested positive for the virus, replied. “We couldn’t sit around and wait for those dollars, so we’ve had boots on the ground in nearly 20 communities giving out food, water, firewood, protective masks and other supplies … We lost many of our beloved relatives and family members to this virus, but our teachings also tell us to move forward. We will and we are.”
Remembering Valentina Blackhorse, Beloved 28-Year-Old Navajo Community Activist Who Died of COVID-19
MAY 05, 2020
GUESTS
Robby Jones
Valentina Blackhorse’s partner. He is from the Navajo Nation.
Image Credit: Courtesy Vanielle Blackhorse
After New York and New Jersey, the next highest number of coronavirus infections per capita in the United States is in the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country. We go to Kayenta, Arizona, to speak with Robby Jones, a member of the Navajo Nation and the partner of one of those to die from the virus: 28-year-old Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved community leader who promoted Navajo culture and left behind a daughter named Poet.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: New York has the most documented cases of COVID-19 in the country, followed by New Jersey, but we begin today’s show in the place with the third-highest number of coronavirus infections in the United States per capita: the Navajo Nation. With a population of some 350,000 in territory that spreads over 27,000 square miles, the Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the country. The rural community is reported having nearly 2,300 known cases of COVID-19 and 73 deaths as of Sunday. One of those to die from the coronavirus is a 28-year-old woman, Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved community leader who won multiple pageants, promoted Navajo culture and education. She leaves behind a daughter named Poet. Her sister, Vanielle Blackhorse, says Valentina had hoped to enter politics in the future. She spoke to New Mexico’s KRQE.
VANIELLE BLACKHORSE: My sister, she — she wanted to see her daughter grow up, and be there for her and encourage her, and, you know, encourage her to run in pageants, just like she did.
AMY GOODMAN: Valentina Blackhorse may have contracted the virus while caring for her partner, Robby Jones, a detention officer for the Navajo Department of Corrections, who says he could have been exposed at work. Valentina died on April 23rd, just one day after her coronavirus test came back positive.
Well, for more, we’re joined now by Robby Jones.
Robby, to begin with, our deepest condolences for the loss of your partner, Valentina.
ROBBY JONES: Thank you. Thank you about that.
AMY GOODMAN: I know you are just still reeling, for you and your daughter, your family, your whole community. Can you tell us a little about Valentina?
ROBBY JONES: Valentina, she — you can say she really loved her immediate family — her parents, her sisters, her nieces and nephews. She loved her elderly. She loved children. She was a kind and hard-working lady, and she was warmhearted. One thing she would do, she would do anything for her immediate family. She always tried to take care of them as much as she could.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Robby, could you talk a little bit about her involvement in the community, the issues and the concerns that she had about the Navajo community?
ROBBY JONES: OK. For that, she was barely getting into that. She always wanted to help out the community. Where she worked at was Department of Community Development, where she was beginning to learn how the Navajo Nation would work and how the chapter houses in each part of the Navajo Nation, how they would provide for the community. So, she was slowly learning how to be involved in that type of work. So, she was slowly getting there. So she was just an office specialist, but then she was — at that time, she was learning a lot. And she really wanted to put herself in the community. I’m pretty sure if she was still here, she would have applied for a different — not a different job, but then she would accede into something more that would help her community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And —
ROBBY JONES: But then, as — I’m sorry. Go ahead.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when she became ill, could you talk a little bit about the experience that she had there, in terms — because, obviously, she died quickly after testing positive, within a day of being tested positive. Could you talk about her experience from the time she got ill ’til the time she sought treatment?
ROBBY JONES: OK. When she first got sick, it was basically a week. She started showing symptoms of being — shortness of breath, body aches, loss of taste and smell. During that time, when she was taking care of me, I guess she contracted it. So, like, I did — a little week, over — by the time I started feeling better, and that’s when she started feeling sick. And I took advantage of me recovering to take care of her. We, her parents and I, advised her to go to the clinic, but then she was afraid to go to the clinic. She didn’t want to get admitted. So, one day, she just felt horrible. She wasn’t feeling too good. So, probably the first day she got sick, four days after, that’s when I took her to our nearest clinic. And that’s when they tested her. So, and then, the next four days later, that’s when she tested positive for the COVID-19.
AMY GOODMAN: She was brought to the Kayenta clinic — is that right, Robby? And they had hoped to bring her to the hospital in Flagstaff, but she passed away before in the clinic?
ROBBY JONES: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Robby, do you think you contracted coronavirus, the coronavirus, from your work in the detention center? Where do you work?
ROBBY JONES: I believe so. I believe one of my co-workers, he had — he tested positive for COVID-19. At that time, we didn’t know that he went to get tested again, and this time it came out positive. So, a few days later, that’s when we were notified that he was tested positive for the virus.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your daughter, Poet, has she been, obviously, informed of what happened with her mother? Have you been able to be with her at all, or are you still self-isolating?
ROBBY JONES: I haven’t been with her close to a month. Since my first sign of COVID-19, I told Valentina to drop off our baby with her parents’ house. So it’s been almost a month I haven’t seen our daughter. And our daughter is only 1 year old. I haven’t actually spoke with her yet.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you given the proper equipment, protective gear, Robby, at work?
ROBBY JONES: During that time, the only thing that we didn’t have were masks. It was during that time where the whole United States had a huge shortage on the protection gear. So we had gloves. We had cleaning supplies to clean around the area. But the only thing we were vulnerable to was, I guess, when people cough. So, we didn’t have masks at all.
AMY GOODMAN: Robby, Valentina was trying to promote COVID awareness in the Navajo Nation, among the many things she did about promoting Navajo culture, since you are a hot spot in the United States, one of the worst affected per capita, the Navajo Nation?
ROBBY JONES: Yes, especially with her immediate family. You know, she would always tell us to wear a mask, wear gloves, make sure to disinfect everything, because she was pretty afraid. Even before the Navajo Nation got hit hard, she was pretty aware, and she just wanted her family to be safe.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how would you like the world and the community to remember Valentina?
ROBBY JONES: I would say she was a kindhearted person. She would put others before herself. If she knew someone needed help, she would help them. I know that she loved her elders and she loved her children, or the children in general, especially the people who are in need.
AMY GOODMAN: Robby, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Robby Jones, Valentina Blackhorse’s partner. Again, our deepest condolences. Robby Jones, speaking to us from the Navajo Nation, where he is a detention officer.
When we come back, we’re going to speak with two doctors who have been working on the reservation, the largest in the country, the most significant hot spot in this country per capita, third in the United States with coronavirus infection, after New York and New Jersey. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back with them in a moment.
Navajo Nation Suffers Third-Highest COVID-19 Infection Rate in U.S. with Limited Healthcare & Water
MAY 05, 2020
We get an update from two doctors treating patients with the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Michelle Tom is a member of the Navajo Nation and a family physician treating COVID-19 patients at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center and Little Colorado Medical Center in northern Arizona near the Navajo reservation. In Gallup, New Mexico, Dr. Sriram Shamasunder is leading a medical volunteer group of 21 nurses and doctors from the University of California, San Francisco as part of the HEAL Initiative. He says the coronavirus hit harder on the Navajo Nation due to a “trajectory of an underfunded health system,” and notes the Indian Health Service is funded at one-third the rate per capita as Medicare. “The level of inequity that you’re seeing … it’s part of this pattern.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic. Juan González is in New Jersey. It’s number two for coronavirus infections. And now we’re going to number three, per capita, Navajo Nation, as we continue to look at how the Navajo Nation has been so hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, highest number of coronavirus infections per capita in the United States following New York and New Jersey. The rural community has reported having nearly 2,300 known cases of COVID-19, 73 deaths as of Sunday. The Navajo Nation is the largest Indigenous reservation in the United States with a population of some 350,000, a territory that spreads over 27,000 square miles.
As we turn now to two doctors who know this land well, on the ground treating patients. Joining us from Gallup, New Mexico, Dr. Sriram Shamasunder is a leading medical volunteer — he’s leading a medical volunteer group of 21 nurses and doctors from University of California, San Francisco, where he’s an associate professor of medicine, to the Native American reservation near Gallup. He’s the co-founder of the HEAL Initiative, which has worked across nine countries, including Navajo Nation, since 2015, promoting health equity. And joining us from Winslow, Arizona, Dr. Michelle Tom, member of the Navajo Nation, family physician, treating COVID-19 patients at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center and Little Colorado Medical Center in northern Arizona near the Navajo reservation. She was a basketball star in college at Arizona State University.
We welcome you both, Doctors, to Democracy Now! Dr. Tom, let’s begin with you. You work in the clinic where you were born. As you listen to Valentina’s story, a 28-year-old Navajo woman who suddenly died after being diagnosed with COVID-19, your response? Can you put it in the context of what’s happening right now in the Navajo Nation?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: It just kind of is a reflection of what we’re going through as a people, and it correlates with what this virus can do to our young and someone who was very motivated, loved our culture, spread our culture, our rich and strong, and our language. And that’s what we’re trying to fight for. You know, there’s not many who really promote really great things, who is a young person, and she was one of them. And she was going to lead our next generation. And so, it was a hard loss of our community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Tom, why do you think there has been such a devastation in terms of COVID-19 throughout the Native population, especially in Navajo Country?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: I think the spread — we’re a very matriarchal society, and we have a connection to the land and to our community. And so, we really concentrate on the community. And when someone is sick, we tend to be there for one another. And we live in multigenerational homes. So, the contact of that and the spread is obviously more than we wanted, but that was just part of our culture, is to help one another and to visit one another and encourage one another. And being with a very strong family and all these strong ties, that was probably — you know, it’s multifactorial, but that was one of the reasons.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the external conditions confronted day to day? For instance, as much as 40% of people in the Navajo reservation do not have running water, how that affects their ability to combat this disease?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: Oh, absolutely. And that’s from a long state of histories with treaties and our relationship with the government. We’ve had — set aside for certain things like that, and our infrastructure for water has never been at the capacity where we can provide water for everyone on the reservation. So, you’re telling people to wash your hands for 20 seconds, and yet people are trying just to get water just to drink and just to cook with. And we know that water is part of a healthy body. You know, so, when you’re trying to have people wash things all the time, we are struggling with just clean water in general.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Dr. Sriram Shamasunder into the conversation. You’re leading this group of volunteer doctors and nurses from San Francisco to Navajo Nation. You’re in Gallup, that is put under lockdown right now by the governor because of this massive outbreak. You’ve described treating four generations of one family. Talk about your work that you’ve been doing there for years.
DR. SRIRAM SHAMASUNDER: Yes. So, I helped co-found the HEAL Initiative, which is a global health immersive fellowship that trains and transforms frontline health professionals to make serving the underserved a lifelong choice. And so, over the last five years, we’ve had 150 frontline health professionals come through our program. And half of them are U.S. doctors or nurses, and the other half are either Navajo or from countries such as Haiti or Mexico or Malawi or India. And so it’s this really diverse community of frontline workers that are trying to get better at serving underserved populations.
And we worked in Navajo Nation for the last five years, since 2015, and had partnerships. And I think it’s important to know that before COVID-19, Indian Health Service, Navajo population, what we’re seeing right now is this trajectory of an underfunded health system, where IHS is funded one-third the rate per capita as the VA or Medicare. And the level of inequity that you’re seeing and the COVID cases that you’re seeing in Gallup, as well as Chinle, it’s part of this pattern. You know, in Michigan and Chicago, we know that in Michigan, 14% of the population are Black folks, and yet 40% of the deaths are Black people. And in Navajo Nation and in New Mexico, 11% of the population is Native American, but you see almost a third of the cases, of COVID cases, being Native American.
And I think in — I’ve been practicing both in Gallup, New Mexico, with our team of volunteers, as well as Chinle, Arizona. In Gallup, I think what’s amazing is that I am running a sprint, but my colleagues, like Dr. Tom, have really been running this marathon for a long period of time. And so, in Gallup, they’ve done an amazing job. I think you’ve have seen this incredible local leadership, where they’ve been able to put 125 unsheltered people, community members, into motel rooms and have a collaboration to take care of them, as well as stop community spread.
And in Chinle, Arizona, this last weekend, I was taking care of patients. And like you mentioned, Amy, there’s been four generations — a great-grandmother, a grandmother, a mother and daughter — that were all hospitalized. And I think that this is what the Navajo — my Navajo colleagues have been dealing with for the last six weeks. And the surge is upon us, where, taking care of a grandmother this last weekend, we’re always deciding whether these facilities can manage.
And it’s such a humbling disease, because a lot of the facilities that we’re in, once you intubate the patient, you have to transfer them to Phoenix or Albuquerque. And so, all the providers are trying to learn what is the trajectory, because every time you intubate a patient, it’s just one more level beyond what we deal with in San Francisco, because the Navajo people, where the land is so sacred, they are going to wake up isolated in another city, such as Phoenix or Albuquerque. And I think that that is humbling. So, the providers, the Navajo providers, are trying to see how much can they take care of their patients in their facilities, and when is it not safe anymore and they’re going to have to transfer patients out.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Dr. Shamasunder, I wanted to ask you about the extraordinary mobilization of the tribal authorities to combat COVID-19, and also how the government of New Mexico, the state government, has responded. Obviously, there was a lot of reports about the state invoking the Riot Control Act and sealing off Gallup. Could you talk about both, the state response and the tribal government response, especially in view of what we’ve been seeing of the relative inaction at the federal level on this disease?
DR. SRIRAM SHAMASUNDER: Yeah. I think that the incredible resourcefulness and resilience of the Navajo people is totally apparent when we come here. We actually met with President Nez, the Navajo president, when we arrived. And he’s really been on the forefront of having people shelter in place. And really, you know, like Dr. Tom was saying, when you’re trying to shelter in place and you live with eight or 10 people and this expansive definition of family where the community is so connected, you’re going to have community spread. And so, the outbreak, I think, in Navajo Nation is not a lack of leadership. I think President Nez has been incredible at having these weekend lockdowns, which is extremely difficult for the Navajo people, and is really leading with wearing masks in public, and so doing all the right things, I think, from the national sovereign level. And he’s been very vocal to say that the federal response has been extremely slow.
And that’s what I’ve seen in Chinle, Arizona. We have HEAL fellows that are behavioral health coaches, that are not — are usually not taking care of COVID patients at this time, so they’ve taken over the cafeteria and are making PPE and sewing PPE, and so the whole cafeteria has folks sewing PPE. So, I think you see, from the top of the Navajo leadership to the citizens and health professionals, really leading an incredible response. And the federal government has just been incredibly slow.
And then, obviously, Gallup is a border town, which is not under jurisdiction of the Navajo government, but it is an area where a lot of Navajo people come to get groceries, come into town, and there’s a lot of activity. And it’s the second-highest caseload of new cases in the country in the last two weeks. And, you know, I’m here. I’m going to go on shift later today. And the Gallup providers have just said — earlier, last week, they said, you know, “I don’t think we need you.” And this week, they’re saying, “We’re getting exhausted. The surge is just coming and coming, and there’s more and more patients. And we need you to help out and do some shifts.” And I think the New Mexican government has been strong and really almost following the lead that the Navajo president has put in place.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Dr. Michelle Tom, we have 30 seconds. What you feel the rest of the country should understand, especially with compromised healthcare, in general, in the area, due to poverty, due to uranium mining and how that compromises the health of so many people?
DR. MICHELLE TOM: Yes, it’s just access, just funding. And it’s kind of made our work harder. But like Dr. Sri said, we’re coming together as community. I’m proud of our nation. I’m proud of the facilities I work for. And yeah, just getting the public health notice out there, of just wash your hands, social distancing, maybe hand sanitizer, and really just listening to our leaders right now, and healthcare professionals. So, you know —
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much, Dr. Michelle Tom —
DR. MICHELLE TOM: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: — speaking to us from Winslow, Arizona, Navajo Nation family physician, one of the few Navajo doctors on the reservation. And Dr. Sriram Shamasunder, associate professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, has led a group of doctors and nurses to Navajo Nation, has been doing that since 2015, and in Gallup, New Mexico, right now, which is under lockdown.
When we come back, the pandemic in prisons. We go to one prison in Ohio where 80% of the prisoners have tested positive, half the staff. We’ll go to Marion. And we’ll talk about prison abolition. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the audio premiere of Steve Earle’s new song, “Union, God, and Country,” from his latest album, Ghosts of West Virginia, that will be released May 22nd and centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed 29 men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. Steve Earle says, quote, “West Virginia was the most unionized place in America until very recently. Upper Big Branch was the first non-union mine on that mountain — and it blew up and killed 29 men. This is a song about better days,” he said.
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SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/native-american-tribes-say-theyre-at.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-judge-sided-with-native-american.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com2020/05/extreme/-lockdown-shows-divide-in-hard.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/usa-small-tribes-seal-borders-push.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/trump-cant-mask-his-message-to-indian.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/south-dakota-gov.html
