THIRD WORLD USA
Why has Navajo Nation been so hit hard by the coronavirus?

Navajo Nation has the highest per capita infection rate in US, highlighting centuries of neglect, native leaders say.

by Creede Newton

Navajo Nation leaders announced last week that it had the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the United States, outpacing hot spots like New York. The grim statistic highlights the historical failings of the US government, Navajo leaders say.

There were 4,794 cases out of the Navajo Nation's 173,000 residents as of Monday, according to Navajo Nation authorities, and that number could rise as testing increases. At least 157 people have died.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a Monday press release that "14.6 percent of our citizens have been tested so far. The Navajo Nation continues to test at a higher rate per capita than any state in the country."

The Navajo Nation government has issued emergency measures: Masks are required in public, and total lockdown curfews are implemented over the weekends to inhibit movement in an effort to stem the virus' spread.

Compounding the problem are the high rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity on the reservation.

About 30 percent of homes on the Navajo Nation are also without running water. This presents challenges to meet Centers for Disease Control guidelines, including the thorough washing of hands.

"You got the feds, you got everybody saying, 'Wash your hands with soap and water,' but our people are still hauling water. Here's a great opportunity for us to get running water to the Navajo people," Nez said at a digital town hall meeting on May 12.

Raynelle Hoskie attaches a hose to a water pump to fill tanks in her truck outside a tribal office on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Arizona [File: Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo]

For Mark Charles, a member of the Navajo Nation who is running as an independent for US president in 2020, it is important to understand why the Navajo Nation faces these issues.

"It's a problem 250 years in the making, going back to how this nation was founded. The ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies … that's where the problem lies," Chares told Al Jazeera.

The reason "healthcare is poor, treaties are not being upheld", according to Charles, who is running a campaign on creating a nation "for all people".
Generational discrimination

The Navajo Nation is a 71,000 square kilometre (27,413 square mile) semi-autonomous territory spanning three US states - Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It essentially serves as a reservation for the over 350,000 Navajo people who live there.

The Dine, as the Navajo call themselves, faced a long history of displacement and dispossession as the US expanded west in the 19th century, with conflicts and forced relocations common.

Only Native American running for US presidency (2:16)

It culminated in the 1864 "Long Walk", when the Navajo were forcibly removed from their traditional homelands in present-day Arizona and Western New Mexico and forced to walk over 500 kilometres (310 miles) to Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, where they were kept in internment camps.

The Long Walk and the wars that preceded it decimated the Navajo. Many died along the way from exposure, starvation, exhaustion and violence from the US troops that escorted them.

The Navajo population went from roughly 25,000 to between 5,000 and 8,000, according to estimates.

The Navajo signed a treaty with the US government in 1868 which established a sovereign Navajo Nation that was still dependent on Washington.

As with many Indigenous peoples, the treaty between the US and the Navajo promised funding for healthcare, infrastructure - including that which contributes to water access - and other important areas.

However, the US government has continually failed to uphold agreements with the Navajo Nation, Charles claimed, citing a lack of funding for healthcare and infrastructure that has contributed to the challenges faced by the Navajo Nation.

"The infrastructure is never fixed. The treaty is never honoured", Charles said.

Underfunded

The Navajo, like other federally recognised tribes, are provided healthcare by the Indian Health Service (IHS), a US government agency. The IHS operates largely on reservations, but also maintains facilities in nearby communities.

But the IHS has been accused of "unacceptable" care.

"What we've found is simply horrifying and unacceptable. In my view, the information provided to this committee and witness first-hand can be summed up in one word: malpractice," Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso, who was then chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said at a hearing on the IHS in 2016.

A member of the Navajo Nation, receives his monthly water delivery in the town of Thoreau [Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP]

But the IHS has been chronically underfunded, presenting challenges to operations.

"The number of doctors, nurses, and dentists is insufficient," according to a report on the IHS prepared for the Interior Department cited by US media. "Because of small appropriations, the salaries for the personnel in health work are materially below those paid by the government in its other activities concerned with public health and medical relief."

The Trump administration has made increased funding for the IHS a priority, and the coronavirus pandemic has spurred this effort, according to IHS officials.

"President Trump has prioritised the health and well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives throughout his presidency and the COVID-19 crisis," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement emailed to Al Jazeera.

Congress allotted tribal nations eight billion dollars in total for tribes in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in March. The majority of the funds allotted for the IHS has been distributed, while other funds for Indigenous governments meant to lessen the economic impact of the pandemic were delayed by court cases.

The Navajo Nation had received roughly $600m of these funds by May 6, Nez confirmed to local media.

On May 22, Azar announced the Trump administration is "making a targeted allocation from the funds Congress provided to send $500 million to Indian healthcare facilities.

"Combined with other funding, supplies, and flexibility around telehealth, we are working with tribal governments to do everything we can to support heroic Indian healthcare workers and protect Indian Country from COVID-19", Azar said.

Indigenous resilience

For his part, Nez has claimed the US has "forgotten" about the Navajo Nation, although they are US citizens. But the "curve is flattening" on the Navajo Nation, Nez said in the release.

"Testing, contact tracing, and the public health orders that were implemented months ago requiring protective masks in public and weekend lockdowns are working and flattening the curve".

For Charles, the Navajo running for president, this is largely thanks to the efforts of the Navajo themselves.

"I applaud President Nez and the work that the entire Navajo Nation is doing. I recognise that it is because of this 250 year of this unreconciled injustice" that the situation has gotten to this point, Charles said.

"I call on the government to immediately begin to honour treaties that were signed and to begin to build true nation-to-nation relationships with Indigenous nations."



SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

PHOTO ESSAY

On Navajo Nation, a push to electrify more homes on the vast reservation

JOSHUA A. BICKEL and SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Updated Sun, October 27, 2024

HALCHITA, Utah (AP) — After a five-year wait, Lorraine Black and Ricky Gillis heard the rumblings of an electrical crew reach their home on the sprawling Navajo Nation.

In five days' time, their home would be connected to the power grid, replacing their reliance on a few solar panels and propane lanterns. No longer would the CPAP machine Gillis uses for sleep apnea or his home heart monitor transmitting information to doctors 400 miles away face interruptions due to intermittent power. It also means Black and Gillis can now use more than a few appliances — such as a fridge, a TV, and an evaporative cooling unit — at the same time.

“We’re one of the luckiest people who get to get electric,” Gillis said.

Many Navajo families still live without running water and electricity, a product of historic neglect and the struggle to get services to far-flung homes on the 27,000-square-mile (70,000-square-kilometer) Native American reservation that lies in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Some rely on solar panels or generators, which can be patchy, and others have no electricity whatsoever.

Gillis and Black filed an application to connect their home back in 2019. But when the coronavirus pandemic started ravaging the tribe and everything besides essential services was shut down on the reservation, it further stalled the process.

Their wait highlights the persistent challenges in electrifying every Navajo home, even with recent injections of federal money for tribal infrastructure and services and as extreme heat in the Southwest intensified by climate change adds to the urgency.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of on how tribes and Indigenous communities are coping with and combating climate change.

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“We are a part of America that a lot of the time feels kind of left out,” said Vircynthia Charley, district manager at the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, a non-for-profit utility that provides electric, water, wastewater, natural gas and solar energy services.

For years, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has worked to get more Navajo homes connected to the grid faster. Under a program called Light Up Navajo, which uses a mix of private and public funding, outside utilities from across the U.S. send electric crews to help connect homes and extend power lines.

But installing power on the reservation roughly the size of West Virginia is time-consuming and expensive due to its rugged geography and the vast distances between homes. Drilling for power poles there can take several hours because of underground rock deposits while some homes near Monument Valley must have power lines installed underground to meet strict regulations around development in the area.

About 32% of Navajo homes still have no electricity. Connecting the remaining 10,400 homes on the reservation would cost $416 million, said Deenise Becenti, government and public affairs manager at the utility.

This year, Light Up Navajo connected 170 more families to the grid. Since the program started in 2019, 882 Navajo families have had their homes electrified. If the program stays funded, Becenti said it could take another 26 years to connect every home on the reservation.

Those that get connected immediately reap the benefits.

Until this month, Black and Gillis' solar panels that the utility installed a few years ago would last about two to three days before their battery drained in cloudy weather. It would take another two days to recharge.

“You had to really watch the watts and whatever you’re using on a cloudy day,” Gillis said.

Then a volunteer power crew from Colorado helped install 14 power poles while the tribal utility authority drilled holes six feet deep in which the poles would sit. The crew then ran a wire about a mile down a red sand road from the main power line to the couple's home.

“The lights are brighter,” Black remarked after her home was connected.

In recent years, significantly more federal money has been allocated for tribes to improve infrastructure on reservations, including $32 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — of which Navajo Nation received $112 million for electric connections. The Navajo tribal utility also received $17 million through the Biden administration's climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, to connect families to the electric grid. But it can be slow to see the effects of that money on the ground due to bureaucracy and logistics.

Next spring, the tribal utility authority hopes to connect another 150 homes, including the home of Priscilla and Leo Dan.

For the couple, having grid electricity at their home near Navajo Mountain in Arizona would end a nearly 12 year wait. They currently live in a recreational vehicle elsewhere closer to their jobs, but have worked on their home on the reservation for years. With power there, they could spend more time where Priscilla grew up and where her dad still lives.

It would make life simpler, Priscilla said. “Because otherwise, everything, it seems like, takes twice as long to do.”



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Naishadham reported from Washington.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.





Robert Black, left, with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, supervises as a volunteer crew lifts a power line pole, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. 

(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

A crew with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority installs power poles for a home, at top right, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah.

 (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

A crew lifts a power line pole during construction at a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. 

(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Liam Gillis, 7, holds one of his chickens, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lorraine Black, left and Ricky Gillis, right, pose for a portrait with their grandson, Liam Gillis, 7, outside their home, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A volunteer pets a dog before starting power line construction for a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A crew with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority installs power poles, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ryan Smith, left, a foreman with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, checks the depth of a power pole during construction, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Robert Black, a project leader with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, relaxes in a truck during a lunch break while installing power line poles at a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ricky Gillis, right, drives his grandson, Liam, 7, left, back to their home after picking him up from the school bus stop, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ricky Gillis collects water for use in a evaporative air cooling unit, at left, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Liam Gillis, 7, corrals his chickens, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ricky Gillis looks at the sunset, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Liam Gillis, 7, relaxes after school with his grandfather, Ricky, top left, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at their home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lorraine Black sits inside her kitchen, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lorraine Black, left, along with her husband, Ricky Gillis, center, and grandson, Liam Gillis, 7, walk outside their home, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The sun sets, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, near Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

US Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in water dispute

 The United States Supreme Court building in Washington

Thu, June 22, 2023 
By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a setback to the Navajo Nation, rejecting its bid to require the federal government to develop a plan to secure water access for the tribe on reservation lands in the parched American southwest.

The justices, in a 5-4 decision authored by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concluded that an 1868 peace treaty between the United States and the tribe did not require the government to take steps such as assessing the tribe's water needs and potentially building pipelines, pumps and wells.

More than 30% of households on the Navajo reservation currently lack running water, according to the tribe.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has supported Native Americans rights in various cases since joining the court in 2017, dissented from the decision along with the court's three liberal justices.

"The 1868 treaty reserved necessary water to accomplish the purpose of the Navajo Reservation," Kavanaugh wrote in the ruling. "But the treaty did not require the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Tribe."

The treaty, reached three years after the conclusion of the U.S. Civil War, ended two decades of sporadic fighting between the United States and the Navajos and established the Navajo Reservation, which encompasses roughly 17 million acres (6.9 million hectares), largely in the Colorado River Basin.

The treaty secured the right of the Navajos to make use of the land, minerals and water on the reservation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Gorsuch criticized the ruling for deciding more than what was required by the case. In his dissent, Gorsuch wrote that the Navajos sought simply to identify the water rights that the U.S. government holds in trust on the tribe's behalf.

"The government owes the Tribe at least that much," Gorsuch wrote.

The ruling reversed a decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had given a green light to the Navajo Nation's lawsuit against the U.S. Interior Department and others seeking to prod the government to develop a plan to secure water for the tribe. The 9th Circuit said that the government had a "duty to protect and preserve the Nation's right to water."

"The Department of the Interior is committed to upholding its trust and treaty obligations to Tribes, as well as to ensuring that water rights for Colorado River users are fulfilled according to the law. We are reviewing the decision," a department spokesperson said in a statement following Thursday's ruling.

The decision follows another ruling this month in which the Supreme Court upheld a decades-old federal law governing Native American adoption and foster care placements, throwing out a challenge brought by the state of Texas and other plaintiffs to standards that give preferences to Native Americans and tribal members.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights case

 Raynelle Hoskie attaches a hose to a water pump to fill tanks in her truck outside a tribal office on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Ariz., on April 20, 2020. The Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California had urged the court to decide for them, and that's what the justices did in a 5-4 ruling. 

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

JESSICA GRESKO
Thu, June 22, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation on Thursday in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.

States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California that are also involved in the case had urged the court to decide for them, which the justices did in a 5-4 ruling. Colorado had argued that siding with the Navajo Nation would undermine existing agreements and disrupt the management of the river.

The Biden administration had said that if the court were to come down in favor of the Navajo Nation, the federal government could face lawsuits from many other tribes.

Lawyers for the Navajo Nation had characterized the tribe’s request as modest, saying they simply were seeking an assessment of the tribe's water needs and a plan to meet them.

The facts of the case go back to treaties that the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The second treaty established the reservation as the tribe’s “permanent home” — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. In 2003 the tribe sued the federal government, arguing it had failed to consider or protect the Navajo Nation’s water rights to the lower portion of the Colorado River.

Writing for a majority made up of conservative justices, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained that “the Navajos contend that the treaty requires the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos — for example, by assessing the Tribe's water needs, developing a plan to secure the needed water, and potentially building pipelines, pumps, wells, or other water infrastructure.”

But, Kavanaugh said, "In light of the treaty's text and history, we conclude that the treaty does not require the United States to take those affirmative steps.”

Kavanaugh acknowledged that water issues are difficult ones.

“Allocating water in the arid regions of the American West is often a zero-sum situation,” he wrote. It is important, he said, for courts to leave “to Congress and the President the responsibility to enact appropriations laws and to otherwise update federal law as they see fit in light of the competing contemporary needs for water.”

A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but an appeals court allowed it to go forward. The Supreme Court's decision reverses that ruling from the appeals court.

In a dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that he would have allowed the case to go forward and he characterized the Navajo's position as a “simple ask.”

“Where do the Navajo go from here?” he wrote. “To date, their efforts to find out what water rights the United States holds for them have produced an experience familiar to any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another.”

Gorsuch said one “silver lining” of the case may be that his colleagues in the majority recognized that the tribe may still be able to “assert the interests they claim in water rights litigation, including by seeking to intervene in cases that affect their claimed interests.”

Gorsuch, a conservative and Colorado native who has emerged as a champion of Native rights since joining the court in 2017, was joined by the court's three liberals: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

During arguments in the case in March, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the Navajo Nation’s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.

Today, the Colorado River flows along what is now the northwestern border of the tribe’s reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Two of the river’s tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, one-third of the some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the largest in the country, do not have running water in their homes.

The government argued that it has helped the tribe secure water from the Colorado River’s tributaries and provided money for infrastructure, including pipelines, pumping plants and water treatment facilities. But it said no law or treaty required the government to assess and address the tribe’s general water needs. The states involved in the case argued that the Navajo Nation was attempting to make an end run around a Supreme Court decree that divvied up water in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin.

In a statement, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren called the ruling “disappointing" and said the tribe's lawyers “continue to analyze the opinion and determine what it means for this particular lawsuit.”

“My job as the President of the Navajo Nation is to represent and protect the Navajo people, our land, and our future,” Nygren said. “The only way to do that is with secure, quantified water rights to the Lower Basin of the Colorado River.”

Rita McGuire, a lawyer who represented states opposing the tribe’s claims, said the court “ruled exactly right” and that “we’re very pleased.”

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Associated Press reporter Michael Phillis in St. Louis contributed to this report.

In a scathing dissent, Neil Gorsuch compared the Navajo Nation's plight to the experience of 'any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles'

Sonam Sheth

 Business Insider
Thu, June 22, 2023 

Neil Gorsuch.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the US is not required to secure water for the Navajo Nation.


Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent comparing the plight of the Navajos to waiting at the DMV.


The Navajo "have tried it all," he wrote. "At each turn, they have received the same answer: 'Try again.'"

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote an impassioned dissent comparing the Navajo Nation's fight over water rights to the experience of "any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles."

"The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another," Gorsuch wrote.

The high court ruled 5-4 in Arizona v. Navajo Nation on Thursday that under an 1868 treaty, the US is not required to secure water for the Navajo Nation.

Specifically, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who delivered the majority opinion, argued that the Navajo Nation was asking the federal government to take "affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos."

But Gorsuch wrote in his dissent that the majority "rejects a request the Navajo Nation never made."

Instead, he wrote, "the relief the Tribe seeks is far more modest."

The Navajo "have a simple ask: They want the United States to identify the water rights it holds for them," he wrote. "And if the United States has misappropriated the Navajo's water rights, the Tribe asks it to formulate a plan to stop doing so prospectively."

Gorsuch, who was nominated by then President Donald Trump in 2017, has a long history of ruling in favor of Indigenous rights. And at 26 pages, his dissent in Arizona v. Navajo Nation was twice as long as the majority opinion.

The court's three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — joined Gorsuch in his dissent. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett joined in the majority opinion.

Gorsuch in his dissent underscored the Navajo Nation's efforts to avoid taking its case to the Supreme Court.

The US "has never denied that the Navajo may have water rights in the mainstream of the Colorado River (and perhaps elsewhere) that it holds in trust for the Tribe," Gorsuch wrote. "Instead, the government's constant refrain is that the Navajo can have all they ask for; they just need to go somewhere else and do something else first."

They "have tried it all. They have written federal officials. They have moved this Court to clarify the United States' responsibilities when representing them," he wrote. "They have sought to intervene directly in water-related litigation. And when all of those efforts were rebuffed, they brought a claim seeking to compel the United States to make good on its treaty obligations by providing an accounting of what water rights it holds on their behalf. At each turn, they have received the same answer: 'Try again.'"

NBC News highlighted the stakes of the case in March.

Crystal Tulley-Cordova, a hydrologist in the Navajo Nation's department of water resources, told NBC that the tribe needs enough water to transition from "survival mode to thriving mode."

The Navajo Nation first filed a lawsuit in 2003 arguing that the US government was required to ensure that the tribe had enough access to water on its reservation. Twenty years later, the litigation wound up before the high court.

Gorsuch in his dissent wrote that the majority "neglect[ed]" to take into account the violent history leading up to the Treaty of 1868 establishing the Navajo Reservation, the "discussions that surrounded that Treaty," and "the many steps the Navajo took to avoid this litigation."

But he highlighted that the majority opinion left open the possibility that the Navajo can seek to intervene in future cases that "affect their claimed interests" in water-rights litigation.

"After today," Gorsuch wrote, "it is hard to see how this Court (or any court) could ever again fairly deny a request" from the Navajo to intervene in such cases.

That leaves the tribe "in a familiar spot," he continued. As they did at Bosque Redondo, "they must again fight for themselves to secure their homeland and all that must necessarily come with it. Perhaps here, as there, some measure of justice will prevail in the end."

LISTEN LIVE: Supreme Court hears cases over rights of Navajo Nation to water from Colorado River

PBS THREE MONTHS AGO

 

Energy Fuels suspends uranium transports in response to Navajo challenge

07 August 2024

US uranium producer Energy Fuels Inc has voluntarily suspended transportation of uranium across Navajo lands after the Navajo Nation challenged the legality of the transport. The company said it is working with the Navajo Nation to find a resolution.

Buu Nygren issues the executive order prohibiting uranium transport (Image: Navajo Nation Office of the President)

Late last year, Energy Fuels announced that it had started production at the Pinyon Plain mine in Arizona, as well as at the La Sal project in Eastern Utah, with ore from those mines to be stockpiled at its White Mesa mill in Utah for processing. For Pinyon Plain, this involves trucking material over Navajo Nation lands.

On 31 July, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued an executive order banning the transport of radioactive material through the Navajo Nation without a prior agreement, citing Navajo laws regarding the transport of radioactive materials in the Navajo Nation Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 and the Navajo Nation’s 2012 Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Vehicles, Persons and Materials Transportation Act. The order will last for six months. Nygren said the order had been signed after Energy Fuels the previous day transported an estimated 50 tonnes of uranium ore through tribal lands without providing the notice required under the 2012 law.

Energy Fuels had informed federal, state, county, and tribal officials more than 10 days earlier about the legal requirements, safety, emergency response, and the imminent shipping of uranium ore, though without giving a specific date.

In the company's second quarter earnings call on 5 August, CEO Mark Chalmers said the company believes it has the necessary licences and rights for the shipments but respects the Navajo Nation's concerns and has voluntarily suspended shipments. Both sides are "looking for a resolution" on moving forward, he said.

Energy Fuels and its predecessor companies had completed uranium shipments across the reservation lands for many decades up to the last shipment, which took place in 2022, without a single incident, Chalmers said, and had worked with members of the Navajo nation, including arranging visits to the mines and mill to witness loading and unloading "so that they were comfortable with those shipments." According to the company's presentation, around half of the employees at the White Mesa mill are Navajo and Native American.

President Nygren wants the legacy of Cold War era uranium mining operations on Navajo land to be addressed (Image: Navajo Nation Office of the President)

Legacy issues

One of the reasons for the Navajo Nation's concerns is a "long legacy of uranium issues that have nothing to do with Energy Fuels - most were created by legacy arrangements with the US Government during the Cold War," he said, but the company was working with the Navajo Nation to address these concerns. "The biggest issue … is they want safe transport of materials across the Navajo nation, and we absolutely respect that. We absolutely respect that it has to be done safely - we have done it over time, and we plan to sit down with them to make sure that it is safely transported," he said.

Nygren's office also highlighted the legacy of Cold War uranium mining activities in a 2 August blog post, which said the President's deployment of tribal police to intercept Energy Fuels' uranium transport trucks had been "because of his priority to clean up abandoned uranium mines and mills."

Between 1944 and 1986, more than 30 million tonnes of uranium ore was extracted from the Navajo Nation for the US nuclear weapons programme, but the legacy of those operations - including radioactive contamination impacts on Navajo miners and their families - has not been adressed.

"Cleanup of these 500 abandoned uranium mine and mill sites is a major priority of my administration," President Nygren said. "It is why I deployed the Navajo Nation police to block what I think is the illegal transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation. Cleanup must happen first, and the trauma associated with premature sickness and death from the legacies of it."

Ramp up continues

Energy Fuels plans to ramp up ore production from Pinyon Plain, La Sal and Pandora to a production run-rate of around 1.1 to 1.4 million pounds of U3O8 per year by late-2024. The transport moratorium is not expected to hold back development work at Pinyon Plain, Chalmers said.

Alternative transport routes exist and "will all be part of the discussions", he said. "But the route that we have across the reservation is a route that has been studied extensively and it is really the best route, and we intend to continue down that path, but let us continue our discussions with the Navajo nation because, again, we are respectful of their concerns… let's figure out how to alleviate those concerns."

The company expects to produce a total of 150,000-500,000 pounds U3O8 (57.7- 192.3 tU) during 2024 from stockpiled alternate feed materials and newly mined ore.

IsoEnergy reopens US underground uranium mine

08 August 2024

The main decline at the Tony M mine in Utah was successfully reopened on 26 July, and work has begun to rehabilitate the underground workings.

The IsoEnergy team and Garfield County representatives in front of the main portal at Tony M (Image: CNW Group/IsoEnergy Ltd)

Initial observations of underground conditions indicate that the main decline and underground equipment shops are in good condition, IsoEnergy Ltd said. Rehabilitation of the underground, including scaling, installation of ground support and ventilation systems, is expected to take 8 to 10 weeks depending on the ground conditions encountered.

The underground rehabilitation work is being carried out by Tomcat Mining. IsoEnergy is also working with international mining consulting firms SRK Consulting Ltd, on the design and implementation of the ventilation plans, and Call & Nicholas Inc, on the design and implementation of the ground control plans.

As sections of the underground are made safe for entry, it is expected that exploration and geological work will begin to map out the orebody from underground. IsoEnergy is also in the process of contracting a surveying company to complete a LiDAR survey of the complete underground at Tony M. This will be the first time any such survey has been completed at the mine and will be an important tool in future mine planning.

The Saskatoon-based company has been working towards reopening the Tony M underground for access over the course of the last year. Site communications have been re-established, and electrical systems have been upgraded and refurbished where necessary, including the installation of "at least" one new generator meeting the US Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 4 emission standards, it said. Several new fans have been installed and will continue to be installed as part of the rehabilitation, and several existing fans are to be refurbished.

The company announced last February its strategic decision to reopen the past-producing mine during the first half of this year, with the aim of restarting uranium production operations in 2025, depending on market conditions. Energy Fuels Inc's White Mesa - the only currently operational conventional uranium mill in the USA - is within trucking distance to Tony M, and IsoEnergy has a toll-milling agreement which guarantees it access to the mill's capacity.

Garfield County Commissioner Jerry Taylor and IsoEnergy COO Marty Tunney underground at Tony M (Image: CNW Group/IsoEnergy Ltd)

IsoEnergy CEO and Director Philip Williams said: "The reopening of underground at Tony M is an important step in restarting production and establishing IsoEnergy as a near-term uranium producer. Long-term uranium prices have nearly doubled, from USD41/lb U3O8 to USD79/lb U3O8, since we acquired the Tony M, Daneros and Rim Mines in Utah, and with the exceedingly positive global outlook for nuclear power we expect that trend to continue. We believe that proven producing assets in tier one jurisdictions, like Tony M, will be highly coveted by end users making this an ideal time to pursue a restart."

The fully-permitted mine is in Garfield County and is about 66 miles (107 km) from the town of Blanding. It produced nearly one million pounds of U3O8 during two different periods of operation from 1979-1984 and from 2007-2008. It was acquired by IsoEnergy on the company's share-for-share merger with Consolidated Uranium Inc, completed last December. Tony M's current NI 43-101 estimated resources stand at 6.606 million pounds U3O8 (2541 tU) of indicated resources and 2.218 million pounds U3O8 in the inferred resources category.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Navajo Nation President: “Oppenheimer” Erases History of Nuclear Waste Caused to His People

Yahoo News

Navajo Nation citizens have protested uranium mines for years. (Photo/File)

BY LEVI RICKERT 

 

JULY 24, 2023

Hollywood is excited about the blockbuster $80.5 million Oppenheimer brought in during its opening weekend, as reported by Variety. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus, the movie is about the so-called “father of the atomic bomb.”

Hollywood may be gleeful about the long lines to see Oppenheimer, but Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren still thinks Hollywood comes short on reporting on the devastation uranium mining and nuclear testing caused to the country’s largest Indian reservation. 

“The Navajo people cannot afford to be, yet again, erased from history,” Nygren writes in a TIME magazine op-ed on July 21, 2023. 

“Hollywood has a lot of work to do, and they can start by standing with the Navajo people and urging Congress to provide just compensation for victims of radiation exposure,” Nygren writes.

Nygren, 36, is serving his first term as president of the Navajo Nation and is the youngest ever elected president of the tribal nation.

Nygren says the movie was released five days after the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mill spill when 94 million gallons of radioactive waste poured into the Puerco River spanning the northern portions of New Mexico and Arizona where the Navajo Nation is located. 

“What came next—cancers, miscarriages, and mysterious illnesses—is a direct consequence of America’s race for nuclear hegemony. It’s an accomplishment built on top of the bodies of Navajo men, women, and children—the lived experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But, as usual, Hollywood chose to gloss over them.” Nygren writes.

In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), but the problems on the Navajo Nation still persist.

“Despite the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, justice remains elusive for Navajo families who have suffered from the devastating and long-lasting health and environmental effects of the uranium mining industry on Navajo land,” Nygren writes.

While the Oppenheimer movie deals with history, the Navajo Nation still deals with the long-term effects of the spill and uranium mining impacting the lives of its people.

THE NAVAJO SUFFERED FROM NUCLEAR TESTING. OPPENHEIMER DOESN'T TELL OUR STORY

Graffiti opposing mines on the reservation is seen in an abandoned building on Sept. 12, 2022 on the Navajo Nation west of Tuba City, Arizona.
David McNew—Getty Images

IDEAS
BY BUU V. NYGREN
JULY 21, 2023 

Nygren is the 10th and youngest President of the Navajo Nation, the largest land-based Native American tribe in the United States

Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated Oppenheimer comes to the big screen five days after the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mill spill, when 94 million gallons of radioactive waste poured into the Puerco River, spanning northwestern New Mexico and northern Arizona, and across the Navajo Nation. Children played in the contaminated water, while livestock drank from radioactive aquifers. What came next—cancers, miscarriages, and mysterious illnesses—is a direct consequence of America’s race for nuclear hegemony. It’s an accomplishment built on top of the bodies of Navajo men, women, and children—the lived experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But, as usual, Hollywood chose to gloss over them.

The Navajo people cannot afford to be, yet again, erased from history. Hollywood has a lot of work to do, and they can start by standing with the Navajo people and urging Congress to provide just compensation for victims of radiation exposure.

As part of this effort, we must all recognize the continued suffering and sacrifice that built the atomic era. From the 1940s to the 1990s, the U.S. used the Navajo Nation to supply them with uranium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and energy. While ownership of the mines was transferred from the federal government to private companies in 1971, the U.S. failed to enforce proper safety standards, leaving the sites unregulated until 1990 when the last mine closed. More than 500 now abandoned mines cover our land as a result. Miners and their families were kept in the dark about the heinous dangers of radiation exposure, so they went about their daily activities like any other community. Workers drank the mine’s cool spring water, while their wives washed their yellowed work clothes. Families built homes with local rocks and sediment and let their children play for hours on uranium byproducts, including mine debris piles. Despite the U.S. government’s awareness of the risks inherent in uranium mining, most Navajos did not know what radiation was—let alone the danger presented by every second of exposure.

Read More: Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

Growing up in a community that has an abandoned uranium mine in Red Mesa, Arizona, I witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking and enduring consequences of uranium mining on my people. Despite the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, justice remains elusive for Navajo families who have suffered from the devastating and long-lasting health and environmental effects of the uranium mining industry on Navajo land.

While RECA has provided life-saving healthcare coverage for some uranium miners, the legislation’s limited scope has left many Navajo people suffering from radiation exposure without any compensation. The list of diseases covered by the law is, to start, woefully incomplete. Renal cancer, nephritis, and kidney tubal tissue injury are just some of the conditions that were initially excluded because of a lack of available scientific data connecting them to radiation exposure. RECA also excludes Navajo miners employed after 1971 from eligibility for compensation. Yet, the work they did, and the dangers they faced, remained exactly the same.

This is not a problem of the past. As of August 1, 2022, more than 53,804 claims have been filed under RECA. Of those, more than 12% identified as Navajos. Navajo miners and their families suffer a wide variety of cancers and radiation-related illnesses, with new victims regularly diagnosed. Women living near the mines have experienced stillbirths and miscarriages at abhorrent rates and their children carry the physical legacy of the Cold War through developmental delays, chromosomal aberrations, and other birth defects.

The Navajo people have suffered and sacrificed so much, while directly contributing to our country’s post-war pursuit of nuclear superiority. And while our Navajo Code Talkers are esteemed for heroically saving countless lives in the South Pacific during World War II, our uranium miners have largely been overlooked. The only thank-you for their years of patriotic service has been death, disease, and decades of advocacy to recognize their sacrifice.

Time is slipping away for Navajo uranium miners and their descendants, their hopes dangling in the balance. With each passing day, their weary bodies bear the weight of diseases inflicted by their labor; the clock ticks, mercilessly. As they wait for existing claims to be processed and for expanded eligibility through the RECA amendments, their precious time on this earth dwindles, a poignant reminder of the urgent need for justice and compassion.

The legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo is a perpetual blemish on our nation’s history with its Native people, and the disregard of our stories from media and movies like Oppenheimer can’t mean a continued erasure in U.S. policy. Acknowledging the harm done means living up to the intended purpose of RECA: to compensate all those impacted by the harms of the nuclear age. It is only then that my people can begin to heal and our beautiful and sacred land can be restored. We need the world to hear us and provide the justice that has long been denied to our people.

The Navajo Vote Helped Win Arizona for Biden

Ride to the Polls on the Navajo Nation.

BY LEVI RICKERT 

 

NOVEMBER 08, 2020 

https://nativenewsonline.net/

Opinion. Back in May, I talked to a Navajo woman, who gave her time as a volunteer to elderly Navajo citizens who were impacted by Covid-19. In addition to her full-time job with the federal government she volunteered her time to help get much needed supplies, such as water and other basic needs, to the Navajo elderly.

She relayed a story to me about an elderly Navajo grandmother who followed all of the lockdown guidelines. She told me the grandmother washed her hands and had stayed home for over a month. However, her children and grandchildren came to visit her and sadly the Navajo grandmother contracted Covid-19 and had died the night prior.

Overcome with sadness and grief, the volunteer said she had to cut the call short.

Back in May, it was already becoming clear that the Navajo Nation was being ravaged by the coronavirus. At one point, it had one of the highest per capita outbreaks of Covid-19 in the world. It became and remains the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic across Indian Country. As of Saturday night, there have been 12,447 positive cases and the death rate approaches 600 with 591.

Last week, as I worked on an article about Navajo voters riding horseback to vote on the Navajo Nation, I interviewed Allie Young, a young enterprising 30-year-old Navajo woman who organized the Ride to the Polls. Separate from the Ride to the Polls initiative, Young co-founded Protect the Sacred, a grassroots initiative created in response to Covid-19 to educate and empower Navajo youth and Native youth throughout Indian Country to rise up as the next generation of leaders by protecting their elders, their languages and their cultures.

Speaking about Ride to the Polls initiative, Young told me, “We rode to the polls to honor our ancestors who fought for the right to vote. We also rode to honor those who died from Covid-19, who are not here to vote in this election.”

At the end of my conversation with Young, I asked her about the Navajos for Trump movement. She said she didn’t think there were really all that many. She said in the age of social media, attention goes to those who make the most noise there—even if there aren’t that many.

Young’s comments proved true.

The election results showed in the three counties in northeast Arizona that overlap with the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe, tribal citizens in precincts voted for Joe Biden with 73,954 votes to only 2,010 for Donald Trump. The Native votes translated to a rate of 97 percent for Biden as opposed to 51 percent throughout the entire state.

As of Saturday night, Biden led over Trump by 18,610 votes. Given the lopsided vote, it can be suggested the Navajo played a significant role in helping turn Arizona blue.

In spite of the pandemic that is literally killing its tribal citizens, it makes sense that the Navajo people would vote for Biden over Trump. The Trump administration has done a horrible job nationwide in handling the Covid-19 pandemic and the ineptness extended to the Navajo Nation. Response from the federal government to assist the Navajo Nation was very slow. Federal funds earmarked by Congress to provide Covid-19 relief were slow getting there.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has been extremely critical of the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic and its slow response time to provide the tribal nation with assistance.

The Navajo Nation joined a lawsuit in federal court to receive funds allocated for Indian Country outlined in the CARES Act.

After Biden was declared president-elect on Saturday morning, Nez released a statement on the Biden-Harris victory. He said a large majority of Navajo voters had a major impact on the outcome of the presidential election.

“In October, I had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with Biden and Harris to talk about the ‘Biden-Harris Plan for Tribal Nations’ and we were assured that tribal nations would always have a seat at the table. The Navajo Nation now looks forward to working together with the Biden-Harris Administration to put that plan into action,” Nez said.

The Navajo Nation and other tribal nations in Indian Country look forward to working with an administration that has an understanding of the needs unique to tribal nations.

At various times on Saturday as celebrations broke out in major cities across the United States, I kept going back to the story about the Navajo grandmother who died in May and what Young told me about how the Navajo rode on horseback to honor those who died of Covid-19 and could not vote in this election.

In this historic new era, we must all work to ensure the votes cast were not in vain.

SEE Arizona and Wisconsin: How Indigenous Voters Helpe...

Trump Can’t Mask His Message to Indian Country: 'Live and Let Die'
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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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