Updated 6/12/20
Given the socio-economic realities of many Indigenous communities in the U.S. –Ěýpoverty, limited or contaminated resources,Ěýhealth serviceĚýand infrastructure disparitiesĚý– particular care and attention must be paid to First Nations and Native people during the coronavirus pandemic. For financial support and the economic stability of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S., we've compiledĚýstimulus legislationĚýresources and grant and business development opportunities, as well asĚýrecommended reading.
For health concerns, First Peoples recommends updates and resources from theĚý ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý, updates on from the Center for World Indigenous Studies, and officialĚý. For daily and developing news specific to Indian Country, visitĚýĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý. Additionally, theĚýĚýoffers aĚýlist of tribal initiatives, best practices, and service provision strategies.
'CARES ACT'ĚýAND STIMULUS LEGISLATION
Ěý
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has produced a in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a federal package appropriating $2 trillion for economic stimulus in the U.S., $8 billion of which aids tribal nations.
(PDF)
JustMoney.org created a user-friendly, step-by-step explanation of the Paycheck ProtectionĚýProgram (PPP) enacted as part of the CARES Act. The Loan Program provides financial support for small businesses, nonprofits and tribal businesses with 500 or fewer employees.
In addition to the PPP, the National Law Review outlines several other loan programs and relief grant opportunities within the CARES Act specific to Native communities and tribal governments, including:
Ěý • Emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loans Program and the
Ěý • Tribal Economic Stabilization Fund
Ěý • U.S. Department of Treasury's Loans and Guarantee Loans
Ěý • FEMA - Disaster Relief Fund
Ěý • HUD - Indian Housing
Ěý • USDA - Commodities: Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations
Ěý • DOI - Direct Tribal Assistance
Ěý • DOI - Healthcare and Education
Ěý • Office of Child Care - Indian Child Care Development Block Grant
In addition to CARES Act and other stimulus legislation summaries, the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA) highlights useful agency resources for Native businesses and organizations, includingĚýadministrative relief for federal aid recipients and applicants, deadline extension from the IRS and Department of Agriculture, and an FAQ from the Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding Native American programs. A separate e-mail alert outlinesĚý.
Among first wave emergency resources such as FEMA's , the Bureau of Indian Affairs outlined through BIA and the Bureau of Indian Education.
GRANTS AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
NDN Collective's $10 million COVID-19 Response Project provides "grants, communication and strategic support to Tribal Nations, front line Indigenous-led organizations, and individuals who are providing essential services to Indigenous communities." Initial grants support services and relief efforts such as medical supplies, food delivery, housing, youth and eldercare, economic relief and cultural, ceremonial and spirit-aligned support. There are alsoĚý. Future grant opportunitiesĚýwill address long-termĚýtransition and recovery planning.Ěý
Change Labs regularly updates their list of for small business owners, nonprofit leaders, and self-employed artists to help with immediate expenses, and has compiled an extensive list of COVID-19 information, resources, toolkits, and funding available to Native entrepreneurs.ĚýTheir platform allows people to connect with and support Native entrepreneurs and artisans.
Food Tank compiled a list of several organizations withĚýfunding specific to food relief, as well as other essential services. These include theĚý, , , First Nations Development Institute's , HopiĚýFoundation'sĚý, The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health’sĚý, , Ěýand several more community and region-specific funds. For further grant and funding opportunity, see resources and .
Among their list of resources and consultation opportunities, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development compiled the , and links to the Center for Indian Country Development's comprehensive .
This 10-minute anonymous survey from groups including Roanhorse Consulting, Native Women Lead, Change Labs, and Native Community Capital is being used “to identify resources and best practices to help Native Businesses not just survive but potentially grow despite the uncertainty of the current pandemic.” Resources are distributed through their .
For Native entrepreneurs and social investors working within Indian Country, the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business (SOCAP) compiled a range of helpful resources, including and .
Highlighting health resources, congressional actions, and news stories pertaining to the crisis in Indian Country, the House Committee on Natural Resources isĚýsoliciting feedback directly from Indian Country about coronavirus impacts and preparations currently affecting Native communities. Link to survey .
(PDF)
In their wide-ranging report, the United Nations asks governments to ensure that human rights and inclusion are primary factors in crisis response, particularly for “natural, ethnic or religious minorities, Indigenous Peoples, or LGBTI people.” They recommendĚýthe international community “take explicit measures to boost the economies of developing countries” – an important consideration for Indigenous communities in the U.S. where the economicĚýrealities are often more similar to those of developing nations.
Developing countries need international support, given that their ability to fund expansionary stimulus is already limited, and has been further limited in recent days by currency instability. This will require debt relief for many countries to create the domestic fiscal space. This will also require creative thinking about how to mobilize large injections of concessional finance – not only from multilateral development banks but also from private lenders such as pension funds, who will be in a hunt for low-growth investment opportunities.
“Tribes and tribal entities are hit particularly hard by COVID-19. Many of these communities already struggle to access quality health care, and a large number of tribes are heavily dependent on the industries hit hardest by COVID-19 – gaming, tourism, and hospitality in particular.”
–Chris James, CEO, National Center for the American Indian Enterprise Development (.)Ěý
In addition to daily updates from and , these articles provideĚýin-depth examinations of how COVID-19 is affecting Indian Country, as well as stories of resilience.
JUNE
Darius Tahir, Adam Cancryn - Politico - 6/11/20
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has turned down tribal epidemiologists’ requests for data that it’s making freely available to states… In some instances, officials questioned tribes' legal standing as sovereign entities.
Renata Brito, Felipe Dana - Associated Press (via ABC News) - 6/10/20
More than 30,000 indigenous people live in Manaus, the Brazilian state capital hardest hit by the new coronavirus pandemic… “For 520 years we have been fighting for education and healthcare that respects our culture and values our ancestral knowledge.”
Acee Agoyo - Indianz.com - 6/9/20
"We have seen the COVID-10 pandemic lay bare the inequities that we experience across Indian Country. Our people deserve to be seen and heard and valued and counted at the ballot box."
Debra Utacia Krol - Arizona Republic - 6/6/20
…Native business owners and self-employed microentrepreneurs say it is oftentimes extremely difficult or impossible to obtain business or self-employed SBA loans or other financial assistance. Some lack internet service to navigate websites, while others lack the bank services that might help them pursue aid.ĚýOther self-employed people found they don’t qualify for assistance because of their tax status.
Patricia Leigh Brown - The New York Times - 6/5/20
As the pandemic wreaks havoc on millions of lives, it has had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of Native American artists and artisans, who are collectively responding with a creative resolve born from centuries of adversity.
Delilah Friedler - Mother Jones - 6/5/20
Since securing their voting rights over the past century, Native American voters haveĚýĚýtheir influence in local, state, and Congressional elections.ĚýYet many, particularly those who live on reservations, still face enormous hurdles: navigating voter register without the aid of the internet or targeted outreach, then traveling obscene distances to polling places off their reservations, where they might encounter language barriers or restrictive voter ID laws.Ěý
Under the Radar - WGBH Public Radio - 6/5/20
...the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted other ongoing tensions around sovereignty, including the federal fight over Mashpee Wampanoag reservation lands, and has created a financial crisis because of the shutdown of tribal casinos.
Joe Gamp - Yahoo News UK - 6/4/20
Many of Brazil’s 850,000 indigenous people live in remote Amazon areas such as Manaus – with little or no access to healthcare or personal protective equipment (PPE)… According to the Articulation of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples (APIB) – an umbrella association representing 305 tribes – deaths from the virus have increasing more than five-fold in the past month.
Survival International - 6/2/20
Ěýreleased as part of the campaign reveals that thousands of Yanomami people living near the illegal mining zones in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory could become infected, and that the territory is the most vulnerable in the entire Brazilian Amazon to the virus.
Lindsey Schneider, Joshua Sbicca, Stephanie Malin - The Conversation - 6/1/20
Native communities are taking decisive action to reduce the spread of COVID-19. They’re imposing aggressiveĚýĚýmeasures like lockdowns, curfews and border closures. Communities areĚýĚýand elder support services, and banishing nontribal members whoĚý. Other strategies include helping huntersĚýĚýto their communities,Ěý, ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý. Looking ahead to a post-COVID future, we believe one priority should be attending toĚýĚýthat center tribes’ sovereignty to act on their own behalf at all times, not just during national crises.
MAY
MĂ©lissa Godin - TIME - 5/29/20
Indigenous-led responses have already proven to be successful, and in some cases, more effective than federal responses.
Cultural Survival - 5/29/20
“Within the framework of our right to self-determination, the Indigenous communities of the Americas decided to close our frontiers and prohibit the entry of outsiders, as a response to the lack of action on the part of governments…”
Rachel Ramirez - Grist - 5/29/20
Early reports suggest that Brazil’s indigenous peoples are being especially hard hit by the virus. According to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, an indigenous rights organization, the mortality rate among this population of nearly one million is double that experienced in Brazil overall.
Native Business Magazine - 5/29/20
The Cherokee Nation’s COVID-19 Respond, Recover and Rebuild spending plan will largely offset unbudgeted expenses due to coronavirus, protect employees from layoffs, add important safety measures to infrastructure, increase services for citizens and invest in strengthening Cherokee communities to speed recovery.
​Erin Rubin - Nonprofit Qarterly - 5/28/20
The Hopi, like other Native communities, aren’t relying on philanthropy alone to save them. They retain memories of past pandemics and have developed resilient, independent systems to sustain themselves—systems that need resources, but that are Native-developed, Native-run assets.
Anna V. Smith - High Country News - 5/27/20
“Consultation has to be meaningful in that it has to provide the tribe an ability to give input. It cannot be lip service, or they can sue you. This is a legal obligation."
​Diane Selkirk - BBC - 5/26/20
“Indigenous communities cannot be left on the sidelines and on the fringes of what’s going on. We need to work together as we uphold our measures.”
Mona Gablemay - STAT - 5/26/20
Young Navajos, sensing that help could not wait, are now leading a variety of response efforts, from donation drives to deliver much-needed water and food, to social media campaigns to reach isolated residents, to recruiting medical volunteers to staff clinics.
Nina Lakhani - The Guardian - 5/26/20
…native communities have demonstrated a greater historical awareness of the experience of pandemics, and tried to protect their citizens through measured emergency responses with limited resources, but which assert their right to self determination and governance. In South Dakota, tribes set-up roadblocks to protect their citizen… In Washington, the Lummi Nation created the country’s first field hospital, while the Navajo Nation, the second largest tribe in the US, has tested over 13% of those on the reservation compared to 4% in the US.
Stephanie Sy, Lena I. Jackson, Casey Kuhn - PBS News Hour - 05/25/20
"This pandemic's impact on our community has been almost entirely economic at this point. I would estimate that, right now, we have about two-thirds of our tribal employees out of work. And then our tribe has a pretty sizable commercial fishing industry that's really been hit hard."
Erik Ortiz - NBC News - 5/24/20
The younger Native American generation is seeing the appeal of a type of farming that's more community-oriented rather than mass farming… Attempts to challenge that system to the benefit of Native populations are being made by Cherokee communities swapping seed kits for each season, Oglala Lakota chefs preserving Native food traditions and Native-run community colleges teaching methods that might otherwise be forgotten.
Cristina Eghenter - Medium - 5/22/20
In navigating our way out of this current crisis we must set course for a just and inclusive recovery which embraces diversity, sufficiency, reciprocity, solidarity, equity and equality. A responsible, respectful and caring relationship with nature and each other are the key tenets of achieving this just, equitable and sustainable socio-economic model.
Bart Pfankuch - KELO TV - 5/24/20
The tribe has instituted a mandatory nightly curfew, placed strict limitations on how people shop, distributed free safety equipment, hired more police officers, expanded hospital capacity, created food-sharing and storage programs and instituted an effort in which at-risk tribal elders are contacted every day for welfare checks by phone.
Cultural Survival - 5/20/20
1. Deepening Health Disparities… 2. Lack of Access to Information… 4. Extractive Industries Greenlighted to Continue Operations Despite Threats to Health and Safety… 7. Increased Food Insecurity… 8 Increased Land Grabs…
Stephanie Woodard - YES! Magazine - 5/20/20
…tribal gardeners will put into action traditional practices that arise from close observations of nature and the belief that humans, plants, animals, and other aspects of the natural world form a mutually reliant community. We are all related, Skye says. “Gardening and eating food you’ve raised give you a direct connection to Mother Earth.”
Kalen Goodluck - High Country News - 5/19/20
In 2003 and in 2018, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that tribal infrastructure was chronically underfunded by billions of dollars. Since virus prevention requires access to information, electricity, running water, cleaning supplies, food and medical care, many Navajos are already at a disadvantage.
Hollie Silverman, Konstantin Toropin, Sara Sidner, Leslie Perrot - CNN - 5/18/20
"We have to stay the course when it comes to staying home as much as possible, wearing masks in public, washing our hands often, and taking every precaution to ensure our health and safety especially for our elders and children."
Grace Vitaglione - Current - 5/18/20
Many parts of Indian Country lack internet access and broadband connectivity, making their public radio stations the only source of local information… The COVID-19 pandemic has only made this role more crucial.
Kelly Smith - Star Tribune 5/15/20
…tribes, nonprofits and foundations across the state are adding emergency COVID efforts, distributing more food and resources to American Indians in need as unemployment rises and casinos — major tribal employers and sources of tribal revenue — stay closed during the pandemic.
​Will Bunch - The Philadelphia Inquirer - 5/14/20
Today, the story of Native Americans battling both the coronavirus and America’s warped politics is both a new chapter in that sordid history and also part of a bigger problem — that the pandemic and our shaky response has exposed the structural inequity throughout the United States.
Randall Akee - PBS News Hour - 5/13/20
There are continuing issues and concerns that American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) individuals are being mis-categorized as Latinx or Hispanic based on surnames or appearance in certain state counts. In many state health departments, AIAN individuals are simply classified as “other.” If this is the case, then there will be an undercount of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in certain communities. A better understanding of how the pandemic is playing out in these communities might help provide better-targeted, context-specific policies.
Wahleah Johns - The New York Times - 5/13/20
“Today we don’t need handouts from the U.S. government. We need investment in building a restorative economy that is aligned with our traditional values and our relationship with nature."
Cassandra Garrison, Marina Lammertyn, Anthony Boadle - Reuters - 5/11/20
“Grandmothers are the community counselors. Older people are those who transmit ancestral wisdom, those who organize us, give order, advise spiritually… Today, we meet less than before.”
Christina Capatides - CBS News - 5/11/20
"The lack of running water complicates things, but it's something that's really familiar to us and probably more familiar to us than other NGOs and nonprofits that work in the U.S.… Water sanitation and infection control go hand-in-hand, but it's something that we know quite a lot about, how to navigate those resources."
Lisa Deaderick interviews AAIA's Shannon Keller O’Loughlin - San Diego Union Tribune - 5/10/20Ěý
"We need testing on every reservation and in every neighborhood where native people call home. We need meaningful tribal consultation at every step in the process. ... We need not to be ignored but respected as equal partners in the care for our shared country."
Sandra Hale Schulman - Indian Country Today - 5/10/20
With reservations and Native communities being hit particularly hard by the pandemic, Native artists are gettingĚýout the message of social distancing and hygiene through art.Ěý
​Native Business Magazine - 5/7/20
As the primary economic stabilizers both in their families and communities, it cannot be understated that Native women entrepreneurs are one of the most vulnerable and impactful both living on and off Tribal lands.
Van Jones - CNN - 5/6/20
Native Americans themselves are doing all they can -- in government, NGOs and companies. Some tribal governmentsĚýimposed curfewsĚýand quarantines. The IHS and National Guard areĚýworking miraclesĚýwith what they have. Native leaders are invoking theĚýresilience of prior generationsĚýto inspire their people to stay strong, stay safe and stay home. Now, it is our turn.
Taté Walker - The Nation - 5/5/20
Surviving the very systems built without us in mind, or to destroy us, has forced us to expect and adapt to change. This capacity for creative thrivance gives me hope, and examples of it shine through in today’s bleak viral landscape—a reminder that medicine comes in many forms.
Alyssa Newcomb - NBC News - 5/6/20
Chief Gary Batton of the Choctaw Nation said adversity can “bring out the best in people” and said he’s happy to see his ancestors’ generosity inspiring donations to other Native American tribes.
Kelly Hayes interview with Morning Star Gali - Truthout - 5/4/20
"What’s not being as reported is the structural barriers in place for our tribal and inner tribal communities. So the reality is that many of our communities are without electricity, they’re without clean drinking water. They face a lack of sanitation within their homes."
Lynda V. Mapes - The Seattle Times - 5/3/20
By now, old habits of self reliance have new meaning. Many also said while closing the reservation has its hardships, there is a sweetness in once again having their home lands and waters to themselves. Theirs is a fortress of sea and sky and natural plenitude. It always has been.
Emily Bright - Minnesota Public Radio - 5/3/20
"With the pandemic we’ve had to change our style of farming, not only to maintain social distance but also to create more growing space from how we used to farm the property. So we’re growing a lot more intensively on the existing property."
​Erin Rubin - Nonprofit Quarterly - 5/1/20
“I think the long-term hope would be also that those relationships built out of this crisis can continue on and recognize Indian people today in America, and the contributions that we have provided and that we are your neighbors; building on that relationship going forward, do we help strengthen other things that come along the line, whether it’s a future crisis or in a better life.”
Indian Country Today - 5/1/2020
Part of this letter is to acknowledge that this is different, this feels overwhelming, this is real, and this is something that many of us have not experienced. We hold these realities in our hearts. We hold you. We also want to remind you that you are from descendants whose teachings will never die; they live in you. Teachings that tell us we belong, we are loved, and we are strong. Your original relations emerged from the earth, the waters (rivers and oceans), from the skies, and from other places…
APRIL
​Jeffrey Ostler - The Atlantic - 4/29/20
Countering the invisibility of Native peoples, of course, means greater awareness of how COVID-19 is affecting them and enhanced efforts to provide resources to help them combat the current outbreak. It also means creating a deeper understanding of the history of American Indians and disease.
Stephanie Petit interviews NDN Collective's Nick Tilsen - People - 4/29/2020
"The normal meant injustices for Indigenous people. The normal meant underinvestment of our people. The normal meant fossil fuel industry exploiting our lands and our communities...There's opportunity here to architect and build a new world."
Julia Travers - Inside Philanthropy - 4/28/20
“Indigenous women are on the front lines of response efforts in our communities. They are elders, mothers, medical professionals, tribal leaders, protectors, nonprofit executives, activists and entrepreneurs—sometimes all at once.”
Christal Hayes, Nora Mabie and Jeanine Santucci - USA TODAY 4/26/20
“Even though we have this treaty relationship with the government, there’s so much red tape involved in getting dollars to tribal communities… We shouldn’t be going through these same hoops when we’re facing a public health emergency in Indian Country"
Rebecca Nagle - The Guardian - 4/24/20
“If you eliminate us in the data, we don’t exist. We don’t exist for the allocation of resources…With what we’re seeing right now, there will absolutely be a gross undercount of the effects of Covid on American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. We have an opportunity to prepare for the next wave.”
Laurel Moraels - NPR - 4/24/20
More than 150 years ago, the Navajo and many other tribes signed treaties with the federal government giving up their land in exchange for funding of things like housing, infrastructure and health care. But for decades that hasn't happened.
(VIDEO)
Stephanie Sy - PBS - 4/24/20
In recent days, vital resources have been delivered…The National Guard has brought in supplies, initially from its own stockpile of masks and other protective gear. And people are stepping up to fill the needs of their neighbors, Navajo sewing masks for front-line workers... "We're encouraging our elders to share their stories, the stories of our culture, our tradition, and our language, so that our young people don't remember this time as a scary moment."
Zoe Tillman - BuzzFeed News - 4/24/20
What exactly qualifies as a “tribal government” is at the heart of the legal fight that’s quickly bubbled up in a federal district court in Washington, DC.
Anagha Srikanth - The Hill - 4/23/20
Celebrities including Ed Helms, Taika Waititi, Casey Affleck, Wilmer Valderrama and Taboo ask members of the Native American community to stay apart.
​Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - Thompson Reuters Foundation - 4/20/20
For the first time in living memory, the industrialized world understands what it is to be entirely susceptible to disease, as vulnerable as indigenous peoples once were to diseases brought by outsiders who colonized our lands. As vulnerable as many indigenous peoples still are to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chiara Sottile and Erik Ortiz - NBC News - 4/19/20
"They carry a lot of the knowledge and ceremonies that we, the young people, are still learning," Young said with her hand on her heart, adding, "Our cultures are in jeopardy right now if we lose our elders."
(VIDEO)
AM Joy - MSNBC - 4/19/20
"American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous People tend to be an 'asterisk' type population, where they'll add us to the end of their data table and say we don't have enough numbers… we [have to] gather own data and have to do our own reporting…"
Law360 - 4/17/20
The [CARES Act] legislation contains several provisions to address the unique and disproportionate impacts of the pandemic in Indian Country… More specifically, however, are provisions that set aside a specific amount of funding to support tribal governments as they respond to and manage the significant costs and related impacts associated with COVID-19.
Felicia Fonseca - Associated Press - 4/10/20
Normally this time of year, a string of powwows hosted by Native American tribes and universities would be underway across the U.S., with tribal members honoring and showcasing their cultures — and socializing, like family reunions.
Danielle DeLuca -Cultural Survival - 04/09/20
There is a special need to support initiatives managed by Indigenous governments, communities, organizations, women, youth and volunteers… Indigenous Peoples have solutions and need to be active participants in actions being taken by governments.
Creede Newton - Al Jazeera - 4/8/20
Though some have referred to the situation of food distribution in the Navajo Nation a "food desert", [Dine Community Advocacy Alliance organizer Denisa] Livingston used the phrase "food apartheid"... The lack of easy access to food - especially healthy options - has been a problem for Navajo people for years.
Debbie Warren - NPQ -Ěý 4/7/20
How will our [the U.S.] government support American Indians in this COVID-19 crisis? Its track record is dismal, one characterized by chronic underfunding, disrespect of Native sovereignty, and contempt for tribal traditions…
Kent Sepkowitz - CNN - 4/7/20Ěý
...the fact that this particular outbreak is occurring in a population already at high risk for poor outcomes, with services distributed across a very wide geographic area, chronic staffing shortages, and a need to compete with larger, more wealthy states and cities for desperately needed supplies and equipment likely will result in many lost lives.
Dana Hedgpeth, Darryl Fears ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý Gregory Scruggs - The Washington Post - 4/4/20
The coronavirus is ravaging the United States, but experts say more than 5 million people who identify as American Indian and Alaskan Native are especially vulnerable.
Jen Deerinwater - Truthout - 4/3/20
The American Indian and Alaska Native (AI and AN) population has only recently comprised 2 percent of the American population. This growth is a rebound from over 500 years of continual genocide, which has includedĚýpandemicsĚýand germ warfare. Additionally, 42 percent of AI and AN people are 24 or younger, making the conditions of youth of particular importance to Native nations.
Ěý
Lynda V. MapesĚý- The Seattle Times - 4/3/20
“The biggest take-away for me is it is so important for people of color to develop their business capacity. So that in circumstances like this, we don’t have to wait for the federal government or that next grant cycle to do something for us.”
Stephanie Ebbs, Cheyenne Haslett - ABC News - 4/3/2020
More and more conversations have circled back to warnings laid out nearly a decade ago, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked into the reasons the H1N1 flu killed four times the number of Native Americans compared to the rest of the population.
Nina Lakhani - The Guardian - 4/2/20
Women are leading a volunteer effort to care for elders and vulnerable people across the tribe’s vast, poorly served territory…
MARCH
Chelsea Curtis - Arizona Republic - 3/27/20
"All the powwows have been canceled and we are quarantined, so this gives us an opportunity to see others and connect through our Native traditions… It is a new step in making those connections, giving natives from all over the world more access to each other."
Maria Givens - VOX - 3/25/20
Not only could the virus cause a drastic death toll — especially among at-risk elders who serve as community knowledge keepers — it could also wreak havoc on tribal economies that have barely recovered from the economic crash of 2008.
March Alex Brown -Pew Charitable Trusts - 3/19/20
Tribes have advantages as well as challenges in responding to the pandemic. Most tribes lack sprawling bureaucracies that can slow response to a crisis. Small leadership councils often are able to meet and act quickly, tribal officials said, unlike state legislatures, which must convene scores of members from a wide geographic region.
Nina Lakhani - The Guardian -Ěý 3/18/20
The tribe’s proactive response to the evolving global pandemic has been possible thanks to vast improvements to the quality and capacity of its community healthcare system over the past decade. Like an increasing number of tribes, the Lummi nation has opted for “self-determination” which enables greater financial flexibility and clinical autonomy…
Ěý