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  2020-05-11

  Doctors Without Borders Dispatches Team to the Navajo Nation

  “Jean Stowell, head of the organization's U.S. COVID-19 Response Team, told CBS News that Doctors Without Borders has dispatched a team of nine to the hard-hit Navajo Nation in the southwest U.S. because of the crisis unfolding there. The team consists of two physicians, three nurse/midwives, a water sanitation specialist, two logisticians and a health promoter who specializes in community health education. ‘There are many situations in which we do not intervene in the United States, but this has a particular risk profile,’ Stowell said. ‘Situationally, the Native American communities are at a much higher risk for complications from COVID-19 and also from community spread because they don't have access to the variety of things that make it possible to self-isolate… You can't expect people to isolate if they have to drive 100 miles to get food and water.’ Navajo Nation, home to roughly 170,000 people, now has more coronavirus cases per capita than any state in America. Due to a shortage in nursing and specialized medical staff, the most critical patients have to be airlifted to hospitals outside of the reservation. On top of that, Navajo people carry a high rate of diabetes and hypertension, rendering them more susceptible to infection. And as of early May, the region has a higher coronavirus death rate than that of 46 states.”
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  2020-04-29

  Blackfeet Tribe extends coronavirus restrictions until May 31

  "With the discovery of a woman testing positive for coronavirus at Blackfeet Community Hospital last Saturday at 9 p.m., the Blackfeet Tribe was reinforced in its April 23 decision to adopt stricter guidelines than those recommended by Governor Steve Bullock."
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  2020-04-09

  South Dakota Non-Profit Group Launches $10 Million Covid-19 Response Project for Indigenous People

  In response to the "unique impacts and challenges" experienced by Native Nations in the wake of the pandemic, the Rapid City-based NDN Collective, Inc. announces the creation of the NDN Covid-19 Response Project to provide grants, communication, and strategic support to tribal nations and Indigenous organizations. "The overall design of the project is to provide quick response resources to Indigenous communities bracking from economic impacts, stresses to public services and combating the spread of misinformation due to Covid-19."
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  2020-03-01

  Common Sense

  In this C-19 Comic Propaganda Poster, which is part of the Native Realities collection, Navajo artist Vanessa Bowen (https://bowencreative.co/about-vanessa-bowen/?v=89d269ea9f2e) challenges her Indigenous audience to take care of their communities and elders during the pandemic by practicing common sense through social distancing and the washing of hands.