No one is dying of Covid-19 more than Native Americans
Rights — di Luigi Mastrodonato
Native Americans have a mortality rate twice that of white Americans. The elderly are among those losing their lives — a human and cultural tragedy.
No one is dying of Covid-19 more than Native Americans
Native Americans have a mortality rate twice that of white Americans. The elderly are among those losing their lives — a human and cultural tragedy.
Since the pandemic broke out, one Native American in every 475 has died — a figure twice that of white Americans. Navajo, Sioux, Cherokee and the other indigenous peoples of the United States are suffering the health emergency far more severely than other demographic groups, and what is already a human tragedy risks becoming a cultural one as well. Those losing their lives are predominantly the elderly — the very people entrusted with passing language, customs and traditions on to new generations. That is why communities are collectively striving to get vaccines to them as quickly as possible.
A silent massacre
At the beginning of February, the Apm research lab published a study on the link between Covid-19 deaths and ethnicity in the United States. The figures are striking: Native Americans recorded a mortality rate of one person in every 475, a figure that falls to 1/646 for African Americans, 1/825 for white Americans and 1/1,320 for Asian Americans. In practice, Native Americans are dying of Covid-19 at twice the rate of white Americans and even 2.7 times the rate of Americans of Asian origin. The figure is worsening continuously, as no group recorded as sharp a rise in deaths during January 2021 as indigenous groups did. Moreover, it is highly likely that the numbers are underestimates, given that Native Americans frequently fall outside national statistics due to the difficulties or lack of interest on the part of authorities in including them.
Native Americans are DYING AT THE HIGHEST RATES from COVID.
This is systemic.
The media barely talks about it.
That is also systemic.
This is systemic.
The media barely talks about it.
That is also systemic.
It is a true massacre that is unfolding on American reservations, as well as across the wider territory, particularly in the states of Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota. Among the Navajo alone, more than a thousand deaths have been recorded to date, while in the state of Mississippi, one indigenous person in every 127 has died. In Montana, meanwhile, 1 per cent of the Northern Cheyenne tribe has lost their lives.
The reasons why indigenous peoples in the United States are suffering from Covid-19 more than anyone else are geographical, economic and social. Reservations are often cut off from healthcare, being tens and tens of kilometres away from the nearest hospital. There are also hygiene problems, in the sense that people struggle to have consistent access to running water, which is necessary for personal prevention measures against the virus. There is also the matter of these communities' immune systems, which leave them more vulnerable to disease than the rest of the population. Finally, the institutional indifference towards their situation — a problem that has persisted for centuries — has only served to make things worse at a critical moment like the present one.
Cultural heritage at risk
According to the most recent statistics, 10 per cent of the Native American population is over 65. And it is precisely they who are suffering most from the pandemic. Among the Cherokee, a quarter of Covid-19 deaths involved elderly native speakers, while among the Navajo, 70 per cent of victims were over 60. These figures alone are enough to illustrate the other great threat this pandemic poses to Native Americans: not only the risk of being decimated, but also of losing their cultural points of reference, in communities where elderly people play a fundamental social role.
"It's like taking some pages out of a book, tearing them out and throwing them away," explained a Sioux man. The book is indigenous culture, and the pages are all those teachings that are being lost — not only because many elders are losing their lives, but also because their very health vulnerability has often led to their being isolated from the rest of their communities, particularly from younger members. Those younger generations are therefore growing up missing the learning stage through which customs and traditions have been handed down for centuries.
In recent months, elders, teachers, ceremony keepers and other prominent figures within indigenous American communities have lost their lives. Among those no longer with us due to Covid-19, one notable case is that of Albert Hale, former Navajo president and state representative for Arizona. Among the Cheyenne, a quarter of deaths involved elderly native speakers. "Our language, culture and traditions are what make us Cheyenne, but we are losing our teachers. How am I going to pass on to my child what I haven't yet had time to learn myself? Indigenous communities are facing a cultural crisis," stressed Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, a Cheyenne professor at the University of California.
Resilience and vaccines
Hit hard by the pandemic and left alone by national institutions, indigenous peoples in America are organising to protect their oldest members. Outside some Navajo reservations, signs have been put up asking people not to enter or to be mindful of social contacts, in order to avoid spreading the virus. Groups of indigenous and non-indigenous volunteers have organised to bring food, water and medical supplies to those in greatest isolation. In some villages, computers and social media have been made available to the eldest members of the community, so that they can continue communicating with the rest of the population and carry on their educational work remotely. And the Sioux have developed their own contact tracing programme, having in practice been excluded from state-level tracing.
The Cherokee Nation is prioritizing vaccines for rare language speakers like Tim King in an effort to protect its culture and community from COVID-19
Many initiatives, which act as a backdrop to what is considered the most important aspect: vaccines. As a survey from a few months ago found, 75 per cent of Indigenous American respondents want to receive the vaccine, compared to 56 per cent of the national population. "The primary motivation for participants who indicated a willingness to be vaccinated is a strong sense of responsibility, to protect the native community and preserve their own culture," the report reads. And for the past few weeks the first doses have been in the process of being administered. Among the Cherokee, more than 12,000 people have already been vaccinated, a quarter of the Muckleshoot have already received their dose, and the switchboards of health institutions are receiving thousands of calls from Native Americans requesting information on dates, locations and administration procedures. While at the national level the vaccine rollout is proceeding in a more chaotic fashion, at least from the standpoint of age and priority, among Indigenous peoples this issue does not arise. The elderly come first — the cultural survival of communities depends on their state of health.