Hit hard by COVID, Native Americans come together to protect families and elders

The sense of community and respect for elders were also behind American Indian and Alaska Native people being more willing to get vaccinated to protect their communities, says Jennifer Wolf, founder of Project Mosaic, a consulting group for indigenous communities.

 Native American communities lashed by Covid, worsening chronic inequities

For centuries, Indigenous communities in the US have faced challenges in public health, education, infrastructure and other areas, an aftershock of violent colonization and widespread racism.

 Native American Nations are even more vulnerable to COVID-19

Native Americans and Alaska Native populations are at a higher risk of chronic conditions that can make COVID-19 more dangerous.

 Pandemic Highlights Deep-Rooted Problems in Indian Health Service

Few hospital beds, lack of equipment, a shipment of body bags in response to a request for coronavirus tests: The agency providing health care to tribal communities struggled to meet the challenge.

 Why Native Americans took Covid-19 seriously: 'It's our reality'

“Indigenous nations have been through so many waves of pandemics and epidemics that they have a well of resilience, stamina and intergenerational knowledge that others just do not have,” said Jessica Kolopenuk, a political theorist and indigenous studies scholar at the University of Alberta.

Exclusive: indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans

In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation, the country’s biggest tribe, has suffered a relatively low death count thanks to a well-functioning tribe-led health service and a public health system that has pushed testing, contact tracing and consistent science-led messaging from day one, according to Chief Chuck Hoskin.

American Indians and Alaska Natives are disproportionately affected by the pandemic

Data shows that American Indians and Alaska Natives are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Concretely, they have higher rates of infection and hospitalizations than white Americans.

Coronavirus Hits Native American Groups Already Struggling With Poor Health Care

As tribal leaders around the country gear up for the pandemic’s spread, they worry the federal agencies that are supposed to help protect them aren’t ready

Coronavirus Is Devastating the Navajo Nation

About 30% to 40% of residents don’t have running water, which makes following basic CDC guidelines, such as handwashing, almost impossible.

COVID-19 data on Native Americans is ‘a national disgrace.' This scientist is fighting to be counted

Abigail Echo-Hawk is working around the clock to close discriminatory data gaps.

Fight Continues To Protect Indigenous Communities From COVID-19

Over a year and a half ago, I was part of an incredible movement on the Navajo and Hopi nations where women leaders stepped forward to address the existential threat COVID-19 posed to our communities.

Fixing indoor air pollution problems that are raising Native Americans’ COVID-19 risk

Poor indoor air quality has been linked to health hazards for decades and is an ongoing problem in American Indian communities. Fine particulate matter and inhalation of other pollutants contributes to high risk for influenza, for example. Research in the U.S. and other countries now suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution can worsen the chances of having serious complications from COVID-19.

How the pandemic threatens Native Americans—and their languages

It is hard to find exact covid-19 death rates for America’s more than 5m Native Americans, because the groups are classified differently in different states, and some states do not gather data by race or ethnicity. But in two of the states with the biggest native populations, Arizona and New Mexico, the official Native American share of the dead from covid-19 is about three to four times their share of the population—and that is likely to be an undercount.

Native American tribes’ pandemic response is hamstrung by many inequities

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is novel, but pandemic threats to indigenous peoples are anything but new. Diseases like measles, smallpox and the Spanish flu have decimated Native American communities ever since the arrival of the first European colonizers. Now COVID-19 is having similarly devastating impacts in Indian country. Some reservations are reporting infection rates many times higher than those observed in the general U.S. population.

Native Americans And COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Pathways Toward Increasing Vaccination Rates For Native Communities

Native American communities across the US faced disproportionate rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and causality. Native American susceptibility to the virus has roots in longstanding inequalities caused by federal neglect and marginalization.

The coronavirus is exacerbating vulnerabilities Native communities already face

Lack of clean water and overcrowding leave Indian Country open to a “perfect storm” of health and economic crises during the pandemic.

The US Has Neglected Indian Country for Years. Now Comes a Pandemic

Historic underfunding and policy loopholes leave Native Americans communities vulnerable without substantial coronavirus relief.

Why Native Americans Are Getting COVID-19 Vaccines Faster

So far the vaccine supply pipeline is expected to remain relatively steady, unlike in many other jurisdictions in the country.