Two stories from the last few days have focused on the particular impacts of coronavirus in Indian Country. The first is this NPR story out of the Colville Reservation in Washington State. Ellis O'Neill reports, and the headline is, "'Last Little Hurrah' Thwarts Tribe's Effort To Keep COVID-19 Off Reservation." The dateline is Nespelem, population 236, in Okanogan County.
The second story is a feature in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, by Chris Serres, dateline, Wakpala, South Dakota, an unincorporated community on the west side of the Missouri River. It's not far from Mobridge, population 3,465. Here's an excerpt:
The 3,625-square-mile reservation, which avoided the worst of the pandemic during the spring and summer, has rapidly devolved into one of the most alarming hot zones in the Midwest. Coronavirus infections at Standing Rock have surged more than 400% since the summer, from 106 cases in early August to 550 cases in late November, according to data from the tribe.
Burial ceremonies have become an almost daily ritual at the hilltop cemeteries on the reservation. Many families have had two, three or more relatives die from the virus. COVID-related deaths are now so frequent that the Teton Times, a local newspaper, is running five pages of obituaries a week.
Crowded housing conditions and poor access to health care have left many families feeling viscerally unsafe as the virus has tightened its clench on the small towns that lie low in the reservation's deep river valleys.
"Never did I imagine that this virus would affect us so deeply," said Virgil Taken Alive, a Lakota elder who has lost three close relatives, including a brother, to the virus.
Standing Rock is better known, of course, for the show down over the Keystone XL pipeline dispute. Here's just one prior post about it.
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