Knowing the age and gender of those sickened by Coronavirus makes it easy to relate New Mexico to national trends. It is not enough information to understand the status of the virus in Rio Arriba county. I understand everyone’s right to privacy, but it would be useful to know something about ethnicity and employment.
For instance, the virus has settled into the Navajo Nation. It’s believed it was introduced at an "an evangelical church rally" on March 7. The first confirmed case of Coronavirus was reported ten days later, March 17. [1]
As of March 30, the number had risen to 128 Navajo, of whom 24 were living in the New Mexico counties of San Juan (15), McKinley (8), and Cibola (1). [2]
I don’t know if these cases have been report to the state of New Mexico. There is no legal requirement for sovereign nations to do so. However, the numbers are close to the county statistics reported by Wikipedia. [3]
No uniformity exists between Native American groups. Some are highly suspicious of their state governments; other are more cooperative. Some have their own medical systems, but others are dependent on the Indian Health Service. The Trump administrations distrusts it, and the response by IHS has been hampered by lack of funding and bureaucratic in-fighting. [4]
Both Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh closed their casinos the day the state governor limited public gatherings to ten people, and ordered non-Native casinos to close. That was March 18. [5]
On March 23, the state governor ordered all non-essential businesses to close and people to stay home. [6] The governor of Ohkay Owingeh followed suit. Santa Clara’s governor said he had asked people to stay home two weeks before that, around March 10. [7]
It’s easy to say the Navajo live on the other side of the Continental Divide. No decent roads connect it with Española. Our isolation, or their’s, protects us.
However, the ways it spread among the Navajo reminds us that, no matter how antagonistic different cultural groups have been to each other, the cultures of the southwest share traits that separate them from other parts of the country.
For instance, individuals who attended the ceremony in Chilchinbeto, Arizona, "greeted one another with handshakes and hugs." [8] People in the town in Michigan where I was raised did not touch one another. It was appropriate to say hello when one met friends, but nothing more.
Other traits are nearly universal. One woman told a reporter her elderly mother "still wanted to go to the local Burger King for coffee, where she and her friends gather many weekdays." [9] Such informal gathers are common wherever fast food restaurants tolerate people who linger at tables. I remember hearings about them in Dairy Queens in west Texas in the 1980s.
Sources:
1. Kurtis Lee. "No Running Water. No Electricity. On Navajo Nation, Coronavirus Creates Worry and Confusion as Cases Surge." Los Angeles Times website. 29 March 2020.
2. Justine Lopez. "128 Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Cases on Navajo Nation." KOB-TV website, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 29 March 2020; last updated 30 March 2020.
3. Wikipedia. "2020 Coronavirus Pandemic in New Mexico."
4. Adam Cancryn. "Where Coronavirus Could Find a Refuge: Native American Reservations." Politico website. 28 March 2020. IHS counted 110 cases of Coronavirus nationally, while the number of Navajo was greater than that. The Navajo has a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control that’s allowed them to draw supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile. New Mexico’s governor took up their case on 30 March, since Arizona is not being proactive toward the epidemic. [10]
5. Austin Fisher. "Casinos Closed, Restaurants and Stores Restricted to Stem Spread of Virus." Rio Grande Sun, Española, New Mexico, website. 19 March 2020; last updated 26 March 2020.
6. Wikipedia.
7. Molly Montgomery. "Northern Governments Brace for Economic Fallout of Pandemic." Rio Grande Sun, Española, New Mexico, website. 26 March 2020.
8. Lee.
9. Lee.
10. Katherine Faulders and Olivia Rubin. "New Mexico’s Governor Warns Tribal Nations Could Be ‘Wiped Out’ by Coronavirus." ABC-TV website. 30 March 2020.
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