Melissa Harris-Perry: We turn now to Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the US. Now, Navajo Nation hasn't quite achieved the 90% vaccination rates of Portugal, but it does boast one of the highest rates of vaccination in the United States. About 70% of tribal members are vaccinated and the nation continues to enforce strict public health procedures, including a mask mandate throughout the reservation.

Despite these strong indicators, the Navajo Nation is experiencing an uptick in new cases. Last spring and into the summer, Navajo Nation was reporting new COVID cases numbering in the single digits. Starting in October, daily counts have frequently been over 100. While the death toll from COVID remains thankfully low, the new cases are still troubling. Joining me now is Navajo Nation President, Jonathan Nez. President Nez, thank you for being here.

Jonathan Nez: [foreign language] greetings to you Melissa and your listeners. Thank you for having us on the show.

Melissa: Absolutely. What do you understand to be some of the factors leading to this recent rise in COVID cases?

Jonathan: Melissa, we are like an island within the United States of America with cases spiking all around us. We are 27,000 square miles of land and it's equivalent, they say, to the size of West Virginia. We do have 400,000 enrolled members and majority of our citizens live off the Navajo Nation. People have to go to work to make a living. We have a high unemployment rate on the Navajo Nation so people do have to leave the nation to work, to get their families food and supplies, and things like that throughout this pandemic.

Of course, it's going to creep back into our nation and that's what's happening. The daily case count have been fluctuating. Some days we got 30, some days over 100. Just, for instance, yesterday 89 cases in one day. As you mentioned earlier those that live on the Navajo Nation within the 27,000-square mile, 70% of our Navajo adult population-- 12 years and over are fully vaccinated. We do also have a Navajo Nation government vaccination mandate. Because of that, 97% of our Navajo Nation governmental employees are fully vaccinated.

Melissa: How about mask mandates? Has that had the same divisive politics on Navajo Nation as it has in much of the rest of the nation?

Jonathan: Melissa, I think it's a little different in Indian country. Navajo Nation, we started out a mask mandate in 2020 in April and we've never lifted that mask mandate to this day. Of course, you have CDC and other places throughout this country who have taken mask mandates off and then back on. On the Navajo Nation, I think the Navajo Nation people look at it as armor against this modern-day monster called COVID-19 because we used our way of life teaching to also assist in pushing back on the virus.

We have stories about The Hero Twins coming to the Navajo Nation early on in our emerging stories and fighting off monsters. Today, we're fighting these modern-day monsters, but at the same time, we're also utilizing our culture and our tradition to let our Navajo citizens know that this modern-day monster can be pushed back on by equipping yourself and putting on the armors, the mask and also the vaccination. The masks have been very helpful in keeping the numbers down, including the vaccinations.

Of course, there's a concern throughout this country right now as we go into the holiday season. Last year during the holiday season, we see a big spike all over the country in cases. We are doing everything we can getting back on the media, getting back on the radio, speaking to our elders in our known Navajo language to let them know these protocols have helped us get to where we're at today in keeping the numbers down. Let's not stop following these protocols. Let's really encourage our Navajo citizens to continue this fight against COVID-19.

Melissa: Even as you talk about the passing of stories and the building on origin stories and this intergenerational knowledge and understanding, it's also true that Navajo Nation lost just-- the pandemic was just brutal early on, particularly for your elders. I'm wondering about that loss of generational knowledge maybe particularly as we're going into the holiday season, and what that has meant for Navajo Nation.

Jonathan: Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones. It's quite inspiring that our elders, 65 years and over, their vaccination rate is over 80%. They really took this pandemic very seriously. Of course, many of them had some health issues and some of them had to go through some long-term rehabilitation as well to recover. Overall, our way of life teaching, our culture, and tradition will continue, including our language, into the next generation because it is being taught in schools.

During the pandemic and all in with this, we encourage our young people to relearn their language, their culture, and tradition. A lot of elders really came to the forefront because our students were at home and our parents were at home during the stay-at-home orders. We encouraged them to hand down to our younger generation, our way of life teaching. I think there's a Renaissance happening as well in the Indian country of our teachings.

Melissa: I'm wondering how the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill may help Navajo Nation to even better prepare for future health crises.

Jonathan: I'm here in Washington DC today, I'll be a part of the signings ceremony at the White House. I think Indian country is looking forward to seeing some of these dollars improve the quality of life for our Navajo people. 30% to 40% of our Navajo people don't have running water or electricity. This infrastructure bill will help many of our citizens get the needed water and electricity, broadband, telecommunication, better roads in our communities. We look forward to seeing an improved Indian country getting us into hopefully the 21st century.

Melissa: Navajo Nation, President Jonathan Nez. Thank you so much for speaking with us. We're going to keep Navajo Nation in our thoughts and in our reporting to be sure that these COVID numbers stay down.

Jonathan: Thank you.

[00:08:08] [END OF AUDIO]

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