Navajo Nation leads the nation in
COVID-19 cases per capita

OP, enlighten me. Do Native Americans live like this by choice? Because they don't want to meld into the USA and its government? Why no electricity and running water?

This is sad. The Navajo Nation owns 3 casinos in New Mexico. That money was supposed to help raise these people out of poverty. Instead it goes to enrich the tribal leaders. Sound familiar?

Although we have plenty of electricity and running water in New Jersey and are not far behind the Navajo Nation in deaths per 100,000.

It is also my understanding that Native Americans living on reservations cannot own personal property so perhaps that contributes to the sorry state of many of their homes, etc.

Many people on the Navajo rez live in "compounds" with a number of family members. When one gets it they all get it. Many of these residences are so remote that there is no availability of utilities. Much of it is a lifestyle by choice, and driven by poverty. As for money, it disappears like smoke. Cadillacs, college tuition and big screen TVs for the people in charge. Over the years there have been numerous scandals involving this sort of thing. Back in the early/ mid 2000s I personally witnessed this sort of thing, saw a $260k federal drug court grant just disappear with no accounting. I was advising them on setting up their program, it never got off the ground.

I had to deal with a tribe in California. Yes, the tribal leaders get first picks and they get their cuts first. Im not sure which is more corrupt. Tribal leaders, New Orleans government, elected democrats or Union bosses.

American Indians are different. I don't know if generations of dependence on the Federal government and corrupt tribal leaders has sapped their initiative, or if, like the ghetto, the ones with get up and go leave and what's left is dreck. Whatever the reason, they don't seem to be able to help themselves. Addictions are rampant, as is morbid obesity. The Indian Health Service is notoriously full of bad doctors, who are the only ones willing to work in backwater reservations with patients unable/unwilling to help themselves. All in all, it is a target-rich environment for a new disease.

This is a first for New Mexico usually at the bottom of most lists. These numbers are coming from three counties that are very poor and heavily populated by the Navajo nation. The rest of the state is doing fine. We've only had total of 276 deaths thus far. The Navajo area should definitely be restricted and cared for by the state. They also have a very high percentage of diabetes. I wonder if that factors into this and would be interested in finding out a national statistic on that incidence. Aside from that, Albuquerque with has the most population in the state, is doing okay.

Indians have found a new funding source. I have made past observations that their funding ideas never involve them working.

Had a friend in South Dakota that informed me that the Native Americans who live on Pine Ridge and other reservations have had homes built and rebuilt , ever since democrats were invented. Many stripped the wiring and plumbing out -which was sold to purchase liquor ( explains why most reservations do not allow the sale). But, all counties around them do sell it. I rode a bicycle through that state and "the Res" was quite interesting. Probably the shortest e t in that crossing than through the whole entire mile trip.

Navajo Covid Talk.

Hmmm. Reservations are the ultimate welfare state. I wonder if there's any connection.

Life on the Rez is socialism taken to its logical conclusion. Only about half of the people out there are employed and their jobs involve delivering social services to the other half who due to various pathologies are unemployable. The few "private" sector jobs are in retail and fast food and some in extractive industries. I was passing through Chinle, Arizona a few years ago and needed to make a deposit at the Wells Fargo Bank there. It was about the third day of the month and the line was out the door with Navajos waiting to cash their government checks. I proceeded to the drive up window and was the only patron as the drive up was reserved for account holders.

You are what you choose to be.

Disinfection and hyper sanitation--- it does NOT have to be that difficult. I wash my hands with alcohol after going somewhere, before I touch my car. I have moved my 'defensive perimeter' to the exterior of my car. The interior of our cars and the interior of our homes are absolutely no different than before. There was no virus there before, and there is none now - because we don't bring it into our cars, let alone into our home. And we have had no visitors for a couple of months, too. My bet is that the Indians have done nothing different, still have their normal social interactions, and are paying the price for it.

#1, not all do. My wife had a coworker who I met several times at social events who, other than a ponytail, was not any different than anyone else, and I have other friends with ponytails who are not Indians. He got an education and was an engineering draftsman/designer, made a good living, lived in suburbia like the rest of us. They choose to live that way. They have the opportunity for an education, but most do not do it, choose to live in their own communities, in their own ways. Their lives, their choices, not my concern.

I volunteer a couple times a year at Pine Ridge and the Navajo Nation. Very few of us can even imagine the hopelessness and endless desperation of these places. It's not always a choice. Pray for them. I'd invite anyone to take a week and volunteer to get a full understanding.

I'm old and sickly but that does not obscure my acceptance of the FACT that herd immunity is the only 'cure' available at the moment. So......get all in it. Weed out the weak ones. Make an improvement to the gene pool by dying if you can't cut it. I didn't invent this world but I try to see it clearly. BTW--- I touch my face quite often just to see if I'm still here.

Lots of tourists and some lefty govs even impede the Natives from setting up checkpoints to try to keep infections out.

I am wondering if the general health, age, lack of nutrition & other 'general' factors can explain most of the infection rate? High incidence of diabetes, obesity, lack of vitamin D, low in zinc & vitamin C make one more susceptible to the virus. Another factor may be that these poor people are not a genetically 'diverse' population? I saw a blurb about how populations with different blood types & factors may likely 'react' differently to COVID. Do the Navajo have more Type O or AB blood types etc.? This SARS-CoV-2 virus seems odd. That is in the fact that a large portion of the population exposed to it seem to have no symptoms or very mild symptoms. I am guessing tho' that is 'normal' for many diseases like the flu. We are paying more attention to this one since it is 'new' and has put that minority of the 'exposed' into the ICU or kills them.

Not gonna touch with a ten foot pole!

Are their living conditions a choice? Sure, that's up for debate. But in New Mexico, if you graduate from a NM high school (damn easy to do these days !), your in-state college tuition is paid for. While not all costs are covered, a part time job should cover most of it. As Ben Shapiro has said: "To move out of poverty you have to do 3 things. 1. graduate high school. 2. get a job. 3. don't have kinds until you are married. If you do those 3 things you will not stay in poverty 99.8% of the time."

I cannot believe the level of ignorance and insensitivity expressed by most posters here. I challenge you to live in the shoes of the Navajo people for several months or even years before you make judgments and cruel comments about the Navajo people and Native Americans in general. I resent the general comments about laziness, voluntarily choosing to live a “sorry” lifestyle, choosing welfare over jobs, tribal leaders enriching themselves at the expense of the people, addictions, socialism, etc., etc. It’s a little difficult to buy groceries and the basic necessities of life when you have to drive for miles and miles for the nearest services, and when you get there, all the supplies are gone by the “hoarders.” It’s a little difficult to get masks and healthcare services when you have to drive for miles and miles to get to the nearest clinic or hospital. It’s a little difficult to wash your hands with soap and water all the time, when indoor water facilities are lacking and you have to haul your water from other sources. It’s a little difficult to clean your hands with disinfectant wipes when you have none or cannot get any. Many homes on the Navajo Nation do not have the basic utilities that you all take for granted: water, electricity, heating, etc. During this pandemic, Navajo children have had difficulty with home schooling because many families do not have computers and the Nation has limited internet infrastructure. All these things cost money! Sure, the Navajo Nation has three casinos, but those casinos return as much money as they can to help fund the government of Navajo Nation, which has no per capita payments. Believe me, the Nation does not sit around waiting for “handouts” from the federal and state governments. Over the years, the Navajo Nation has developed many enterprises and industries to generate funds to operate the government and provide employment and business opportunities for the Navajo people. The Nation’s tribal leaders do not receive exorbitant salaries. How many of you can live on $45-$55K per year with huge responsibilities of having to look out for the best interests of hundreds of thousands of people? My extended family lives on the Navajo Nation. Fortunately, they live on the eastern side, so they do not have as much difficulty getting services as the rest of the people on the Navajo Nation. They shop in Gallup NM, which shut down the town recently because its covid numbers are high. My guess is that the town was blaming its covid numbers on the Navajo people. Yet, the town’s rate of increase of covid numbers did not decline during the lockdown. Over the years, the town has done many stupid things to discriminate against the Navajo people. A recent example is that the small businesses began shutting down their restrooms, leaving little or no opportunity for their customers (including not only Navajos but I-40 travelers) to wash their hands. It would be nice if people expressed a little more sensitivity to Native Americans.

Rest assured, Native Americans get more money than any other entitled group in America. I used to ski with a former Director of Indian Affairs. His job was to party with them in a different area every week and write them bigger checks when he returned to Washington.

Laziness and lack of ambition is often attributed to specific ethnic groups but it is just as likely ingrained in a culture when the government pays people simply to exist. I don't know how widespread it is today or how long the policy has been in place but every Native American who graduates from high school gets a personal check from Uncle Sam for around $20 grand to be used for college or whatever else they choose to do with it. If they use it for a down payment on a Chevy Silverado, that's all they will ever have in life, a truck.

#23 Thank you for your comment. I work with Navajo Seniors at the senior center in the Cuba area. My visits there are a favorite place for me and I looking forward to when it's safe to go there again. Native Americans in NM were here long before anyone else and are loved and respected here by all.

Thank you#23. People have no clue.

It’s the lifestyle of the Navajo people and other Native American triples that is causing the COVID-19 problems in their sovereign nations. Since the Navajo and other Native American tribes that are residing on reservations are sovereign peoples, it is not up to the US Government to change their traditional ways of life. Those Native Americans are not consigned by law to reside on reservations, if they wish they could reside in any city or town across the USA. Until those reservation residing Native American individuals, families, and tribes decide to join the modern world there is not much that can be done, except provide them with medical care and other government benefits. I know that personally as I have a relative who married a Lakota Sioux who turned out to be one worthless individual, who would not accept sound advice, and ended up abandoning his wife and children, drifting around the Western region of the USA while refusing to pay any court ordered child support.

Remember Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Senator! once Dem, got enlightened and changed registration? He was GREAT! He must have left the reservation to be able to run for office? Being separated from the rest of the Country is not healthy, not good; not good for any ethnic or racial group. Alcoholism and drug use are very, very high. I wonder if they have an open invitation to forsake the reservation and come join this American perpetual experiment in Liberty. There is a sort of centrifugal force about this Republic, and you can see it working in the way people (most) have so quickly grown restless "sheltering in place".

I have a bit of a different perspective. If you look at the infection rate in Arizona, you see that it starts in Phoenix and then heads north to the tourist attractions in our state - Page, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff - where the Navajos have the contracts for the attractions. Blame the Native Americans all you want, but the track of infection looks like nasty New Yorkers came for a visit, landing in Phoenix and then spreading the disease throughout that part of the state. BTW, the nastiest cruise I have ever been on left from a port in Florida and was full of old people from NY and NJ. I watched the women use the restroom, then walk out the door without ever touching a sink. First cruise I was ever on that had Norovirus.

#23 Thanks for posting that info. But, I ask all of you a question. Millions of disabled and elderly all across this country live on less than $1000 from SS. They were punished because they were sick and went on SSDI early. Why aren't they living in squalor too? How many volunteers have worked with Indian tribes (like Catholics have worked with Haiti) for years and not seeing a lot of change? We keep throwing money at groups and their lives aren't changing. We need to change the direction of money.