COVID Funds Help Boost Navajo Nation Enrollment by Almost 94K
On 5/19/21 at 3:33 PM EDT
The Navajo Nation gained nearly 94,000 members as a result of funding from last spring's Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which allowed the tribe to offer hardship assistance payments and increase its size from 306,000 to 400,000 citizens.
That makes the tribe the largest in the nation, with Cherokee enrollment now second, at 392,000. However, a Cherokee tribal spokeswoman told the Associated Press that Cherokee numbers are also on the rise, with about 200 more applicants per month than average.
Tribal governments received $4.8 billion from the CARES Act based on federal housing population data for tribes, according to a spending breakdown. The U.S. Treasury Department recently revised its methodology after some said it was badly skewed. Tribes are typically allocated funding based on the number of citizens enrolled. Each of the 574 federally recognized tribes determines how to count its population.