April 6, 2021
When Elisha Yellow Thunder first learned of COVID-19, she worried that her community would be hit hard. As a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation (Oglala Sioux Tribe), born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Yellow Thunder knew that her community was not equipped to address a pandemic. Nearly a year later, Yellow Thunder mourns the loss of many relatives. Like many tribes across the U.S., the Oglala Sioux Tribe has been devastated by a loss of elders, many of whom are the cultural knowledge-keepers and fluent speakers of the Lakota language.
American Indian and Alaska Native communities have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 compared to other racial and ethnic minority groups, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Compounding this problem, COVID-19 data has not been collected or shared consistently across American Indian reservations.
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Aerial view of Cankdeska Cikana Community College
At Navajo Technical University, which has campuses on the sprawling Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona, some students commute up to two hours each way to attend classes. Many of them lack reliable access to the internet.
The pandemic has made attending the university even more challenging, but university leaders have come up with creative ways to engage students and keep them enrolled, even starting a Homework Express service through which campus shuttle bus drivers bring packets of homework to designated drop-off points for students who lack internet access altogether. The drivers then return to pick up the completed assignments.