For some Native American tribes in Oklahoma that have dealt with numerous historical injustices and neglect, the COVID-19 pandemic was not going to be another example.
“It just came down to, if it was going to happen we had to do it ourselves,” said Dr. Adam Vascellaro, chief medical officer for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, located in Shawnee.
“So a lot of us here just rolled up our sleeves and started working. Just chopping wood, carrying water every day and getting it done,” he said.
If the approximately 10,000 Oklahoma members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation didn’t do it, they had learned the hard way it wasn’t going to get done.
‘I have a very hard time with mandates’: Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) on #COVID19
Posted: Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) questions the effectiveness of coronavirus protocols during a telephone town hall on January 4, 2021. I have a very hard time with mandates, Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, told constituents from Oklahoma s 2nd congressional district.
According to Mullin, Oklahoma is doing better at slowing the spread of COVID-19 when compared to California, whose population is nearly 10 times as large. He said Oklahoma has managed to stay open for business while California has shut down the state with mask-wearing, stay-at-home orders and other directives.
U.S. Public Health Service Lt. Cmdr. Erica Harker, left, an Indian Health Service Navajo Area pharmacy consultant and a member of the Zuni Tribe, and Gallup Indian Medical Center Chief of Pharmacy Vicky Chavez prepare COVID-19 vaccines to be redistributed from GIMC to other health care facilities on the Navajo Nation, December 14, 2020. Photo: IHS
COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Indian Country as cases continue to rise
‘A historic day in this fight’
Monday, December 14, 2020
Indianz.Com
Facilities across Indian Country have begun distributing a newly approved COVID-19 vaccine but the vast majority of tribal citizens will have to wait before they can be protected from a disease that continues to ravage their communities.