Get us into even more trouble. The Washington Post reporting, quote, as daily covid19 deaths climb to levels not seen since early in the pandemic, nine states have hit one more grim marker. More than one in every 1,000 people dead of coronavirusrelated causes. On friday south dakota became the latest state to reach that unwanted marker, including new york, new jersey, and neighboring north dakota which currently has the highest covid Mortality Rate in the world. Its Early Morning here outside the badlands region of south dakota. Were traveling to key locations across the country, areas that have been hard hit by the coronavirus, even before the arrival of covid19 Native Americans had the countrys lowest life expectancy. Now south dakota is reporting some of the highest deaths per capita. Residents are fighting for their very lives. With a Positivity Rate of 24 , south dakota and neighboring north dakota have the highest incidence of covid19 cases nationwide over the past week, a stark illustration of the problem facing many Rural Communities from coasttocoast in america. Quote, the dakotas have the most people in hospitals per capita, according to data from the covid tracking project, thats a shift from the spring when urban regions were overflowing with patients. Thats from the wall street journal. A south dakota nurse made National Headlines recently and spoke with cnn about a series of tweets she posted, noting she has treated covid19 patients who still dont believe the virus is real even as theyre hospitalized with it. I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for Something Else and they want a magic answer, and they dont want to believe that covid is real. They should be spending time facetiming their families. Theyre filled with anger and hatred. It made me really sad the other night and you just cant believe those will be their last thoughts and words. Now, as a Motorcycle Rider myself, i have always dreamed of coming to the annual Motorcycle Rally in sturgis, south dakota, held not far from here. In august more than 400,000 people packed the streets, a key contributor to the growing outbreak. The New York Times reports south dakotas republican governor, kristi noem, gave her blessing. Local leaders set aside their misgivings and thousands of people from every state in the nation rolled down sturgis main street. One study estimated that the tenday event, deemed a Super Spreader by some experts, may have been responsible for more than 250,000 new coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, in north dakota, as of this morning, covid19 has infected more than 77,935 people and claimed over 915 lives. In late october, the mayor of fargo, the states largest city, started requiring all people to wear face coverings while indoors with people not in their households. While there is no actual penalty for violating the mandate, officials there believe it has curbed further spread. Joining me is tim mahoney, the man who helped put those restrictions in place. You are a vascular surgeon, which helped informed your views, because the dakotas have not been on the cutting edge of doing the right thing in the coronavirus. Yes, it took a while for people to catch on that masking would help quite a bit, and also social distancing and hand washing. Were pleased, in the last two weeks our numbers are starting to jump. We were at a high but were starting to come down and our incidence is coming down as well. Were seeing good compliance in the community and throughout the state. A lot of other mayors followed our lead. 77 of the state did that and the governor last friday declared a mask mandate as well. So were seeing good compliance and seeing our numbers drop. And we dont have a mask mandate where i am in south dakota, but like south dakota, much of north dakota is rural. As a result, cities like yours are not just important because of the residents of fargo but because of the fact that people in more rural areas of the state, once their hospitals are overwhelmed, they have to come to places like yours, which then overwhelm your hospitals. Absolutely. We have the Largest Health care system in the state, with two big systems that are here. We have adapted to be ready for transfers from throughout the state. Our Health Care Systems have done a good job of that. And so far, we have not hit a Capacity Surge so far. And were able to handle all the cases that we need throughout the state. What is the situation that weve been hearing about in some states were you have shortages of nurses, of Health Care Providers generally, front line workers, nurses and doctors . What state are you in with that in north dakota . Well, what we have is approximately 10 of the people that are infected in the health care field. Were trying to get travelers and other people into our community. Its a challenge in rural states because we dont have a lot of other people to place in those situations. What it does is changes the shifting in the hospital as far as cases and things they can do so they can have enough people to take care of the covid patients. Were at surge level 1 at this point and we have the capacity to handle what we have coming our way. Mayor, we will keep a close eye on fargo, north dakota and your state, and we wish you well in your fight against this new surge of coronavirus. Tim mahoney is the mayor of fargo, north dakota. Thank you for joining me, sir. Thank you very much, sir. Im going to let this number sink in for you watching at home. One in 1,000. Thats the number of South Dakotans who have died from the coronavirus. Let me say that again. One in every thousand People Living in south dakota have died from this illness. The number is even worse among certain groups including those who live right behind me. Native americans have been hit the hardest by the virus than any other ethnic group. They make up 9 of south dakotas entire population but represent 15 of all deaths. Cases of coronavirus in south dakota are the second worst in the nation. North dakota is the worst. In both states hospitals, as weve been discussing, are getting close to capacity. When north dakotas hospitals reached 100 capacity, its governor, as we just heard, allowed nurses who tested positive but asymptomatic to continue working in covid units. Its gotten so bad there that 60 air force nurses were sent to help the health care workers. These courageous front line workers are fighting the battle against the disease. Our next guest is a nurse in aberdeen, south dakota, about 200 miles to the northeast of where i am. Kathy, thank you for being with us. Give us some sense of what the situation is in aberdeen, who your patients are and where theyre coming from. So certainly we are in our surge right now, something that we have been preparing for for months. Our patients are coming from all over the state of south dakota and we have had patients from other states as well. You do work in Palliative Care so youre familiar with things that your colleagues have not had to become familiar with, the idea that youre dealing with patients at the end of their lives and who may be passing without the benefit of their family around them. In some cases, weve been hearing, people who are still not at peace with the idea that they have coronavirus. How has it been treating patients . Youre exactly right. And its been hard. Its been very difficult, as im sure Many Health Care workers across the state and the nation would agree. People are surprised that they can be this sick from covid and are surprised that theyre going to end up being in the hospital for weeks, and Family Members who cant see their loved ones on the other end are scared and fearful, and yet hopeful that their loved one will make it through. Its very challenging to have to share when someone becomes very ill and we dont feel they will make it. And normally in Palliative Care its because somebody has some illness that their family will have become accustomed to. Youre dealing with both patients and families, where youre not just dealing with the normal stuff, trying to get them comfortable with how things are going to go, but youre convincing, to some degree, or having to sort of make people understand, both families and patients, how serious this is, that their Family Member could die. Thats exactly right. Theres a fair number of patients that come in and think this is going to be like a typical pneumonia, theyll be in for two or three or four days, and ill be outta here in just a few days and ill go back to my life as normal. And part of my role has been helping prepare families and patients that this might be an america marathon, this might be a three tofi fiveweek stay. We have to talk about the tough stuff, do you want to be put on a ventilator if your breathing gets worse, what do you want us to do if your heart stops. There are people who are shocked when we have those conversations. Weve talked to a lot of nurses, we all accept youre im impa empathic people. Many of us who have been in health care for a long time are seeing things weve never seen. Youre right in that we cant predict how one persons Covid Hospitalization is going to go. Its not like a Heart Failure or a cancer patient. As you said, it can be very un pri unpredi unpredictable. These patients can end up with multiorgan failure. It doesnt matter if youre young and healthy and fit and been exercising. What a thing. Kathy, thank you to you and to all the nurses, not just at your hospital in aberdeen but frankly across south dakota and north dakota and across this country who do what you do every day to keep us safe and to keep our families comforted. Kathy is a nurse in aberdeen, south dakota, about 200 miles northeast of where i am now. Coming up next, i may be in south dakota right now but next im going to acknowledge whose land this truly is and what needs to be done to fight for the rights of the native american community. Take another look at this beautiful land that im in right now. Were at the movies and we need to silence our phone. Who knows where that button is . I dont have silent. Everyone does right up here. It happens to all of us. We buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. What i do is help new homeowners overcome this. 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I want to acknowledge that the ground on which i am standing are the Ancestral Lands of the seven council fires, thats the proper name for the people referred to as the sioux. Most of western south dakota and portions of neighboring north dakota, montana, nebraska, and wyoming were part of what was once known as the great sioux nation. Here in south dakota, there are nine federally recognized native nations. Cheyenne river, crow creek,ing on what i just did there was a Land Acknowledgement. Where i come from in canada, we started doing that at the beginning of most gatherings. Land is central to the identity and culture of Native Americans and offering a Land Acknowledgement has come to be seen as an initial step in the reconciliation of america and its indigenous presence. While these Land Acknowledgements dont change the fact that america has broken virtually every treaty it has ever made with Indigenous People, the statement of fact that we are on their native land brings awareness to a history that most americans never learn in school. The history of americas Indigenous People dates back thousands of years. The issues over Land Ownership began with colonization, when colonizers werent outright killing Native Americans, they were drastically reducing their access to the land they hunted and fished. Ultimately American Indians sued. In 1980 the Supreme Court upheld a claim by the lakota sioux that the United States broke its obligations that the black hills rightfully belongs to the sioux. At the time, 105 million was put in a trust as a settlement. Its thought to have grown to about 1 billion today. The lakota, most of whom now live on reservations like pine ridge behind me, maintain they dont want the money, they want the land back. Land was both sustenance and identity for Native Americans but that came into conflict with the needs of colonizers to occupy from country from Sea To Shining sea, to access gold and silver, to build rail lines and telegraph lines and mail routes. Our wealth would have been their wealth or maybe they would have done Something Else with their land and water. They have few allies in state and federal governments. They are among the worst off to america with poor access to health care and some of the lowest life expectiancies. They dont even have reliable cell service. Whether 2020 represents to you political change, social justices, or a change to your way of life that we have not faced in a lifetime, understand that there remain people among us who have been here longer than most of us who benefit less than we do from this countrys riches. Land acknowledgements wont change anything for Native Americans but finding out who occupied and lived off the land on which you now live is a start. Once we start, who knows what justice and equity may follow for our native brothers and sisters . Its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Can it help with snoring . Ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem. And done. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus 0 interest for 60 months. Ends cyber monday. I have a mask on which means ive got a guest with me. Were back from the edge of the Pine Ridge Reservation in south dakota. This is beautiful, and its back there. The ongoing covid crisis in this region has highlighted the sharp contrast between the handsoff approach of the state government, how theyve been dealing with the virus, and how aggressively native American Communities have fought the spread of the virus. The governor of the state, kristi noem, a republican who has avoided mask mandates, has criticized these checkpoints set up by the local tribes in an effort to protect those living on tribal land from the rampant spread theyve already seen. In an ongoing battle back in may, noem asked the white house to help intervene. In june, the Cheyenne River sioux tribe sued the federal government, alleging that ever since noems plea to the white house for help, the Trump Administration has fought to end the checkpoints. In the meantime the tribes nine checkpoints remain up. I want to continue this conversation with State SenatorRed Dawn Foster Of South Dakota who represents district 27 which is actually not the Cheyenne River sioux, she is part of the oglala sioux and navajo tribe. Same thing happens here, youve got checkpoints here. Whats the controversy . Thank you for having me. The point of the checkpoints were to limit traffic coming into the reservation that normally wasnt living here. This is a Matter Of Life And Death on a reservation. We needed to limit the spread, to limit people coming into our communities and potentially wiping our whole Community Out. I want to make that point. Because that sounds extreme, unless youre a native american. The idea of diseases coming into the community and wiping the Community Out is very real in your institutional memory. Absolutely, we have the historical memory of that diminishing our whole tribes. As you said, im navajo, we saw what happened to navajo nation, its coming in and running rampant, i believe theyre in lockdown right now. It was a very strong attempt to limit that spread and make sure were doing everything we can, upholding our sovereignty and protecting our citizens here. You came here from the reservation, maybe when you go back youll hit the checkpoint. Yes. Theyre not particularly onerous. No. There are a