In early February, Mr. Biden signed a declaration of major disaster for the Navajo Nation to provide more federal funding to support the distribution of vaccines, medical staff and resources. With the help of additional resources, Nez said the tribe was able to administer 98% of the vaccine doses it received.
Nez said he would now like to see the government’s focus on obsolete infrastructure.
“Our roads, our bridges, our water lines, our electricity lines: here in the Navajo Nation, 30 to 40 percent of our people have no running water, 30 to 40 percent of our people have no electricity,” he said . “So, if there is a big emphasis on infrastructure, we want the Navajo Nation to receive running water and electricity.”
Esther Lucero is the chief executive of the Seattle Indian Health Board, a community health center serving more than 6,000 urban American Indians and Alaskan natives. She said she hoped to see significant investment in the current public health system for Native Americans.
The Indian Health Service, based in Rockville, Md., Consists of 26 hospitals, 56 health centers and 32 health posts. Hospitals range in size from four to 133 beds. The agency is divided into a dozen service regions across the country, each serving the tribes living in that area.
For decades, the Indigenous Health Service has been underfunded, insufficient and routinely criticized for providing inadequate care to the 2.2 million members of the country’s tribal communities. Its performance during the pandemic was the target of particularly intense criticism.
“We need to put together an aggressive budget formula so that the Indian Health Service is fully funded,” said Lucero. Providing additional funding to the 12 tribal epidemiology health centers, for example, was instrumental in maintaining and tracking health data about their citizens, she said.
The intersection of federal land use with environmental and energy policy is also at the heart of the new government’s tribal agenda. Biden is facing calls to close the Dakota Access pipeline after a court ruled that the Trump administration broke the law by allowing it to be built. This would mean the victory of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which reaches North Dakota and South Dakota. The pipeline runs through the north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reserve.