Giving Compass' Take:

• The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has taken many steps to build an effective approach to responding to COVID-19, through rapid testing and contact tracing. 

• How can donors help other tribal nations adopt a similar response? How can nonprofit partnerships aid Indigenous people in addressing the virus? 

• Learn about COVID-19's impact on Native communities and their workforce. 

A few weeks ago, I found myself tearing up at my kitchen table as I listened to a health care official from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians explain to me the intricate and bold steps my tribe has taken to combat COVID-19 on the Qualla Boundary—specifically Cherokee, North Carolina. We had enacted policy and consolidated resources completely separate from state or federal aid and mandate. This was the third conversation on the topic I had had with a tribal official—the third time I teared up out of pride.

As of July 12, even after the summer holiday surges, the EBCI has administered 5,620 COVID-19 tests, with 86 positive test results. Sixty-one of those have fully recovered. These are exemplary rates compared to our neighbors in surrounding counties such as Henderson and Macon, and in mid-May when I began speaking with tribal officials, our numbers were even more remarkable. But just as I was celebrating our assertion of sovereignty amid a global pandemic, the story took a complex turn. I was about to tear up over a different statistic.

The EBCI has reacted to COVID-19 with an abundance of caution that exceeded much of Indian Country’s and certainly our home state’s response. In partnership with the nonprofit Dogwood Health Trust, a nonprofit health organization based in Asheville, we began providing access to free communitywide testing (even for asymptomatic people) long before North Carolina recommended it. We set up roadblocks and allowed only residents or EBCI enrolled members to access the boundary. We closed nonessential businesses, including Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and our government offices. We employed a sophisticated and comprehensive contact tracing system that has been credited with identifying asymptomatic carriers before they unknowingly transmitted the virus.

Read the full article about community response to COVID-19 by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle at YES! Magazine.