Although indigenous people are taking the hardest hits from COVID-19, data collected by both the government and research institutions excludes them, either by ignoring them altogether or having them sorted into the jumbled category of “other.” When they aren’t included in demographics, these communities don’t receive the necessary economic and health resources, a situation that is not limited to the United States.

As said before, this problem is a global one, not just in the United States. 6 years ago in 2014, indigenous communities from around the world came together to express their worries about being excluded from large government databases. This sort of invisibility makes it next to impossible to distinguish the economic, health, and social status of Indigenous groups from majority bodies. Across the U.S. specifically, leaders of these communities have suggested employing disaggregated data in order to successfully recognize inequalities unique to specific tribes.

In 2014, the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples of the UN, made up of General Assembly member states and respective Indigenous representatives, came together to discuss Indigenous human rights. The discussion resulted in an agreement that committed to “bettering the livelihoods of Indigenous communities around the world based on recommendations from Indigenous peoples.” One article of this agreement directly addressed the need to disaggregate political, social, economic, and health data, something that the United States has not done.

A recent interview by High Country News to Rudolph Rÿser, executive director of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, sheds light on how the United States’ public health structure and policies have been systemically excluding indigenous groups for years, even repeating certain patterns observed in the 1918 Influenza pandemic.

Rÿser and his think tank conducted a Coronavirus risk assessment in Indian Country around a month ago. The first thing they noticed is the fact that not a single organ of the U.S. administration, whether it be on a federal, state, county, or municipal level, possessed accurate data regarding infection numbers and health risk. He quickly realized that even though the government had agreed to disaggregate all data in 2014, the actual steps to make this happen were never taken, making the United States completely oblivious to what was going on in indigenous-populated areas.

“The consequences, what we’re experiencing now, is the invisibility of Indian Country, the invisibility of Alaska Natives and Hawaiian Natives, of migrant Indigenous people and refugees — all of them invisible, but subject to the same disease and dying at greater rates than others in urban centers.

Rudolph Rÿser

The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) depends on the data collected by the U.S. Census, however there isn’t a tribal census. The demographic data collected by the Bureau is based off of who identifies as Indigenous, but it doesn’t include tribal citizens with geographical boundaries relevant to tribal administrations, something that would be much more useful. The CDC refused to show tribal officials its data.

The COVID-19 risk assessment was based on geography, meaning that they identified the relationship between where people were and the actual spreading of the disease through vectors into tribal communities. Many Indigenous tribes around the world set up roadblocks, sanitation filters, and testing for everyone before they could enter the communities.

There are over 9 million people in Native communities across the United States spread out in multiple different areas, ranging from Pacific Islanders to Alaska Natives. Because of their geographic location, some communities haven’t been very successful at protecting themselves, due to the fact that they are in close proximity to large urban areas or that they haven’t been able to contain their population.

Several experts, including Rÿser, are worried that Indian Country will come down with residuary effects stemming from Coronavirus infections. Even though the disease is generally perceived as a respiratory illness that attacks the lungs, numerous studies have concluded that some asymptomatic carriers and others who recovered from COVID-19 later got diagnosed with critical heart conditions, suffered lung damage, and even saw a negative impact on the brain.

Indian Country is already struggling to deal with high rates of chronic illness that preceded COVID-19, meaning that the residual effects of the pandemic could subdue an already overwhelmed heath system. Hundreds of thousands of people could very well be disabled from having been infected, and there were certainly many cases of asymptomatic carriers that could come down with the previously mentioned after-effects.

The situation will affect many aspects of life in Indigenous communities, starting off with their administrative structure, the distribution of financial resources, and of course, the future of public health. Tribal schooling will also see a negative effect brought on by COVID-19. If there were accurate reporting on cases, there would likely be more resources in Indian Country to support the thousands of Indians suffering these dramatic shifts.

“The United States had no idea what was going on in Indian Country. They have no idea.”

Rudolph Rÿser

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