Crystal Echo Hawk, founder and executive director of the nonprofit IllumiNative, said on Hill.TV’s “Rising” Friday that Native Americans are facing unequal challenges with the coronavirus pandemic because of preexisting health disparities.
She noted that in states like Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Oklahoma, Native Americans make up larger shares of the state’s total coronavirus cases and deaths than they do of the total population.
“The reason why we’re being disproportionately impacted is because we have really serious health disparities. Within our communities we have high rates of heart disease… diabetes,” Echo Hawk said.
She said that public federal health agencies and states with large native populations must meet the needs of native communities.
“We really need to be ramping up the resources to improve the quality of care and access to care.”
“We need to focus on the massive failure of the federal government, and it’s not just in the time of Covid,” Echo Hawk added, referring to systematic inequality that Native Americans experience in the U.S.
“We haven’t waited for the federal government,” Echo Hawk said, noting that tribes have closed their borders even as states pressure them to remain open.
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