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COVID-19 Losses Motivate a Native American Woman to Honor Her Heritage

Cindy Powers, a member of the Navajo Nation, is using her grief to preserve her ancestral language

By Julia Yarbough

"I remember just sitting there overwhelmed. It felt like people were just falling and dying and it was like, when is this going to stop?" Fighting back the tears and with an audible quiver in her voice, Cindy Powers recalled feeling helplessness and grief each time she learned COVID-19 had taken the life of a family member.

A woman laughing and holding up her phone. Next Avenue, covid
Cindy Powers   |  Credit: Photo by Julia Y.

"I was told over the phone about my one aunt who passed away in the hospital. She was just 59 years old. She was a mom, a grandma and had just retired," says Powers. "She got to Zoom with one or two family members, but there were no other family members and she died alone."

Powers now mourns not one, two, or even three family members taken by the pandemic. Instead, she is now coping with the loss of 17 people. The youngest who died was in their mid-30s. 

Each was a relative from Powers' familial clan, including her Grandmother, Laughing Woman, who died one day before her 95th birthday.

The Navajo Nation and COVID-19

Powers is a Native American Indian and a member of the Navajo Nation. It is the largest Native American Indian reservation in the United States. Navajo Nation is located in what is often referred to as the "four corners," where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. 

Powers says much of her strength derives from those before her.

On one chilly afternoon, I met Powers in Northern California, where she has lived for over 30 years. She grew up in what she describes as "the very rural, very remote" community of White Mesa in Northern Arizona, on the Navajo Nation Reservation.

As a Native American Navajo woman, Powers says much of her strength derives from those before her. Tears again filled her eyes when she discussed what history calls "The Long Walk." 

During the Civil War, in 1864, Colonel Kit Carson rounded up and forced thousands of Navajo on a deadly march 300 miles to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. 

"I was fortunate to have seen my great grandma. She lived to be 106 years old. She was born a generation after being released from Fort Sumner. I often think of her strength," Powers told me. But, unfortunately, she believes racial injustices of the past often repeat. For members of the Navajo Nation, she says, this time it came from COVID-19.

According to 2020 U.S. Census data, and the National Congress of American Indians, the population on tribal lands in the Navajo region is small and declining: down from 173,667 in 2010 to 165,158 in 2020. That is a population decrease of 8,509.

A woman sitting in her kitchen. Next Avenue, covid
Cindy Power's grandmother, Asdzaa Anadloni  |  Credit: Photo by Julia Y.

While much attention has been focused on the numbers of older Americans claimed by COVID-19, Powers says there has been little attention to the devastation the illness has had on the Native American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

The Centers for Disease Control has reported a 3.5% higher infection and mortality rate from COVID-19 among Native American and Alaskan Native persons than other ethnic groups. Those statistics are in the CDC COVID-19 Weekly Cases and Deaths per 100,000 Population by Age, Race/Ethnicity, and Sex tables.

Powers says the loss of family and friends is only part of the story. In addition, she points to the lack of infrastructure and resources to protect against COVID-19; resources like clean water, electricity and access to food sources. 

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Powers says these necessities are only sometimes available on the reservation. "Just going back to the basics of not having running water, plumbing and electricity. How can you fight COVID-19?" 

"It was emphasized to people to wash their hands and social distance. But when you don't have water, you are basically at the mercy of the disease," Powers says.  

She feels COVID-19 is the latest in a long line of indignities. "Living in the U.S., we are indigenous to this land and the last to come up. So we're an afterthought," she says.

"Living in the U.S., we are indigenous to this land and the last to come up. So we're an afterthought."

Data and outreach through the National Indian Council on Aging support Powers' personal experiences. The organization works to improve health, social and economic determinants for Native American and Indigenous Alaskan elders.

NICOA data analyst Desiree Lapahie explained that COVID-19 exacerbated difficult conditions for many members of the Navajo Nation living on or off the reservation.

"The Navajo nation is rural, and for many communities, it is about an hour drive from any town to get groceries, gas or anything you need. It became an obstacle of how to get supplies," she says.

Lapahie echos Powers' assessment that COVID-19 forced many long-standing inequities to the surface. "Native American Indians already have health disparities and large numbers of underlying health conditions," says Lapahie. 

"So there are people who are more prone to pass from COVID-19, and we did see a high mortality rate from COVID-19 across reservations."

Such disparities are acknowledged in a recent CDC report, which indicates that "long-standing inequities in public funding; infrastructure; and access to health care, education, stable housing, healthy foods, and insurance coverage have contributed to health disparities, putting indigenous peoples at higher risk for severe COVID-19–associated illness." 

Lapahie points to the family structure as another significant hurdle. "Most of the people living on the reservation are multi-generational. So when one person got infected, it infected everyone else in the household. As a result, not many people can go elsewhere to quarantine."

Power Of The Spoken Word

Powers has watched COVID-19 rip through the fabric of her family structure, taking much from her. She admits coping with grief 17 times over has been difficult. But, it has opened her eyes to a sobering thought.

"We're so small in numbers that we could actually in the blink of an eye be gone. That's the reality," Powers says. She understands that such a significant and rapid loss in population translates to fewer who write, understand and speak her native Navajo language. 

"The language is all of me, from head to toe. From the inside to the outside, that's who I am."

She says that means fewer elders or medicine men to pass down generational education of culture and family legacies that can only be told in Navajo.

"When I do speak the language, it's about reverence, it's about respecting who I am. Before I shied away from speaking it, but now I'm embracing it wholeheartedly," Powers says, adding that she is studying to become fluent in Navajo. She wants to teach others as well. Her timing is crucial.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report includes Navajo as one of the indigenous languages in the United States at risk of dying.

Through another round of tears, Powers explained, "even before COVID, I had been thinking about the Navajo language and what it meant to me. There is an urgency of NOW." 

"The love for my language, the love for my people, and what my language represents. It's everything. It explains my heritage," says Powers. "The language is all of me, from head to toe. From the inside to the outside, that's who I am."

Julia Yarbough
Julia Yarbough A multiple Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist Julia Yarbough has over 25 years of experience anchoring and reporting, covering hard news, environmental, education, and human interest stories. Having served as a family caregiver to her aging and now deceased mother, Julia is passionate about raising awareness and educating others about the realities facing family caregivers and improving current services. She launched Keeping it REAL Caregiving, a website, blog, podcast, and public speaking platform, to produce segments highlighting the challenges those caring for elders face. Julia also has a bi-weekly newsletter named KeepingItREALCaregiving.substack.com, offering practical guidance, news, and information. Read More
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