CommUNITY Relief & ResiliencyIn response to the pandemic, CommUNITY Learning Network has been mobilizing our network of formal and informal relationships to support relief efforts for vulnerable, rural, and indigenous communities and community members impacted by COVID-19. The summer of 2020 was busy as we distributed over over 257,000 donated PPE to more than 49 tribes and agencies, helped Native American artists to build more than 250 websites to showcase their work, and helped coordinate deployment with the ITDRC of more than 145 wireless access points to provide free Internet at community hotspots, and more! Now, as winter approaches and the pandemic surges, we are collaborating on initiatives to provide water and wood for elders and families in need.. Learn more about regional CommUNITY Relief efforts below or get involved and make a donation online.
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Tse da kaan, Dinetah (Navajo Nation)
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CommUNITY Relief
A collective action initiative to provide protective gear and well-being support to communities in need and to vulnerable community members adversely affected by the COVID-19 crisis, including elders, women, and children, as well as essential workers, healthcare workers, and first responders. Thanks to a generous donation from the Intuitive Foundation, face shields plus cloth and N95 masks have been distributed to Native communities and community members in need in more than 29 tribes in Oklahoma, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, plus tribes in Arizona, and New Mexico including all 19 Pueblos plus Jicarilla Apache, Mescalero Apache, White River Apache, San Carlos Apache, Southern Ute, and Bear Mountain Ute, and multiple locations in Dinetah (Navajo nation). You Can Help! What a Team!Honoring all of the local volunteers and community organizations that collaborated to distribute PPE including Gallup Health Collaborative, Pueblo Relief Fund, Pueblo Cultural Center, City of Santa Fe, Ke' Infoshop, Hopi Relief Fund, Hopa Mountain, LANL Foundation, LANL, Anchorum St Vincent, Operation Bandana New Mexico, MeowWolf, Mural Net, Indigenous Mutual Aid project, Navajo Nation Right Relations project, Protect Native Elders, NM COVID Collaborative, Santa Fe Indian Center, Santa Fe Indian School, TrueKids1,CLN CommUNITY Youth Ambassadors, Tewa Women United, and more.
Special Thanks to Gina Perez-Baron and Catherine Mohr, who's initial friendship was the seed of this effort, and also to Pat McCabe, Woman Stands Shining, for expanding the web, and to the many many others who stepped up to assist, including Ed Yeh plus:,
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277,400 face shields &
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Photos from 18-wheeler of PPE arriving at the Suquamish nation's distribution site in Washington.
Photos from 18-wheeler of PPE arriving at the Cherokee nation's distribution site in Tallequah, Oklahoma.
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"Over 60 school systems in Northeastern Oklahoma have received more than 12,000 face shields to help during these unprecedented times thanks to the efforts of the Community Learning Network. The Cherokee Nation worked diligently with reduced staff to get the face shields delivered to the school systems. Multiple programs assisted in the delivery of the face shields including the Johnson O’Malley Program which provides opportunities to Native children for achievement through student and parent involvement in academic and cultural education." Cherokee Nation Emergency Management .
PPE was also delivered to the Choctaw nation based in Philadelphia, Mississippi. |
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Supporting a range of community-based relief efforts:
CommUNTY Relief & Resiliency - Donate Here
In response to the pandemic, CommUNITY Learning Network has been mobilizing our network of formal and informal relationships to support relief efforts for vulnerable, rural, and indigenous communities and community members impacted by COVID-19. The summer of 2020 was busy as we distributed over over 357,000 donated PPE to more than 49 tribes, helped Native American artists to build more than 250 websites to showcase their work, and helped coordinate deployment of more than 145 wireless access points to provide free Internet at community hotspots, and more! Now, as winter approaches and the pandemic surges, we are collaborating on initiatives to provide water and wood for elders and families in need.. Learn more about regional CommUNITY Relief efforts below or get involved.and make a donation online.
Right Relations Fund for Navajo Nation
Supporting Resiliency and Well-being
for Indigenous and Navajo Community members
facilitated by Weyakpa Najin Win (Woman Stands Shining - Pat McCabe).
Supporting Resiliency and Well-being
for Indigenous and Navajo Community members
facilitated by Weyakpa Najin Win (Woman Stands Shining - Pat McCabe).
Ke' InfoShop
"K’é Bei Nihi Dziil - Through Kinship We Are Strong."
K'é Infoshop in Window Rock is partnering with the following organizations to build an autonomous yet effective distribution system to provide food and other essential items to families affected by COVID-19:
Indigenous Mutual Aid Fund
Kinlani Mutual Aid
Linktree of Indigenous Mutual Aid Groups
Navajo & Hopi Solidarity
Taalaa Hooghan Infoshop
The Red Nation
Rez Refuge
"K’é Bei Nihi Dziil - Through Kinship We Are Strong."
K'é Infoshop in Window Rock is partnering with the following organizations to build an autonomous yet effective distribution system to provide food and other essential items to families affected by COVID-19:
Indigenous Mutual Aid Fund
Kinlani Mutual Aid
Linktree of Indigenous Mutual Aid Groups
Navajo & Hopi Solidarity
Taalaa Hooghan Infoshop
The Red Nation
Rez Refuge
Collective Medicine
Navajo Water Warriors are working to provide water containers and water to Dine' families in need.
Navajo Water Warriors are working to provide water containers and water to Dine' families in need.
COVID Caregivers Support Fund
Collaborative grassroots efforts to provide direct financial support to
COVID Caregivers, including essential and front-line workers
Collaborative grassroots efforts to provide direct financial support to
COVID Caregivers, including essential and front-line workers
"On March 11, 2020, the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management declared a public health state of emergency for the Navajo Nation due to the confirmation of the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19") in regional areas surrounding the Navajo Nation."
Why is the Navajo Nation hit hard by COVID-19?
From K'e Infoshop: "Only 60% of households within the Navajo reservation have running water, the remaining 40% must haul water many miles for their families and livestock. Resource extraction and exploitation have depleted much of our direct water sources (aquifers, natural springs, rivers, lakes, etc.) and devastated our watersheds (e.g. irradiated from over 500 abandoned uranium mines). The lives, lands, and natural rights of Diné and Hopi people have been sacrificed so the capitalist economy of the Southwest U.S. may thrive. Without coal mined from Dzixl Yizhiin (Black Mesa, Arizona) by Diné and Hopi people to power the Central Arizona Project canal system, settlements known as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and other abominably unnatural metropolises in the Southwest would not exist.
The Navajo Nation reservation/interment camp is about 27,000 square miles in size with only 13 grocery stores to feed over 244,000 people. There are also 10 continously understaffed, underequipped, and underfunded hospitals within the Navajo Nation. Almost one-third of homes within the Navajo Nation lack electricity, internet, and cell services. Most of these same households live on 10 gallons of water a day, whereas the average American home uses 100 gallons. The socio-economic conditions of life on a reservation exacerbates the high mortality rate of diseases among Indigenous people due to extremely limited access to clean water, unpolluted land, and fresh organic foods. The crumbling infrastructure of roads, pipes, and communication makes the situation ripe for a pandemic breakout.
All Indigenous nations have been subjected to the same abuse and immiseration created by U.S. policies to deny Indigenous people their ability to truly determine their own futures. By outsourcing our kinship to inhuman structures, we have erased any semblance of self-determination for the false promises of peace. This does not mean we are looking to "go back" to pre-contact with European settlers, we are striving to recenter our purpose of upholding healthy and dignified lives for all based on kinship with human and non-human relatives".
Updates on Coronavirus in Indian Country: Latest Counts
From K'e Infoshop: "Only 60% of households within the Navajo reservation have running water, the remaining 40% must haul water many miles for their families and livestock. Resource extraction and exploitation have depleted much of our direct water sources (aquifers, natural springs, rivers, lakes, etc.) and devastated our watersheds (e.g. irradiated from over 500 abandoned uranium mines). The lives, lands, and natural rights of Diné and Hopi people have been sacrificed so the capitalist economy of the Southwest U.S. may thrive. Without coal mined from Dzixl Yizhiin (Black Mesa, Arizona) by Diné and Hopi people to power the Central Arizona Project canal system, settlements known as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and other abominably unnatural metropolises in the Southwest would not exist.
The Navajo Nation reservation/interment camp is about 27,000 square miles in size with only 13 grocery stores to feed over 244,000 people. There are also 10 continously understaffed, underequipped, and underfunded hospitals within the Navajo Nation. Almost one-third of homes within the Navajo Nation lack electricity, internet, and cell services. Most of these same households live on 10 gallons of water a day, whereas the average American home uses 100 gallons. The socio-economic conditions of life on a reservation exacerbates the high mortality rate of diseases among Indigenous people due to extremely limited access to clean water, unpolluted land, and fresh organic foods. The crumbling infrastructure of roads, pipes, and communication makes the situation ripe for a pandemic breakout.
All Indigenous nations have been subjected to the same abuse and immiseration created by U.S. policies to deny Indigenous people their ability to truly determine their own futures. By outsourcing our kinship to inhuman structures, we have erased any semblance of self-determination for the false promises of peace. This does not mean we are looking to "go back" to pre-contact with European settlers, we are striving to recenter our purpose of upholding healthy and dignified lives for all based on kinship with human and non-human relatives".
Updates on Coronavirus in Indian Country: Latest Counts
