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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, 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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237,600 face shields &
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the state of Photos from 18-wheeler of PPE arriving at the Suquamish nation's distribution site in Washington.
Supporting a range of community-based relief efforts:
CommUNTY Relief - Donate Here
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
Right Relations Fund for Navajo Nation
Protective Gear and Wellness Support
for Navajo Community facilitated by Weyakpa Najin Win (Woman Stands Shining - Pat McCabe).
Protective Gear and Wellness Support
for Navajo Community facilitated by Weyakpa Najin Win (Woman Stands Shining - Pat McCabe).
"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
