Navajo president advises Diné not to travel off Nation

Posted

PAGE – The Chronicle talked with Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez last week. The topics ranged from opening Antelope Canyons to sharing vaccines with Page and border towns.

The day after the interview, the first case of the U.K. coronavirus variant was identified from a random sampling on the Navajo Nation. The elder who contracted the variant was fully vaccinated when he got it. He recovered fast. Nez attributes the fast recovery to being vaccinated.

A few days later, Coconino County reported a 45% increase in positive COVID-19 tests for tribal communities and a 200% increase for Page – the highest increase in the county. The county reports: “The highest overall incidence rate was observed in Page.”

After Gov. Doug Ducey lifted all state restrictions and prohibited cities, towns, and counties from enforcing mask mandates, Mayor Bill Diak complied and rescinded the mask mandate in Page.

Last week, Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer said in a townhall meeting, “It’s a free-for-all in the border towns.”

Nez advised the Navajo people: “Please don’t travel off the Nation.” He also asks people to stay 6 feet apart rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated 3 feet for social distancing.

When asked about Ducey lifting restrictions and how it would affect the Navajo Nation, Nez said, “We are a sovereign nation, so we have the ability to govern ourselves. So, we can put our own protocols into place to protect our citizens.”

Nez said, “It has been a challenge through this pandemic. You may know that we have put some very strict protocols in place on the Navajo Nation, having a mask mandate since last April, going as far as weekend curfews, lockdowns, total lockdowns to control the spread. All these protocols that are coming from the CDC we follow. But it’s difficult when other jurisdictions around us don’t do it. We’re all in this together. If we were all to follow the protocols all at once, just imagine how we could lessen the spread.”

Emphasizing the effect neighboring communities have, Nez said, “Sometimes you have jurisdictions, one is Arizona that doesn’t require masks or doesn’t have the very stringent protocols in place. Half of our Navajo people live off the Nation. When they come home, a lot of our contact tracers have indicated that majority of our spread is from family and social gatherings.

So, it’s people that are coming back from off the Nation to visit their family members that bring the virus back, and it spreads. And they end up spreading it even further into some of the bordering towns.”

He said, “It’s been a challenge, but I have no jurisdiction off the Navajo Nation. We’re going to do our very best to create a bubble on the Navajo Nation so we can keep our citizens safe.”

Regarding Antelope Canyons and tourist areas on the Nation, Nez said, “We’re not going to open 100%. It’s going to be small steps. Right now, we’re at 25% capacity. Maybe 50% come next week, 75%, then finally 100%. What’s really helping us on Navajo Nation is the large number of people we have vaccinated. Our adult population, probably half of those living on the Nation have been fully vaccinated with two shots.”

The recent increase in COVID-19 nationally and locally, along with variants not fully understood, will affect timeline for reopening.

As the Navajo Nation vaccinations increase, Nez sees the possibility of surplus doses to share.

Nez said, “We would like to help out with this region as well. If we have some available doses, we shouldn’t just say ‘Navajo only.’ We should say, ‘Our friends and our partners off the Nation’ because it’s a regional approach to keep the virus at bay.”

There’s a sharp contrast in vaccine acceptance in Page and on the Navajo Nation. As of Friday, 2,727 in Page are fully vaccinated, according to Coconino County. About 8,000 are fully vaccinated in tribal areas in the county.

Nez said, “For us on Navajo [Nation], we reframed wearing masks using our cultural teaching that we’re at war with this unseen bug. If you’re going to war, you have to have the armor and the weapons to go into war.

“So, we framed it that way using our way of life teaching. Wearing a mask is not about limiting someone’s freedoms. It’s about the greater good and to protect your family and nation. You’re going to be going to battle, and you’re wearing your armor, taking weapons with you. That’s one of many reasons the Navajo Nation was able to bring confidence to the vaccine.”

Nez said the Navajo people honor and respect their health care professionals.

“That’s one of the main reasons we were able to push back on this virus these past several weeks,” he added. “It’s great to see the Navajo people helping each other out. I just pray that it continues. I know there’s a lot of fatigue involved, especially when it gets warm too because people will travel.”