Here & Now

Tribal Nations Took Early COVID-19 Precautions

Frederica Freyberg:

Not everywhere in Wisconsin is following health guidance to slow the spread of the coronavirus considered controversial. “Here & Now” Reporter Marisa Wojcik spoke with area Tribal Nations about how their communities are taking a different approach in responding to the continued threat of COVID-19.

Tehassi Hill:

We’ve been keeping our eye on this issue as it rose and we started hearings rumblings of COVID-19, coronavirus in the early part of the year.

Marisa Wojcik:

In March when the realities of COVID-19 hit Wisconsin, the response from Tribal Nations were in lockstep with the state, if not ahead of the game.

Debbie Danforth:

We had already closed our facilities, probably about three weeks prior to the state making that order. And I think that helped us in terms of assuring that our elders and our residents within the nursing home stayed safe.

Marisa Wojcik:

For many Tribal Nations, the response was swift to ensure the virus couldn’t take hold.

Tehassi Hill:

We take great pride in making sure our community and public safety and health is a major thing to strive for, and so especially being obviously Native American and our health disparities are wide. And so any type of disease that has potential to outbreak and be a pandemic, as this has turned out to be, are potentially devastating, especially for Tribal Nations like ours. Like I mentioned, we only have about 17,000 members and that’s it. And so, you know, not to say, you know, that a life has a higher priority or not, but with us, we’re so limited that any action we can take to save a life, we’re going to try to do that.

Amy Slagle:

This is a very vulnerable group of folks, and the tribe, the Menominee people, the leaders all recognized that immediately and knew that we had to respond quickly and aggressively to keep the virus from gaining a foothold because if it does, it will reap devastation.

Marlon Whiteeagle:

Our elders, those are our native language speakers. They — so we value our language and the transmission and, you know, the preservation of our language.

Marisa Wojcik:

Some nations, like the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, used their sovereignty to enact enforceable directives such as a curfew to try and keep people from gathering at night.

Joan Delabreau:

We want people to cooperate. You want them to do this for their betterment. That’s the only way you’re going to get buy-in.

Debbie Danforth:

The difference for us is that this is our community. This is our families. This — you know, the death could have been a relative.

Marisa Wojcik:

When it came to weighing the costs and benefits of health versus the economy, for Tribal leaders, it wasn’t even a debate.

Joan Delabreau:

Economics are last when you’re in a pandemic. Keeping people safe, keeping people healthy, keeping people alive, that’s what’s important.

Marisa Wojcik:

But even a clear decision has its consequences.

Tehassi Hill:

It wasn’t necessarily hard to make, but just knowing what that economic impact was going to be of having, you know, some 90%, 95% of our revenue coming from gaming and then shutting those operations down, we were on schedule and on pace for our projections for revenue generation for the year all the way up until we shut down in March. So it went from meeting those projections to zero.

Louise Cornelius:

It was devastating for our nation.

Marisa Wojcik:

After months of being shut down, the Oneida Nation and many other nations were able to open their casinos back up.

Louise Cornelius:

So it’s all hands on deck here. Right now, we have about 418 employees back, called back. So when you come in, every morning you have to come through this employee entrance and you go through the same process as the customer does. You get your temperature checked. You have to have a mask. You are asked about five different questions regarding your health.

Marisa Wojcik:

A recent uptick seen both in state numbers and tribal numbers could mean going back on the defensive.

Amy Slagle:

We’ve had a small outbreak on the reservation that was related to a family gathering this week. The tribal leadership moved very quickly to respond that. We have now reversed ourselves on the reopening plan.

Marisa Wojcik:

Despite this setback, the total number of positive cases for Menominee County sits at 15.

Amy Slagle:

I think we’re still in good shape. We just want to keep it that way.

Marisa Wojcik:

Overall the numbers generally prove out. In Wisconsin, the number of positive cases on or near reservations is nearly half the rate of the rest of the state according to most recent data. Whatever it can be attributed to, Tribal Nations continue to navigate best steps with autonomy and eye on the data and community responsibility.

Amy Slagle:

Some days I’m terrified. We all understand that while we’ve held things off very well so far, it could change in a day or two and COVID can catch like wildfire.

Tehassi Hill:

It’s going to be more on the front of the discussion rather than we’ll make this plan for in case this happens. Now that we’ve lived through it, we know it can happen and what it looks like and what it’s going to take to move forward.

Marisa Wojcik:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Marisa Wojcik.

Frederica Freyberg:

After earlier closing their casino and then reopening again, the Menominee Tribe announced today that the Menominee Casino and Resort and Thunderbird Gaming will once again close down until August 11th due to a growing health threat posed by COVID-19.