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Welcome to the first episode of Illuminative on air. I'm crystal echo Hawk. I'm your host and founder and executive director of illuminated. I want to take a couple of minutes to tell you a little bit about myself illuminative and to set the table so to speak about why we are embarking on this journey with our new podcast. First, I'm a citizen of the Pawnee nation located in Oklahoma.
I'm also a mom, an auntie, a sister, and a lifelong organizer and advocate for native children, families and communities. As for illuminative , we are a national nonprofit organization dedicated to amplifying contemporary native voices, stories and issues in pop culture, media and K through 12 education. We do this work in order to fight the profound and visibility toxic stereotypes and false narratives that feel bias and racism against native peoples.
Illuminated was born out of something called the reclaiming native truth project. A project that I co-led between 2016 and 2018 it was a three point $3 million project. That was the largest public opinion research project ever conducted about native peoples. Our groundbreaking research conducted by some of the top minds in the country explored one of the dominant perceptions that Americans have about native peoples.
Why do they have these perceptions and how do these perceptions play out in some of our most powerful institutions in this country like the courts and Congress, as well as in media education, philanthropy, and in just in everyday life, the findings were astounding. We found that nearly 80% of Americans know little to nothing about native peoples, and a significant percentage of Americans aren't entirely sure that native peoples even exist anymore.
72% of Americans also rarely or never encounter information about native Americans in their daily lives. Our research found that nearly 90% of schools in this country do not teach about native Americans past 1900 and our representation in TV and film is less than 0.04% so what does this all mean? It means that contemporary native peoples largely do not exist in the consciousness of Americans and in key institutions and within power holders in this country.
The consequences of this invisibility are profound. As our research found. According to top social psychologists, we worked with dr Stephanie Freiburg of the university of Michigan and dr Arianne Easten of the university of California at Berkeley found that this invisibility fuels bias and that plainly spoke in visibility is the modern form of racism against native Americans.
It has real consequences that often mean that native Americans are left out of key pieces of legislation and policies that affect lives, our livelihood, our health, and our rights as citizens of sovereign tribal nations.
Our research also found on the flip side of this profound and visibility are toxic stereotypes, false narratives and myths that also feel bias from racist sports mascots to the perpetual myths that native Americans don't pay taxes, that we just get checks for being native while also enriching ourselves off a tribal gaming. Our research found that these toxic stereotypes in in miss fuel bias and systemic discrimination.
As we face this unprecedented crisis of the COBIT 19 pandemic, we are immersed in wall to wall media coverage about the devastating impact that coven 19 is having on communities across the United States, especially in low income and communities of color. Indian country and native communities are no exception.
However, media coverage has largely been sparse and even as coven 19 cases are ticking up into major hotspots in tribal communities such as the Navajo nation and in some pueblos in New Mexico, we've seen very little coverage. We've also seen instances of outright misinformation about federal assistance to native communities in this moment.
It is critical to ensure that we are amplifying what is happening in native communities and to ensure that we're hearing the stories of native peoples from the front lines and visibility during this pandemic can literally be a matter of life or death.
Illuminated is committed to doing what we can to shine a light, not only on the impacts and needs resulting from coven 19 but we also want to shine a light on the stories and examples of resilience and strength and hope that is absolutely a bound within Indian country. Illuminated has put together a stellar team of native producers to bring you stories about and from native communities and there's never been a better time to start it then .
Right now we're struggling just like everyone else right now and as native peoples we have pandemics in our blood memory. However, as history and this moment has shown native peoples are strong, we are resilient, we are innovative and when we work together there are no limits to what we can overcome and create. So let's get on with it.
For our first episode you'll hear radio host Tara Gatewood bring you a conversation with Oglala Sioux tribal president Julian Baer runner about his forward thinking actions before covert 19 reached his nation. Also reporter Allison Herrera will connect you with first responders who are putting their lives on the line to make sure there are enough coven 19 tests for anyone who needs one. And producer Monica brain will unpack the cares act, which has $8 billion for tribes.
But first we'll share with you a conversation that I recently had with Mark Trey hand , the editor of Indian country today. I asked him what have been the biggest impacts and surprises
since the pandemic started?
One of the first careers we did, and I'm really glad because it put it in perspective for us, was to look hard at the 1918 flu epidemic and how that impacted Indian country. When you look at it compared to that, it's a very different story because even though we're consumed right now with the daily story about where the disease is progressing, how many people are impacted and all of that, the other side of that is how remarkably well we're doing. This is really extraordinary.
The first models for COBIT 19 kind of calculated a 50% uh , social distancing rate. And the United States is now at about 90% social distancing. And what that has resulted in is really effective measures. And across the U S it's about 600,000 people have been infected. Indian country is about 1400 which is about a quarter of 1% now having said that, it's important to note that the numbers are probably higher than that because of the lack of testing.
But nonetheless it's even when you look at kind of across the board we're doing really well. And I think that story, the stories of online resilience and people doing really remarkable things, whether it be the social distancing powwows to humor that's just gone across social media like crazy. I think it's really shows kind of the ability of people to fathom something like this and get through it.
And so, you know, it is really remarkable to see that the numbers are still relatively low in Indian country. And I know you guys have done a lot of work and a lot of coverage to kind of address that issue just around data collection. Right. And I wonder if you could just kind of give us a sense of why is it hard to even get good data on the number of, of COBIT 19 cases in Indian country?
Sure. Well, and this really goes to how we need to rethink about the Indian health system and even the word Indian health services misleading because the Indian health service people have this imagination of government doctors, government clinics, even uniforms because of the commissioned officers Corps . And that's true. So part of the system, but it's not even the majority anymore. The majority of the system is now tribal run facilities.
In fact, if you look at the facilities creating COBIT 19 the Indian health service itself is only 17% and that shift is really remarkable. I don't even think members of Congress understand how important it is that it really isn't tribal led system now. And when you look at that in total, it means tribes don't have report. The numbers tie HS , so there's no data collection in there . Urban Indians aren't even counted. There's no mechanism for that.
And so right now it's all anecdotal and those two things combined mean in order to get better data we have to change the way we collect it. And the way we think about the Indian health system
when we kind of pivot and think about New Mexico, Navajo nation in particular, but you know, also , uh , Zia and San Felippe Pueblo , right? We're making some pretty big headlines recently and it seems like New Mexico , um, is , is a hotspot.
Sure. Well, I'll start with the pueblos. Uh , when you think of how this particularly infection spreads , uh , a Pueblo community is just built for urban, very close, very tight communities, lots of family. And because the infection can linger for two weeks before you even know you have it, five days when it's current, people can spread it to swear easily. And we're seeing that in the pueblos. Uh, you mentioned two that have really high infection rates.
In fact , uh, the infection rates in those two villages are higher than New York city's , which we all been reading about. Navajo had a unique situation where there were a number of people at a religious event. And when they came back to different communities from that event, they spread it and then it just took off like that. That said, Navajo social district things has been more aggressive than the general populations, including the 56 hour weekend curfews.
And that's done a lot to slow even the spread of it at Navajo.
And so to kind of pivot now, I mean in looking at sort of the, the other big impacts that coven 19 is having, let's talk about the economics of it. Can you, what are, what are the big stories happening there in terms of the economic impact?
We're not even past the introduction. Uh, the economic impact is going to be the story and it's going to , I mean it's sooner or later there will be some medical breakthrough, whether it be testing regime, poor , um, ability to have a vaccine or other control measure. That's inevitable. It's just a question of when the economic impact is going to last a long, long time. It's deep. It's infrastructure related.
It's , um, when you think of how many tribes across the country have done a great job of employing through peoples , through gaming and entertainment and have that suddenly be gone, it's just really longterm disruptive on a scale that we've never seen in our lifetimes before.
And could you, for our listeners that might not have seen, there was a really important study that came out from Harvard,
right? And they'd get for the first time kind of thing, kind of pigged an Indian gross national product and that is $50 million and some steps that that's probably still on the light side. But nonetheless, that shows the impact. And that study, they said that basically a million jobs are lost and those million jobs, 90% of them are non-Indians who benefit from working at tribal casinos or other related industries.
There's interesting conversation going on about how when you look at all this data that people think about the underfunding of the federal government, and in a lot of ways this economic activity that's happened in Indian country has been subsidizing a lot of the federal activities for decades. And now that it's really exposed, we're seeing firsthand how much Indian country has done on its own for quite awhile .
It's really remarkable. So you know as though us want to explore with you as well. Just as a quick update, you know I'm seeing a lot of stories that federal funds that had been approved for for coven 19 sort of emergency response efforts on the ground that that funds still aren't making it to the tribes. Is that, is that really the case and if so, what are you hearing and why?
It's across the board and it's not just tribes. The federal government is trying to figure this out as it goes along. They've started to make payments to individuals and that will include a lot of native American people. That said, it's still kind of just a mess. How do you ramp up spending billions of dollars without any kind of plan or infrastructure? And that's exactly what the federal government is doing.
The two areas that are most impactful for tribes right now are payroll protection and a lot of organizations, including Indian country today have applied for that to give some relief. For a couple of months for your salaried employees. The big rub for there is that the treasury department decided that casinos that employ less than 500 people, which under the law would qualify.
They made the regs so that tribes don't qualify and as I mentioned, that's been such an important economic activity that as one person put it to me in a conversation the other day, we cannot afford to let this one go. We're going back to Congress to get a fix because it's so directly impacts our future. The second one is an $8 billion tribal relief fund and there's also $2 billion being pumped into the Indian health service and the Bureau of Indian affairs.
The $8 billion was supposed to go to tribal governments, fact it's name to tribal government relief fund and an early controversy is that in the definition in the law, they cite the Indian self determination and educational assistance act and that act includes by definition Alaska native corporations.
When the law was passed, they were even with that definition, tribes were hoping that the regulations would be clear that it was for governmental services and not for Alaska native corporations, but the interior department and the treasury department made it very clear that they do consider the last Canadian corporations in the same category and want to fund them for that. Uh, this becomes very complex for tribes, partly because Alaska native tribes would like to apply mostly village councils.
And on top of that you have Alaska native villages, Alaska native village, regional corporations, and then Alaska native regional corporations. So the same constituent group, basic complete could apply for the services three times as opposed to lower 48 tribes that could just do it once.
And that's a , a really big fight playing out in this very moment in time. And I'm , I'm guessing this is going to be the story to watch this coming week, right?
Yeah. And it's turned really ugly. And it's interesting because , um, one of the ways that I think people are missing this is that one , the Alaska native claims settlement act and the Indian self-determination act were both passed into law. There really wasn't Alaska tribes. A lot of the reservations that existed turned over their lands to corporations. So there's a different history that needs to be played out that Alaska hasn't really solved itself yet.
What's the role of tribal governments in a society that's built around corporations? And that is a very different conversation than what do we do at this pool of money and how do we solve it? And until you had that first one, you never can get to the second one.
Well, as we kind of think about wrapping up, you know, I wanted to get your perspectives because you know, illuminating our mission is really about amplifying native voices in stories and issues, really to fight against the profounder ratio and visibility of people, of native peoples in, in modern American society. Right? That really ends up feeling bias and racism and affects us in all different ways.
And so, you know, we launched this podcast during this, this moment, this pandemic to really ensure that, you know, we can do everything we can to help amplify again, native voices and what's happening in Indian country with regard to coven 19 and, and one of the things that, you know, I've been wondering about in talking with you, you guys have done such an amazing job on your reporting, but you know , what's your viewpoint over, as you look across the spectrum of, of media and journalism right
now, are you seeing this story in Indian country being covered? Tell us what you're seeing out there.
Sure. Well first I should mention our big venture. We took this moment to launch a new national television program and uh , within the first week we secure prime time and it's at 7:00 PM on FNX network. But just today we've got a couple of other major networks better talking to us about adding more stations . So we actually have a chance of getting into the PBS national schedule very, very quickly, unbelievably quickly. And I think that's another way to kind of get that story out there.
Maybe in general, and you know I , I shouldn't admit this in a podcast because it's permanent, but I really given up on trying to worry about what the national media is going to do. They're never going to get around until there's a diversity of voices in the media. They're just not going to understand the context and the larger picture and some do it very well, but it's really rare and you get this smile.
When that I frankly, one of the things that really concerns me is how we share those stories. When the media does the story that is a grade level, see people still share it on social media because they're so pleased to see themselves and I think we have to start ignoring the media like they've been ignoring us.
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as this podcast continues, you'll hear more from Mark and others at Indian country today who are reporting on what's happening to and in native communities. You catch all the amazing reporting they're doing as well as their brand new daily news show at Indian country today.
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you may recognize the voice we have next. Tara Gatewood. She is is a lot of Pueblo and the host of native calling.
It's a live call and radio show that's been on the air for 25 years. Here's her conversation with Oglala Sioux president, Julianne bear runner.
We are asking you to help us stop the possible spread by taking pre cautionary measures. Stay in your home, exercise social distancing. Stay six feet from others while in public. If you are sick, stay home and so isolate. Please take coping . 19 seriously essential travel.
You're hearing part of the Oglala Lakota nations effort to curb the spread of the novel Corona virus. It's from one of the tribes Facebook videos highlighting efforts of their coven 19 response task force. It's the sound that echoed through the community several weeks ago as tribal service vehicles made their way through the different villages carrying the message of staying safe and vigilant against the Corona virus. Julian Baer runners, the 43rd Oglala Sioux tribes president.
He says this approach is vital.
Some people don't have the radio. Some people don't have social media and they rely on just, you know the word on the streets . So, you know, we have taken that venture of going out and actually doing this throughout the communities.
Bear under said at first they were sharing this message from the back of a truck, but not everyone was hearing the cautionary dispatch. So they took it up a notch.
We brought in our medical personnel who brought in a rescue truck that would sound the siren and that was drawing the people's attention because they were hearing the sirens . So they were coming to the window, they were coming to the doors and they were standing there and they were listening and it's been working. It's been getting a lot of the attention and the message out to the people.
And for some native nations, getting the word out on the severity of the virus has helped keep the number of coven 19 positive cases low. And in some cases at zero, bear under said, staying ahead of the virus is critical given the many obstacles his tribe faces when there isn't a pandemic.
We have limited housing, we have , uh , you know, we have, what, four respirators here? IHS, we have a limited manpower , uh, within IHS. We have, you know, our , our ambulance service that is very , uh , always underfunded. So, you know, we have a lot of issues at stake and due to the shortage of housing, we have, you know, sometimes a large influx of family members living in one household for one person is to contract that and take that home.
You know, we look at maybe not even having to quarantine just one household, but you know, may possibly quarantine the full community, which you know, is going to be, you know, that's going to be a great hardship on us as a people.
So I'm, I'm hoping that we can really stay a where we're at today, but you know, also just, you know, watching and praying for our, our relatives that are, you know , currently experiencing these hardships and learning from the things that they're doing to help to implement, to ensure that we're ready here.
The Oglala Sioux tribe was one of the first sovereign tribal nations in the country to take action on March eight, the tribe issued an executive order establishing a response team and suspending travel for the tribes employees. The order also strongly recommended that the general public refrain and postpone visits to their reservation. It also urged tribal members to limit off reservation travel.
I asked him why the tribe decided to make this declaration during a time when other state and tribal entities had yet to move forward in this way.
Anything that I can do to , to protect our tribe, to protect the people that the land, you know , is always number one for me. And , um, it was challenging, you know, to have to, you know, but again, you know, relying and sitting down with our top officials to decide is this the right way? Is this something that we should do?
And you know, quickly, you know, developing, like I said, we developed this response team and this response team, I suspect the fed has been phenomenal in, in bringing information forward to staying on top of the national news as well as, you know, with what CDC is putting out and throughout the nation, you know, what the rest of the world is doing and bringing that together and bringing that forward to the tribal council.
And you know, in the tribal council moving forward to enact these policies and these procedures and these temporary laws that we have to put in effect to protect our people. So, you know, if it was a difficult decision, but it was a decision that had to be made.
The first notion to spring into action against the Corona virus came a week earlier for president baroner.
I was at the reservation economic summit, which caused me to just quarantine myself in my room and you know, and take the preventative measures. And I got an immediate flight home and caused me to go into quarantine myself to , to ensure that I was not infected. And you know, rapidly sit down with our team here of officials
with what the Corona virus is bringing to our native nations. Our tribal leaders are being asked to go head on with a severe health emergency that tops any they've seen in their time, including president baroner.
This was probably never something that I would have ever imagined, you know, that would have fall on the responsibility of any tribal leader or any leader, you know, for that matter. However, you know, when I came into this position, you know, I knew that there was gonna be , um, hardships and hard times. And you know, I , I came in here with a , on a, on a spiritual level, on a prayerful level. And that's, you know, that's the way that I've been handling it.
And through that process, you know, things that I've prayed about in the past have been happening. Things that I've been, you know, I'm being put in the right place at the right time. And it's been very humbling, but it's been very , uh , rewarding, you know , for us as a people from those things that I prayed about in the beginning to put me to where I'm at today.
Now, with that being said, you know, trying to, you know, keep that spiritual foundation of who we are as a people is the forefront and the utmost important thing that I must do as a tribal leader. And to have that faith, you know, to lead the people in, in that manner.
Bear run or added with everything that's going on because of the virus. He's also seen a transformation of his tribe.
This time has really brought our people together.
You know, I hear I'll a lot of young people saying, you know, this is really grounded us to a one two to be parents to, you know, really bond within with our family and our structure and to learn to, you know, put their everyday lines away and , and , and really, you know, just grow as a family and as a, as a nation, you know, to, to bring back that , uh, the original way of life, you know, to really just to stay home and develop that family structure within themselves.
This has been very beneficial for them.
He also had a message for all native nations.
Okay . I just want to again, stress, you know, the , as native nations to remember who you are, to remember the things that we've come through, to reiterate what the chiefs of our tribe here, the Oglala Sioux tribe have told us, was to, to continue to pray, to hold that faith and in those prayers and to continue forward and that we too will overcome this as we have everything else.
You know, and that just to look out for one another and to , to learn to learn from what other nations are , are battling and what they're up against and what they're going through.
You can catch Tara every weekday from one to 2:00 PM Eastern time on 70 public radio stations and at native America, calling.com. Up next is Alison Herrera . She's a climate editor at Colorado public radio and she has her alone Salonen
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when 40 year old nurse make them Frazier heard about the new coronavirus spreading and Wu Han China. At the end of 2019 she sprung into action.
You know , we started hearing starts out of the state of Washington. That's when I really started getting concerned because you know, I have relatives. My , my mom still is back on the reservation with my uncles and my cousins and my aunts that I thought, okay, I need to start preparing. That's what if this compare.
Frasier packed up her car and took her four year old twins to stay with her family in Sanders, Arizona on the Navajo reservation. That's where she's from. She said it just felt safer.
I knew there they would be a little bit better , um , isolated from say the city and , and then we made arrangements for us to bring supplies and food and things like that to , to get them prepared as well as my relatives there.
Frazier went to work. She and her colleague Jessica [inaudible] who is from Zuni Pueblo and is a physician's assistant have been testing and screening people for coven 19 at a drive through facility organized by Presbyterian health center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the last few weeks they were testing almost 800 patients a day. Jessica says it's a privilege to be working on the front lines.
We are one of the top five cities to be testing the largest amount per capita across the United States. We have been the single organization that has been able to test 40% of our new Mexican population for COBIT 19. So we're very happy to provide that service and um , be able to provide any data to our community.
And data is important. A recent breakdown of cases along racial lines in New Mexico shows that more than 35% of cases are among native American communities in the state. Jessica says that some of the challenges communities face have to do with the number of tests available.
So a lot of the barriers come down with the number of test kits. Um , then often the, whether they are six 38 contracted independent or an IHS facility, it's the test, the number of tests kits available. Usually that number is only a fraction of what their population as a community is,
make him sees those same barriers. She said the number of cases of coven 19 have doubled and tripled almost every day. That's when tribes in New Mexico reject to the department of health for help. And that's how she got involved.
So the DOH reached out to us because we'd been so successful with our screening site . Um, and we said, let's do it. Let's get out there and help. I think for , um, myself and I can as well as Jessica. Um, it was, you know, being native people and being able to provide the service , um, was important to us because when we understand the lack of resources that is out in Indian country,
make them set. Another challenge is the language. She's talked to elders in her community who say most of the information about coven 19 is in English and it needs to be a Navajo too. Another challenge is the concept of social distancing.
He's social distancing and having to say, Hey, listen, you can't visit your relatives right now because of this disease , this disease. Um , it is really hard to educate tribal members , um, and have them understand that
make and Jessica acknowledge the seriousness of this situation, but feel like being out there with the community is the right thing to do despite the risks.
Absolutely. There's always that fear. Um , just like a , a soldier going into more, right? There's always that fear and there's always that risk. But part of it is this is I signed up to be a clinician and this is my battle that I have to fight, but I have to make sure that I'm protecting myself.
Make them as glad both her children are spending this time with relatives and doing the things that she did when she grew up in Sanders.
They're , you know, around horses around what I kind of , I grew up with. And so they have the opportunity during this time to learn their culture. They are learning to speak the language because they're with my, my relatives. And so , um, it's kind of an opportune time for them even though the rest of the world is in chaos.
Both acknowledged that it will be a while before things go back to quote unquote normal. And that life after this pandemic passes will be very different. The lesson is to reflect on what's most important.
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well, hopefully it's a big event. There's a lot of indigenous communities around the world who are suffering from this of 19 virus and we are not exempt from it unfortunately. Yes, it's a big event. This is the thing that I fear most is that a lot of folks don't understand it the way they should.
Hey everyone. I'm Monica brain journalist and radio producer. I'm a sinner . Boyne and Lakota, you just heard United States representative Deb Holland, she's Laguna Pueblo and one of the first native women to be elected to the house. Holland is home right now in Albuquerque, but at the end of March, she and three other natives in the house of representatives voted on the most recent stimulus package.
The cares act, and it's my job to give you everything you need to know about it and what it means for native America. It's the largest stimulus package ever passed. The hope is that the two point $2 trillion will help with the crisis created from the covert 19 pandemic. It's not just money for medical care.
It also involves a lot related to the economy because our economy is directly tied to this crisis and right now it's not doing too well, and many tribes and tribal citizens are struggling as well. Most of our casinos are closed and the Indian health service is already chronically underfunded. A 2018 us government accountability office found that IHS spends an average of $4,000 per patient. To put that into perspective.
The department of veterans affairs spends 8,000 and Medicare spends 13,000 per patient, so this pandemic is putting an already struggling system in a worst place. That's where the stimulus package may help. So of this enormous two point $2 trillion pie, there's 8 billion for tribes. That's a lot of money. But the thing is tribes and native organizations lobbied for a lot more. Will this 8 billion be enough to help tribes?
Probably not, but it's a start and there's going to be more legislation in the pipeline. Before we get into the tribal provisions, I wanted to mention a few things that could help you personally. There's a stimulus check coming to most Americans. Think of it as an extra per cap from chairman, uncle Sam. The only catches that you have to make sure that you filed your 2018 in 2019 taxes and there's an income threshold, so the more you make, the less you get.
Couples who make over $150,000 a year won't see a stimulus check. The legislation has a bunch more that could really help during this challenging time. Weekly unemployment payments will increase by $600 also gig and freelance workers might be eligible for an employment as well, which is not usually the case.
The issue right now is that the system is overburdened and many people are waiting on hold for hours and hours are getting booted off the online systems because so many people are trying to apply at once. Some good news is that taxes aren't due until July 15th and the government won't be collecting payments or interest on federal student loans until September.
If you own a small business, you could get an emergency loan or grant to help with expenses including payroll and if you already have a small business loan, payments and interest are suspended for six months. Initially it seemed like tribal casinos that had less than 500 employees were going to qualify for small business relief under this package, but the small business administration put up some guidelines and it said that casinos are not eligible for this program.
President Trump said he would take a look at it, so we'll see how it plays out. Okay. Let's get into the nitty gritty of what exactly is going to help tribes, and bear with me on this one. It can get confusing, but I'm going to do my best to make it simple and clear. Some of the headlines have said that there's 8 billion for tribes and others have said 10 billion.
8 billion is for tribes, and the other 2 billion is for agencies that support tribes like the Indian health service, the Bureau of Indian affairs, and the Bureau of Indian education. When big packages come from the federal government, like disaster relief, everybody lines up to get their share. States, cities, municipalities, and organizations . Tribes routinely have to stand in the same line. Is everybody else competing with everyone else?
So a tribe that maybe has thousand citizens might be competing with a city that has 50,000 people and the resources to submit a better application for funding advocates in Indian country. I've been saying for years that tribes shouldn't have to compete. That is part of the trust responsibility to provide for tribes that we are separate. So $8 billion for tribes is a good deal. Here's a few numbers on the agencies that are also getting money in the package.
There's 300 million for housing, which is helpful to address overcrowding situations in native America, particularly during the time when we really need to have extra space on the education front. 69 million is going to the Bureau of Indian education and 20 million is for tribal colleges and food distribution. Or as some of you might know, Kamado is getting 100 million each side.
Republicans, Democrats and the white house came to the table with different numbers and the final compromise was specifically 8 billion for tribes. I asked us representative, Tom Cole, who is Chickasaw about the different numbers being thrown around about who came to the table, asking for what,
you know, who was on what side, where really doesn't matter. A lot of legislative negotiation a lot is can you educate , uh , people that have a different point of view and move them in your direction.
And I would say in this one, we broadly did, and I can't think of another instance in any kind of package where we had anything like $8 billion going to tribal governments to mitigate the damages that both Corona viruses caused them directly and then the economic impact on their economies and their , uh, know base for supporting their own tribal government services. So is it enough now ? It's never enough. Um, but is it a huge improvement over what we've had before? Yes, it is.
And is it primarily a bipartisan Cheevan no question.
Did you have to educate the white house about the importance of this money?
Well, let's just say we worked with the white house. Yes. Uh, and yeah, we had some good help in the white house. Again , uh, if we had not had people willing to listen. Uh, frankly, one of the persons I worked with was the new chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who used to represent , uh, Eastern bandit Cherokees in his congressional seat , uh, you know, has more awareness , uh , about tribal issues. And because of that , uh, than most people know.
And he was extremely helpful in moving that number in the right direction.
I also talked with CEO of the national Congress of American Indians, Kevin Alice , who's Forrest County Pottawattamie community about all these numbers. I asked him how far 8 billion could go during this time of great need and he said 8 billion wasn't going to be nearly enough. He also brought up a big concern he has about the language in the bill that dictates how tribes are going to be allowed to use the money. It's only supposed to be used for expenses that occur as a result of coven 19
the statute says necessary expenditures because of COBIT 19 that are unbudgeted in relation to the tribes most recent budget and occur during this timeframe.
This means that tribes can only use the money for expenses related to coven 19 they cannot replace the money lost due to coven 19 like casino revenues. For example, if a tribe runs a senior center with profits from the casino, they can't use the money from the $8 billion pot for the senior centers. Regular expenses. They could use the money to buy extra masks and scrubs, but not for food unless it was extra as a result of the pandemic.
This puts a lot of bureaucratic red tape on funds that tribes desperately need. Right now. Alice says there might be a way to get around this if tribes create brand new coven 19 emergency budgets , but it all comes down to how the us department of treasury interprets the law and divvies up the money.
One interesting thing is that none of the money allocated to tribes can be distributed as a per cap check, but the fact remains tribes will need more money on native America calling United States Senator Tom Udall, who's from New Mexico said he expected there to be more bills and more money for tribes.
My expectation is we have to come back to this again. That's all the talk. We're going to have another bill. Uh , we don't know , matter a week. Um, and the problems we're having with this bill, whatever they are, if their resources are , if there are other issues, we will try to take care of them. And the next bill
on the house side, I asked representative Deb Holland when she will go back to fight for more money for tribes.
We're fighting for it right now. Zoom and through our, you know, our conference calls and I have half of my staff is in DC , half of my staff is here in New Mexico, so we're all , uh, every day we're on the phone together. We're each reaching out, we're making phone calls to constituents and phone calls to various, you know, organizations just to make sure that we're moving the ball forward as we should.
I , we're not losing a moment on, you know, every single moment that is past , I should say is well spent , uh, working to make sure that we can get through this.
I didn't think you were back in Albuquerque kicking back and hanging out.
No , no, not at all. Not at all. In fact, I haven't , uh , you know, I came back from DC after the last vote and governor Lujan Grisham, there's a big sign at the airport that says, if you're coming in from another state, you have to solve isolate for two weeks. So I'm, I've been at my house , uh, away from everyone. I'm not to go anywhere. So I'm here and , uh , there's nothing else better to do than to work on making sure that everybody can get through this.
Is it harder to wheel and deal over zoom?
You know, sometimes I feel like it is. Um , because look, I'm on the house oversight committee and uh, if we saw that the U S you know, that the administration was messing up on the funding package, we could haul them in to the hearing room and ask them questions about it. Right. And , um, and we can't do that right now.
So , um , it is a bit more difficult to, you know, get your point across into , um, you know, we've written a lot of letters, we've signed on to many, many letters that are circulating around to make our point and to protect our people.
So there you have it, the most recent stimulus package and what it can mean for you and your tribe will be keeping an eye on this as our podcast continues. Thanks for listening. God ,
Monica is a sinner . Boyne and Lakota and she's recently started her own podcast called natives on a budget. You can check it [email protected] well, that'll do it for our very first episode of the illuminated on air podcast. If you like what you've heard today, please consider giving us five stars and reviewing us in Apple podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts. This episode was produced and hosted by Tara Gatewood, Alison Herrera , Monica brain, and myself, crystal echo Hawk.
Our executive producer is Heather Rae and our operations coordinator is Lincoln corn shucker sound engineering by Paul [inaudible] . Many thanks for the musical contributions of Superman, Samantha Crane and torn Jacobs. This podcast would not be possible without the support of the Doris Duke charitable foundation. The shock could be metal walking in Sioux community and the Macy family foundation.
If you want to reach out and learn more about us, please visit illuminators.work and finally I'm sending my prayers and thoughts to all of our loved ones impacted by these world events. We'll see you next time.