{"id":1594,"date":"2020-09-29T09:55:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T14:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2020-09-29T09:55:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T14:55:48","slug":"peoples-world-northern-arapaho-tribe-calls-out-covid-19-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/09\/29\/peoples-world-northern-arapaho-tribe-calls-out-covid-19-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"People’s World: Northern Arapaho Tribe calls out COVID-19 racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\"riverton\"\r\n
The city of Riverton is part of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, according to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe. State and local officials, backed up by some court decisions, disagree. Photo: Jimmy Emerson, DVM<\/a> \r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Wyoming Indigenous face coronavirus treatment discrimination<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, September 29, 2020<\/div>\r\n
By Albert Bender<\/div>\r\n
People's World<\/div>\r\n
peoplesworld.org<\/A><\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nRIVERTON, Wyoming \u2014 There is a hotbed of controversy raging about the treatment of Tribal members of the Wind River Indian Reservation by a local hospital and inflammatory statements made by the Fremont County Commission Chairman Travis Becker.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nIn the early days of the pandemic Northern Arapaho Tribal members of the Wind River Indian Reservation in west central Wyoming were reportedly denied treatment at the Sage West Hospital<\/a> in the city of Riverton. This city is within Reservation boundaries, But, due to what I would call one of the anomalies of federal Indian law it is not considered part of the Reservation. Allegedly, Tribal members were seeking treatment for the virus and were turned away and driven off in the truck beds of Sheriff\u2019s pickups to a Tribal quarantine facility.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nOn September 14, at a meeting of the Select Committee on Tribal Relations<\/a>, Lee Spoonhunter, Northern Arapaho Business Council (NABC) Chairman, spoke at length on this situation and issued a statement<\/a> which I quote in pertinent part:\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWyoming remains in the grip of a public health crisis due to COVID-19, and no corner of our state has been hit harder than the Wind River Reservation. The human toll has been unspeakably tragic\u2014every one of us knows a friend, family member, elder, or colleague lost to this terrible virus.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s why I am so deeply troubled to learn about a threat made this week by Fremont County Commission Chairman Travis Becker against the Wind River Reservation and Arapaho people. Chairman Becker called state Rep. Andi Clifford and demanded I apologize and retract my earlier comments to a legislative panel regarding substandard healthcare treatment for Native Americans, as well as lingering bias and stigma toward the Tribal community that this pandemic has exposed. Unless satisfied with my apology, Chairman Becker said he would revoke our Tribe\u2019s use of county vehicles for the transport of patients to and from the Wind River Family & Community Health Care and White Buffalo Recovery Center.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cLet me be clear: I won\u2019t apologize for pointing out the kind of discrimination\u2014whether overt or subtle\u2014that Tribal members in Wyoming and across our country know well.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cAnd I won\u2019t apologize for talking openly and honestly about systemic racism and how it has contributed to a COVID- 19 pandemic that continues to infect and kill our Arapaho people and members of Indian Country in disproportionate numbers.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nSpoonhunter continued, \u201cIn fact, Chairman Becker\u2019s threat against the Northern Arapaho Tribe and its people\u2014who are county residents\u2014perfectly illustrates the kind of anti-Tribal sentiment that remains all too common.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\n