October 12, 2021 • 48 mins
Despite the risks, there is no place Dr. Lance Whitehair would rather be than the hospital. A family doctor for the Indian Health Service, Dr. Whitehair has been on the frontlines fighting COVID from the onset. As frightening as that fight has been, he has also borne witness to the incredible resilience of his Navajo community. On this week’s episode, Dr. Whitehair shares his passion for medicine along with the love he has for his patients. Roundtable guests: President of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez, and Allie Young of Protect the Sacred.
Learn more about Protect the Sacred: https://www.protectthesacred.care/
Learn more about Harness: https://iwillharness.com/
Learn more about President Nez: https://www.opvp.navajo-nsn.gov/About-Us/Office-of-the-President-and-Vice-President
Episode Transcript: https://app.trint.com/public/3434f00e-80f9-4eff-bb9e-51a28682f87c
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh, everyone, and Wilmer Vold de Rama and I'm m R. Raquel.
Welcome back to Essential Voices. So Wilmer, what have we
got on deck for today? You know, m R. We've
been doing this show for a while now and I
was thinking about all the incredible stories we've amplified when
it occurred to me that we actually haven't done a
show about doctors yet. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you're right.
(00:21):
When we think about the pandemic, we of course think
about the folks are in the front lines, like doctors
and nurses, individuals and the medical field who were suddenly
transforming to heroes, literally doing everything they could to save lives.
But we like to switch things up here at Essential Voices,
so we try to uplift as many un those stories
as we can. Yeah, we absolutely do. And so while
(00:43):
on the surface, this episode is about medicine and specifically
providing medical care within the Navajo Nation, what we quickly
realize when we were making this episode was that these
conversations were so much more than just medicine. They were
about preserving culture and language and community along with fighting
COVID nineteen while all the while fighting the legacy of
stomach racism and the oppression of Indigenous communities in this country.
(01:07):
So today we're going to hear from essential worker Dr
Lance white Hair, who's a family physician at the Indian
Health Services in New Mexico serving the Navajo Nation, which
had one of the earliest surges of COVID nineteen here
in the US. Dr white Hair will talk to us
about what it was like to be in the middle
of that surge and what keeps him passionate about medicine.
After our conversation with Dr Whitehair, will speak to the
(01:28):
President of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez, an activist Ali
Young who founded the initiative Protect the Sacred in March,
and if I can jump in here real quick and
mar Protect his Sacred is actually a part of an
initiative I co founded alongside America Ferrara and Ryan Pierce
Williams in two thousands sixteen called Hardness, and the goal
of Hardness has always been to uplift the voices of
(01:51):
historically these invested communities. We've been working with Ali for
years and I am so proud of her. She is
an incredible young act viz and I am so thrilled
that she was able to join us today. That's amazing,
and I'm also so thrilled that she's able to join
us along with presidents and so both of them will
tell us more about how the Navajo Nation responded to
(02:12):
the threat of COVID nineteen in their community, how they
work to protect their culture and their history when the
world was shut down, and how the Navajo Nation currently
has an unprecedented seventy five vaccination rate in their community.
That's beautiful. I can't wait. Dr white Hair story starts now. Hey,
how are you? Doctor? It's a Wilmer and I'm very
(02:34):
happy to be talking to you today. And tell me
a little bit about you and where you come from
and your community. I'm I'm a doctor white Hair, the
doctor white Hair, shaibah chand Shanella. So I'm a doctor
(02:57):
white here. I've spoken my Navahou, the language I was
born for the Bitter Water people, and I am Yucko
fruit in a row. Who who I am? That's my
my mother's clan. My mother's father's plan is read run
through the river, and my father's plant is of the
(03:18):
p P people. So I'm a family position on the
Napo preservation and I work at out of the Ship Rock,
New Mexico, on the Eastern Society of the Napo Reservation.
I do full a spectrum family medicine, clinic and intensive
care and hospitalists. Where did the passion for medicine come from? Like,
(03:43):
how did you get into all of that? I was
probably born like into it. My my mother was a
nurse and my my father ran the clinics on Indian
reservations on the around the the the United States. So
we that lived in the northern California and the Laska
(04:03):
for a few years in here on a Navajo and
some of the the the public tribes in New Mexico.
So I was I was always like around Indian health service,
like in the clinics and in the hospitals. I guess
a kid just just just we're just waiting for my
my parents. How was inherited that essence? How did you
(04:27):
feel about that? And as you were growing up and
you wanted to do you eventually paid the role for
your own self as a doctor. What was your passion
and what type of medicine? I just reason like being
in the hospital for weird reasons and like I just
I didn't know, I really didn't know my mother's who
is a nurse who kind of went into to uh
(04:48):
the public health and then into um like policy and
Grant writing at the CDC said, don't be a doctor.
Don't have to be a doctor. But I waited way
too late in like medical school. That's when I kind
of like way too late after but being able to
help people, like being able to like save someone's life,
(05:11):
you know, like their their organs are like malfunctioning and
they're everything is going bad, and you you kind of
know you can help them fix them and almost like
given their life back. And that's just been incredible, Like
it's it's the best thing in the world. Do you
have a story like that, you know, a moment that
made you go, you know, this is why I do
(05:33):
what I do. This past week, I was taking care
of one of my patients who has like a multiple grocers.
So she's on amato suppressive medication and she she's she's
an obese b my large it's she's not she's almost
like like elderly, but she got COVID and she got
it very severely and she almost kind of needed to
(05:56):
be on in basis, But has there been a lady
but like there's kind of newer treatments that have come
out in the past, like like a few months. So
I was one of the first ones to to get
it like imflimated in this this hospital. So I got
her on that med and and she um recovered. But
(06:17):
it took about like, um, like what can happen? When
I was discharging her, you know, like she was on
like roomare no need for oxygen and she said, she
told me she's I thought I was gonna die. I
really thought I was gonna die. And thank you Dr
quite there, you know, like you know, I said, I
just wanted to to to cry, but I just kind
of like that smiled and he gave her like like
(06:41):
a like a nice hug in my my ppe. But
it's it is such an incredible feeling to be able
to because she was there. She was like if she
you know, like if she hadn't turned around, if if
we hadn't it was it was very scary because because
I've been her doctor for for about five years now,
you know, when I think about the things that we
(07:02):
have in come in and what we went through through
the pandemic and how our community's got just absolutely completely
dominated by this wave. You know, Um, I also think
about in our cultures that are not have never focused
in the word prevention. You know, we've talked to only
go to the doctor when something is really wrong, you know.
But yeah, I wonder how if you can speak a
(07:22):
little bit about that. What were some of your obstacles
and when you think about the culture, when you think
about the community, how did you feel that they reacted
based on what they knew and didn't know? We reacted
like well like it So it hit the Navajo reservation
very early. It was it was it was like China, Italy,
(07:43):
New York, Seattle, the Navo Nations. So even before a
lot of the kind of the CDC public health messaging
kind of occurred, we were we were in you like
a really bad surge. So like we were kind of
really learning that the public health message because early on
(08:04):
it was delayed and not consistent. But like once you know,
once kind of a few weeks into our surge, then um, yeah,
the tribal leadership, our hospital, you know, like we all
had had a consistent message, and I think we had
(08:25):
like just a really high rate kind of mask wearing
and social distancing, like a lot more than than some
of the neighboring kind of talents and states, and I
think that that really saved us. I feel like it's
you probably got infective between ten and fifteen on the reservation,
(08:46):
and is there there's other communities at thirty forty fifty
percent um that the infection rate. Describe a little bit,
how do your community responded? How did the reservation responded
to care for your elders and yours in the most
vulnerable community members. We had a lockdown from the the
(09:06):
NAPO nation president. We had the most aggressive lockdown in
the the United States. UM. I guess like during the
first surge, it was hard because that was like the
first time it happened. We ran very low on on PPE.
We changed our hospital, like we shut down the operating room.
(09:27):
Every department kind of gave half or a third of
their employees to some type of of COVID response. So
we had we had were like a sixty dead hospital
were not that big, but we were testing like five
people a day, and you know, like when the vaccine
rollout occurred, we were vaccinating a thousand people every other day.
(09:49):
You're like, so we did have kind of this this
giant response kind of from the hospital from the public health,
uh the department, and then there's uh there's Ersey's um
nonprofits and chapter houses that are really kind of um,
got a lot of donations and deliver food and water
(10:11):
and firewood to the thousands of families here. How are
you taking care of yourself? I mean what, how what
do you do for you? How are you finding the
balance through all this? I'm I'm trying. I'm trying. Um. Yes,
it's it's hard because there's there's there's such a need,
you know, like I could just go to the hospital
and get like twenty pages when I like walking the door,
(10:34):
you know, and then there's just people who just need
like the pharmacy, like they stuck the computers or whatever.
I logged on the man they jump on me so
um um, but like um, but seriously, just my patient store.
So they just meet like and then I can do it,
Like I'm far enough, I'm quick enough that I can.
I can I can help them, And there's just so
(10:57):
much to be done, you know, with all pretty much
mostly in the health service places have a physician shortage,
so you know, we need more doctors ursus like everybody archy.
But like I try to lead the hospital and like
play guitar or go hiking or kayaking or you know,
(11:19):
you just kind of enjoy the beauty. But it is
hard for me to leave the hospital because I just
I do like it. I do like it the difficult
problem and and just helping some like giving someone back
to life. Is He's just so rewarding and and and great.
(11:39):
Dr white Hair. I couldn't be more grateful that you
could share all of this and taking the time to
be able to spare the most words were very grateful.
So thank you, thank you, thank you wonderful And what
was the disclaimer? So my views and opinions do not
represent Indian Health Service, my views and and and statements
on my own. Thank you. Wow, what an amazing feeling
(12:05):
that must be to think this woman is alive because
of me. Truly the best hug ever, despite the ppe
and the love he clearly has for his work, right,
I mean, part of part of me wants to yell
at him and tell him to take a break, you know,
but I'm also moved by the joey he has for
such a difficult job. I also definitely want to learn
(12:26):
more about the Navajo community. So quenn we get back
from the break, we'll talk with the President of the
Navajo Nation, Jonathan nas and Ali Young of Protect the Sacred.
We're here today speaking with the President of the Navajo Nation,
Jonathan Nez and Ali Young, activist from Protect the Sacred.
(12:51):
President Nez and Ali, it's such an honor to be
in conversation with you today. Thank you so much for
your time and for being here with us. Um Wilmer
want to start us off. Thank you for being here, Alice,
so nice to see you. President as I'm I'm proud
of you know, being your presence here and thank you
for your time. And I guess I will start with
President as Um. What are some of your first reactions
(13:13):
after hearing Dr white Hair story made with many other
the Nette doctors and frontline workers are warriors such as
Dr white Hair. You know, we're encouraged and inspired that
many of our Navajo professionals are helping not just on
the Navahoe Nation, but all across the country. As you
(13:34):
may know, Wilmer, the Navajo Nation has contributed greatly to
the freedoms of this country. You know, you heard the
discussions about the Navajo Nation code talkers. You also heard
about I'm sure the uranium legacy, you know, ray uranium
being extracted from our Indian country and used in many
(13:56):
of the wars, and to this day, those uranium minds
are will open and have not been cleaned up, and
so we live with that devastation. But you know, with
what we're hearing from folks like Dr White here, it's
very encouraging and really inspiring to see our Navajoe citizens
doing some great things to continue the legacy of our
(14:18):
warriors from the past. So that's how I frame the
discussion throughout the COVID nineteen, you know, being warriors and
lady warriors, and if you're going into battle, you know,
you have to have, uh the armor and the weapons.
And that is Navajo's perspective, you know. And we've learned
since tom A Memorial that there are certain people that
(14:41):
were sent to protect the Navajo people from these monsters
that plague our citizens. And fast forward to today, there's
modern day monsters and one of those COVID nineteen and
what's the armor, the vaccine, what's the weapons, you know,
our masks and some of these very strict protocols that
we put in place. To Dr White here mentioned at
(15:03):
the beginning of the segment. So again just being inspired
by our younger generation really stepping up and pushing back
on a lot of these modern day monsters, including COVID nineteen.
Thank you, Prisidan and Atlie. How about for you? What
comes up for you? Yeah? I got emotional when he
was talking about the patient with m S. And I'm
(15:27):
like President Nez, just so inspired and grateful for our
people who haven't had many opportunities. You know, we've had
to fight for them, and for someone like Dr white
Hair to be in the position that he's in, you know,
a position to help our nation and come back to
our nation to help our people and to ensure that
(15:51):
he's saving lives because you know, we're a decimated population.
This is our ancestral homeland and now we only make
up around re percent of the population. And so it
makes me very proud of his work, but also the
work of many of our young people who bring that
knowledge back to our homelands to help our people, to
(16:14):
make sure that our society is thriving, and to ensure
that we remain here. M hmm. Thank you so much
for sharing the alley. I really love what you said
about this country. Being your ancestral homeland and how proud
you are of of Dr white Hair's contributions to keeping
the Navajo Nation safe and healthy. Yeah, thank you so
much for sharing that. And it also really struck me
(16:37):
when um, Dr white Hair was talking about how many
beds are at the hospital where he works. It's something
like sixty beds, right, and you know, the relatively small
size of the hospital bears absolutely no impact on how
big of a difference his work makes. It's it's just
truly inspiring, um. And So to turn it over to you, President,
(16:57):
as you know, we're talking about health care, So can
you speak about what healthcare for the Navajo Nation looks
like more broadly? Um, maybe explain what healthcare you know
looks like and if there are any differences between the
Indian health services where Dr white Hair works and the
health care that non native or Indigenous folks receive. Well,
(17:18):
thank you for that question, m R. And uh, you know,
we signed a treaty in eight where the naval nation
government nation people agreed with the federal government to protect
one another and there are some promises that were made
and we all signed the contract, which is a treaty.
(17:39):
But to this stage, some promises have not been kept
and one of those is in healthcare all across the
country four tribes. You know, I think, really healthcare in
Indian country has been neglected. I mean, look at the
Indian Health Services under the Department of Health and Human Services.
It has been underfunded since to start. And don't get
(18:04):
me wrong, with the limited resources that these healthcare facilities get,
they did an outstanding job throughout this pandemic with the
limited resources. Just imagine if we were fully funded, how
much more impact we could have done and maybe save
a lot more lives. You know. And not to put
(18:25):
blame to anyone, but I truly believe that the healthcare
system here in the Naval Nation and all travel communities
could be a lot better. But because of this pandemic
throughout the country, the health care system is in need
of improvements, not just in travel communities but all across
the country. Mm hmm. Yeah. So, you know, both you
(18:49):
and Dr Whitehair bring up the pandemic, and we heard
Dr white Hair share that there was a really effective
Navajo Nation response to the pandemic and to you know,
keep your comunity safe and healthy. So what were the
steps and actions that you took to keep the Navajo
Nation safe. And why do you think your strategy has
worked so well? Sure? Thanks again in our for us
(19:11):
on a naval nation. We have a different worldview, as
you know, we have a different perspective on things. You know,
there was nobody coming to our government capital saying you're
forcing us to wear a mask, you're forcing us to
stay home, you're taking away our freedoms. No people accepted
(19:34):
those very tough protocols. And it's because it wasn't about
ourselves being individualistic, but it was about take care of
our families, take care of our communities, and taking care
of our nation. And to this day, we still have
a mask mandate since last year, never took that mask
mandate off. And if naval nation were to be a
(19:58):
model or a case study mask do push back on
COVID nineteen and today we have over seventy of our
Navajo people, the residents that on our nation, that are
fully vaccinated. You know, we hear things like, well, we
don't know if the vaccine does work. You know, look
(20:21):
at the Navajoe Nation and today if you look at
the data comparing it to the United States of America.
Of course we still have breakthrough cases, but we're still
very low and the people that are ending up in
hospitals are those that are not vaccinated. So I think
and I plot out, I'm so proud of leadership of
(20:43):
all our public health professionals, Ali and getting the young
people to step up and to take care of their elders.
During the height of the pandemic. Of course, the friends
of the Navajo nation to you know, non Navajoa, non
natives coming together helping each other out. We were able to,
you know, get the message out to our citizens to
(21:04):
let them know that the safest place to be is
at home, and that's our way of life teaching. Ali
and I grew up knowing that at the home is
where the water is, at the home is where the
fire poker is, and that's the safest place to be.
And when we went through the height of the pandemic,
we just reminded our citizens, you know, stay home and
(21:26):
that way you are less likely to catch the virus.
So a lot of our culture, a way of life
teaching was inner men in our messaging, and I think
because of that, the elders stood up, the youth stood
up to protect all our people. So I'm so proud
of our novel people. But again, we're not out of
the pandemic yet. We still gotta keep the momentum going
(21:49):
and uh, you know, with the help of you all
and Ali, I think the momentum will continue to protect
our citizens. You know, for the most part. When you
think about how you magnified, how you broadcast the signal
of the community for the sake of not just the survival,
but like you said, taking care of our elders, you know,
that's something that we can really really learn from. And
(22:09):
you know, we've seen the the construction of a lot
of the strength of a lot of our communities. And
it's unfortunate, you know, moment, because some of our communities
have been kind of just pushed off to fans for themselves.
And I think moments like this when all of us
people of color can you know, can show up for
each other and understand that we have more things in
coming that we don't. I think that is a magical
(22:31):
moment when we realize that we are living on the
same ground and same other earth, you know, and we
share that together. I think it's when we get the
farthest as humanity. I also think about the many people
that have shown up. And in speaking of people have
shown up, I mean you mentioned Ali, who's someone who
I respect in a matter so much. And you know, Ali,
we've been working together on harness, you know, for a
(22:52):
very long time, and we were there from the beginning,
you know, and we've seen the evolution of that. And
Protect the Sacred is a program of hearts, and you
have spearheaded that beautifully, have taken it to all kinds
of heights, and UM, we could not be more proud
of that. Can you please share with us Protect the
sacreds initiatives and why the program was created. It launched
(23:14):
March when I came home from Los Angeles. Actually I
was out in Los Angeles for about four and a
half years. I came home to be with family, and
I actually used to work at Indian Health Service where
Dr white Hair works in ship Rock, New Mexico. And UM,
they reached out to me and they said, hey, we
(23:34):
heard that your home and you are connected with young people, like,
how can we spread the messaging among them about this
stay home message that is so important right now to
protect our communities. So I jumped right in and started
doing some brainstorming calls with them and creating messaging with
them that they then pushed out to us to push
(23:55):
out on our own social media channels to connect with
Native youth. And from at I came up with protect
the Sacred, and I kept putting that as a hashtag
at the end of my messaging because I said, look,
this is what we're doing when we stay home, when
we spread this message of what's happening right now and
the importance of staying home, we're protecting the sacred because
(24:17):
our elders are those who are most vulnerable, and our
elders are the ones that carry our ancestral knowledge and
our stories, you know, traditions, and our languages, and they're
the ones that need to be protected otherwise without them,
that's gone. And I saw a real threat to the
survival of our cultures. You know. I was hearing things
(24:38):
from Texas where they were saying that young people and
even the elders there were okay with dying for the
sake of our economy. And I said, well, that's not
the Native community. We're not okay with that, because this
has been our survival. This is why we still exist
today is because of that knowledge. And that's really what
(24:58):
protect the sacred works on and that's our our initiatives
really grounded and that COVID response work and bringing together
folks like President Nez, leaders like him, and also, as
he mentioned, our allies who are non Native, like Mark
Ruffalo who has been such a great ally to Indian Country,
and Paul read take O A. T. T. And many
(25:19):
others who stepped in to help us spread that messaging
among our Native youth because those are folks that our
youth get excited about because they're superheroes. And we created
a whole campaign around our Indian Country Hero Challenge which
was about calling on our Native youth to step up
in this moment to be our modern day monster slayers.
(25:39):
So the President Nez mentioned the monsters that plague our
community and related to that back to culture and community.
So in the Navajo Nation, we have a creation story
about our hero twins and they who were known as
the Monster Slayers, and that kind of messaging grounded in
culture is what resonates and that's really what we do.
(26:01):
And we helped to bring a lot of media attention
to the Navajo Nation through our allies, and then that
then turned into our civic engagement work and so that's
a huge focus area for us as well. But really
with Native youth engagement, so calling on our Native youth
to step into their leadership, and how do we support
that because that civic engagement pieces really it is related
(26:24):
to what happened to us during the height of the
COVID emergency in the Navajo Nation. Because with leaders who
call us to the table, with leaders who work with
tribal nations sincerely, then that's where we get that kind
of support. We have to make sure that we're engaged
so that we're electing leaders that will show up for us.
(26:48):
We'll be right back after this break. Welcome back to
Essential Voices. Turning it over you, President, as we've learned
about the Navajo nations response to the pandemic and how
you have ann precedented vaccination rate, which is amazing. Um,
it's incredibly inspiring given you know the major roadblocks that
the majority of this country is faced in the months
(27:10):
since the vaccine has been available to the general public.
And even though right now you're totally leading the charge
on high vaccination rates, were there any overarching roadblocks or
challenges to making I don't know, healthcare, vaccines and COVID
safety precautions available to the Navajo nation at large. Right,
I think just reminding our federal leaders of those promises
(27:35):
that were made between tribes and to filfill those promises.
You know, we got infrastructure money that's coming into tribal
communities to help get water and electricity, broadband, telecommunication, even homes.
Multiple generations of our people live in one home, and
(27:59):
just imagine one person bringing the COVID nineteen and back
into the house. How it spread like wildfire. Water of
our people, including electricity, don't have that. And now we
are petitioning Congress to do more and fulfill those promises
(28:19):
that were made. Now, in terms of the media, at
one point, you know, we yeah, we were on a
lot of TV segments because it was framed in a
way by the media that was saying, poor Port Navajos,
they're getting hit hard, look at them. And now we
turned the tide. We flipped it. Seventies of our people
(28:40):
are vaccinated. But where's the media now? They should be
here highlighting and making Navajo a model because we're so
interconnected than ever before. Whatever happens off the nation tribal
communities affects us and vice versa. But you don't hear that.
(29:02):
It's when you see in increasing cases, that's when the
media comes, and that just shows you that it's all
about the continued subjugation of the people, you know, and
feeling sorry for the nation. But let me just also
highlight that we're a resilient nation. We had to take
it upon ourselves. You know, we had to fight the
(29:24):
federal government at one point during the Cares Act funding
that we weren't even giving money while the rest of
the country were giving money to push back on the virus,
and we had to wait. We even had to take
the federal government to court to get our share of
CARES at resources. And I think that just shows you
(29:46):
that there is still some underlying discrimination and people will
call it racism in society today. It seems to me
like sometimes we feel as our communities ask for the
things that everyone is either getting or we try to
include ourselves and the solution make you know, even as
(30:07):
simple as what you're saying, offer what has worked for us.
You know, it's like we've kind of left to talk
to ourselves almost right. I mean, it's just a way
of reinstating that subjugation back onto people. From one generation
to the next. But I think what we've done here
(30:27):
on the Navajo Nation, those of us that we're here
on tribal lands during the time, is to flip it
and to say, you know, we were able to help
each other out during a crisis and to be able
to utilize the knowledge that has come back to the nation.
But at the same time, using our culture, our tradition
(30:52):
and our language two push back on COVID nineteen. Here
we're looking at it through our world lands, our worldview,
and not everybody is going to understand that. And for
both of you, as we go into the fall, we're
going to the holidays, you start seeing how these national
communities are getting ready to gather around and share the
(31:15):
table and all of that. And with this new variant,
have you both for your prospective platforms or where you
said from have you thought about those career goals in
which we can make public and we can help us
other communities who are allies that can help either amplithi
or or just show up for you too, and Ali,
we can start with you well for us to protect
(31:36):
the sacred we're focusing on the COVID vaccines right now
and vaccine outreach and encouraging vaccinations. And so we're working
in collaboration with some of those physicians and health care
professionals that I mentioned earlier to really kind of figure
out how do we communicate to you know, that hard
(31:57):
to reach population that hasn't come into get vaccinated. Where
and I think the President as can agree, our goal
is to get Navajo Nation to fully vaccinated. That's the goal,
and so that's what we're really focusing and I think
in addition, like I said, this civic engagement focus really
(32:17):
tying that in as we think about, you know, the
different elections happening, local elections and going into the midterm
elections next year, having that conversation with our indigenous youth
because it's important. As president and as mentioned there, this
nation to nation relationship that we have with the government,
(32:38):
it's a very special relationship that we have, and that's
why we have such a focus on that civic engagement
piece in addition to this COVID response. It's all in
our connected and because of that, we need to be
calling on our elected officials to say, hey, we need
support not only for I h S and we need
funding and resources, but also for our urban healthcare STEM
(33:00):
because of the Native population no longer lives on the reservations,
They live outside of reservations and cities, and so i
S is a federally run program, but our urban healthcare
facilities are often funded by nonprofits as part of their
treaty obligation they should also be funding urban healthcare facilities.
(33:22):
Thank you so much for that, Alley. Um, I definitely
want to hear more some time about how you think
funding could be diverted to urban healthcare facilities for Native
and Indigenous populations. Um, But for now, what are your
thoughts on this as well? Um, Presidents. For us, the
goals and objectives that we started with at the onset
will continue, and one of the things I want to
(33:44):
highlight is I hear a lot of often Navajo Nation,
our kids are going through some mental health issues, and
we knew that was gonna come. So what we did
at the onset we also said to our our Navajo parents, Okay,
the safest place to be is at home, and our
(34:06):
schools are closed, our kids are at home, the naval
nation is shut down, parents are at home, and so
we encouraged our families to come back together to share
stories and that's where Ali and Protect the Sacred Harness
all came in. You know, they were all at home,
so they you know, those that had internet access were
(34:29):
able to watch some of these segments. That we did
is to encourage our young people to learn their way
of life, teaching their culture, their tradition, their language. And
you know, that was something that we saw happen throughout
the Navajo nation. And we even encourage people to go
back to farming. Us We told our parents, don't let
(34:51):
your kids just sit at home and play video games.
Many of us grew up with some hard work around
the house, around the ranch, around the uh, the farms.
We even said, go farm, plant cornfield, or plant a
garden at the house. And and so we really encouraged
our people to do that throughout the pandemic. And you
fast forward today and the schools are are coming back
(35:14):
into session. We've gotten young people that have thanked us
and said, thank you President for challenging us. I've never
been this close ever to my parents or my grandparents.
I've learned so much about our way of life, teaching
and our language that I would have received in teaching
(35:35):
at the schools. And now we challenged the teachers and
the school administrators. Let's keep that momentum going in the schools.
Let's continue to teach our young people about our ways.
And uh, you know, with the vaccination, and I agree
with Alie is number one here on that woe to
(35:55):
get as many people vaccinated. We're also maybe one of
the first tribes to put in place that our employees
are to be fully vaccinated. And today of our naval
nation government employees are fully vaccinated. Next week is the
deadline for that. And if you don't be expected to
(36:18):
test very often, so they still got a choice. But
if they don't get the vaccine, they're going to be
tested periodically, and so that's the strategy also that continues.
And of course, as you know, the federal government that
is doing the same, excess facilities are mandating their employees
to be fully vaccinated. Yes, so our goal is to
(36:41):
get as high as we can in the percentage of
vaccination here on the naval nation. Wow, that's an amazing goal.
President as thank you. I also really like what both
of you, President Nez and Ali are talking about in
regards to um. You know, this cultural preservation, especially with language.
If we go back to the very beginning of Dr
white Hair's interview, he introduced himself in the Navajo language
(37:03):
and protect the Sacred Works to preserve and protect Native
and Indigenous languages. Um so Ali, why do these languages
need protection? And how does protect the Sacred work on
language preservation? Yeah, that is a major part of our
culture and how our stories have been passed down since
time immemorial. The Navajo language, the written parts of the
(37:27):
language that exists now and the way we teach it
is actually very recent because our stories and everything was
very oral and passed down orally. So that's why it's
so important. It's how we communicate those very important parts
of our ceremonies, traditions, and our creation stories that are
integral to our way of life as indigenous peoples. And
(37:51):
it's important because we're in this modern time and as
I mentioned, many of our people don't live on reservations
any more, and it's very important to keep our indigenous
youth connected in whatever way we can. You know, we
have to get creative with how we keep them engaged.
And you know, just a personal story, I wish that
(38:15):
I spoke our language fluently and I don't, and uh,
it makes me sad and and and of course there's
intergenerational trauma at play with that, because for me, both
of my parents are fluent in our language and they
didn't speak it in our household growing up because of
the way they were treated for speaking their language. And
(38:39):
so for us, they thought they were doing us a
favor and they thought that they were protecting us by
not speaking it or passing it down, because then we
wouldn't be picked on for having that as our first language.
And that's something I often talked to my parents about,
like I wish that you had. But again, it's not
their fault. It's that um trauma that they faced because
(39:00):
of these very racist tactics used against our community from
the boarding school era to the adoption era in Native
American history. And that's why for future generations, you know,
for my nephews who are young, it's important that they're
taking Navajo language classes and that we're finding ways to
(39:22):
provide that access to our Indigenous children. No, that's beautiful.
I appreciate that. You know. I was smiling earlier, Ali
when you were describing one of the many reasons why
sometimes languages not passed down and because for US immigrants,
as well, we go through a similar thing. You know.
There was one generation ago that basically came here and says,
in America, you only speak English, and you're dressed like
(39:44):
this and you sound like this. You have to blend in.
You know. The generation after that grew kind of resentful
because once they discover their DNA, they're like, why don't
I speak the language? Why don't I hear this music?
More often, the generation after that one picked up where
that was left off. So for someone those parents today
who never learned the Spanish, those new kids are now
(40:04):
we're like, whoa man like I need to hire a
big Spanish That's where he's at. The Spanish music, Spanish everything,
you know. And there's something pop culturally happening in which
is the resurface of our roots through the interest and
the common goal of understanding that our culture really is
us and it's who we are, and therefore that level
of pride surfacing again. I think that there's there's a
(40:26):
beautiful rediscovering our culture again, and I think that that's
that's where we're at now, and and that's that that culture.
To discover that culture, it's what is going to allow
us to continue to protect our elderly and to continue
to protect our heritage and carry that torch for the
next one. And we certainly have a lot to learn
from the process and and allow more conversations that we
(40:48):
had so we can continue to walk side by side
like we are as allies. And and uh m r
that you have something else to add, that's a beautiful image, Homer. Um. Yeah,
folks will king side by side and solidarity and in
community with one another. Um. But yeah, you know, Um,
I would really love to know from both of you,
President as an Alley about particular moments during the pandemic
(41:10):
where each of you felt proud of what you've accomplished
and Ali, why don't we start with your thoughts on this. Yeah,
one moment was at the very beginning when we started
to protect the sacred and we called on our Native
youth to step up in this moment and show us
what you're proud of, how you're proud to be Indigenous,
(41:31):
And it was to encourage a lot of our youth
to use this time at home to reconnect with culture.
And I think, as President and as this cultural renaissance
that's happening with our Native youth, who are I think
in a lot of ways, more proud to be Indigenous
than ever and really really want to reconnect. And I
(41:54):
know the history of our people's better than you know
many of our elders. And the one thing that I
was so proud of when we launched that it was
like a TikTok challenge. UM. We were on a Facebook
live and Mark Ruffalo was sharing a story about how
his kids were using TikTok and spending a lot of
time on TikTok because they were at home, and he said,
(42:16):
I want to see a bloom of Native TikTok's And
that's actually like what happened our native You've stepped up
and there was this boom of native TikTok and you
can like search that in TikTok right now and you'll
go down a rabbit hole of amazing Native content by
our Native youth and young people. And there was this
one video in particular that we highlighted that UM we
(42:39):
actually helped to produce and edit together with a group
of young Danette girls. It was a part of the
Don't Rush challenge that was happening early on last year
where people would toss like a makeup rush and then
they put it in front of the lens and then
they would have their makeup on and then they toss it.
We called it the Dnete Don't Rush challenge, and our
(43:03):
girls did the same thing. But they were doing what
they were passionate about in the first segment, and so
someone was playing basketball, someone was rushing the main of
their horse, a young cow girl, and then when they
would put the brush in front of the camera, then
they were in their dinner traditional clothes and just showing
that pride. It was really beautiful to see that. Wow,
(43:25):
that's amazing. Thank you for sharing the alley, Um and
what sticks out to you President, as you know I
mentioned it earlier, just seeing the Navajo people come together
throughout this pandemic. Just being proud of our Navaloe citizens
for hearing and honoring really their public health professionals and
(43:47):
also their leaders, you know, and that is a cultural
teaching to honor and respect those that lead, and that
made me proud as a leader. You know. Of course
there are some that are not going to listen. It's
the same thing throughout this country. But for us, we
didn't go over the hill or go into a bunker
(44:10):
or whatever. During the height of this pandemic. What I
was also proud of is our team here at the
Office of the President, Vice President, our administration going out
to the communities. There's a chapters. We visited all hundred
ten chapters and then we were halfway through the second
(44:30):
round by handing out PPEs, food and supplies to Navitle
people and just letting our Navajo citizens know that their
leadership is out there. Even though we were scared. We
were fearful we might catch the virus, but I knew
it was very important that our citizens see their leaders
(44:53):
be out there on the front lines, shoulder to shoulder
with their warriors, and it brought comfort to our warriors
and also our Navajo people. And just seeing the response
from our naval people just blew me away because the
Navajo people, I think we over use this a lot resilience,
(45:16):
but in our Navaho way, it's called ahtigo, which means
you know, you're able to do these things for yourself,
and it gets as close as to the family. But
even for a nation, if we call ourselves sovereign, we
better act like a sovereign nation. And you know what
Navajo people did just that, no matter what adversity comes
(45:40):
before us. We are overcomers and we're going to continue
to help ourselves. And you know what, at one point
we even help other people. We help the nation of India.
We develop homemade mask and remember when India was getting
hit hard, we sent mask out there from one nation
to the next. And so that's what true sovereignty is
(46:01):
all about. To be able to govern yourself, to help yourself.
And if you're able to do that, you are able
to bless otters and to navel people do just that.
I'm so proud of them. I'm proud of being able
to facilitate. But most importantly, I'm just so honored that
I was able to hear your words and your informations
(46:23):
and the pride and just thank you, thank you for
being part of assential Voices. Yeah, thank you. We learned
so much from the round Table. But all I really
want to do is be with my parents and hear
their stories and to think that, well, so many people
were using this lockdown to big bread and being tiger king.
(46:46):
An entire nation used that time to protect their history
and start a to renaissance. I'm so grateful that we
had this opportunity to speak with both Ali and President
and As this week. I mean, what an incredible honor.
And I just learned so much from both of them.
You said it there and uh m R, I think
I'm gonna go watch some of the amazing sounding videos
(47:07):
from the Protected Sacred Youth. Now, wait, Wilmer, what's up?
What are we doing next week? Oh? Yeah, this is
the part that we introduced. The next episode next week
on Essential Voices will hear from Essential worker Ben Hess,
who works at the grocery store and was sucking shelves
and keeping customers happy throughout the pandemic. Band story will
(47:29):
be followed by a roundtable discussion with actress, activists, and
director and producer Sophia Bush and Jim Arabi, the director
of Strategic Campaigns for the United Food and Commercial Workers
Local Fire Union. Thank you for joining us. Essential Voices
with Wilmer. Val Drama is produced by me m R. Raquel,
(47:50):
Alison Shano, and Kevin Rotkowski, with production support from associate
producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer Val Drama, Adam ren Old,
Leo Clem, and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was edited by m. R.
Riquel and Sean Tracy. And features original music by Will Risotti.
Special thanks to this week's Essential Voice, Dr. Lance white Hair,
(48:13):
and to our thought leaders Navajo President Jonathan Nez and
Ali Young from Protect the Sacred. Additional thanks to Harness
and Sean t Sells. This is a Clamor and w
V Entertainment production in partnership with I Heart Radios Michael
Dura Podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heart, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
(48:34):
listen to your favorite shows
Oh, everyone, and Wilmer Vold de Rama and I'm m R. Raquel.
Welcome back to Essential Voices. So Wilmer, what have we
got on deck for today? You know, m R. We've
been doing this show for a while now and I
was thinking about all the incredible stories we've amplified when
it occurred to me that we actually haven't done a
show about doctors yet. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you're right.
(00:21):
When we think about the pandemic, we of course think
about the folks are in the front lines, like doctors
and nurses, individuals and the medical field who were suddenly
transforming to heroes, literally doing everything they could to save lives.
But we like to switch things up here at Essential Voices,
so we try to uplift as many un those stories
as we can. Yeah, we absolutely do. And so while
(00:43):
on the surface, this episode is about medicine and specifically
providing medical care within the Navajo Nation, what we quickly
realize when we were making this episode was that these
conversations were so much more than just medicine. They were
about preserving culture and language and community along with fighting
COVID nineteen while all the while fighting the legacy of
stomach racism and the oppression of Indigenous communities in this country.
(01:07):
So today we're going to hear from essential worker Dr
Lance white Hair, who's a family physician at the Indian
Health Services in New Mexico serving the Navajo Nation, which
had one of the earliest surges of COVID nineteen here
in the US. Dr white Hair will talk to us
about what it was like to be in the middle
of that surge and what keeps him passionate about medicine.
After our conversation with Dr Whitehair, will speak to the
(01:28):
President of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez, an activist Ali
Young who founded the initiative Protect the Sacred in March,
and if I can jump in here real quick and
mar Protect his Sacred is actually a part of an
initiative I co founded alongside America Ferrara and Ryan Pierce
Williams in two thousands sixteen called Hardness, and the goal
of Hardness has always been to uplift the voices of
(01:51):
historically these invested communities. We've been working with Ali for
years and I am so proud of her. She is
an incredible young act viz and I am so thrilled
that she was able to join us today. That's amazing,
and I'm also so thrilled that she's able to join
us along with presidents and so both of them will
tell us more about how the Navajo Nation responded to
(02:12):
the threat of COVID nineteen in their community, how they
work to protect their culture and their history when the
world was shut down, and how the Navajo Nation currently
has an unprecedented seventy five vaccination rate in their community.
That's beautiful. I can't wait. Dr white Hair story starts now. Hey,
how are you? Doctor? It's a Wilmer and I'm very
(02:34):
happy to be talking to you today. And tell me
a little bit about you and where you come from
and your community. I'm I'm a doctor white Hair, the
doctor white Hair, shaibah chand Shanella. So I'm a doctor
(02:57):
white here. I've spoken my Navahou, the language I was
born for the Bitter Water people, and I am Yucko
fruit in a row. Who who I am? That's my
my mother's clan. My mother's father's plan is read run
through the river, and my father's plant is of the
(03:18):
p P people. So I'm a family position on the
Napo preservation and I work at out of the Ship Rock,
New Mexico, on the Eastern Society of the Napo Reservation.
I do full a spectrum family medicine, clinic and intensive
care and hospitalists. Where did the passion for medicine come from? Like,
(03:43):
how did you get into all of that? I was
probably born like into it. My my mother was a
nurse and my my father ran the clinics on Indian
reservations on the around the the the United States. So
we that lived in the northern California and the Laska
(04:03):
for a few years in here on a Navajo and
some of the the the public tribes in New Mexico.
So I was I was always like around Indian health service,
like in the clinics and in the hospitals. I guess
a kid just just just we're just waiting for my
my parents. How was inherited that essence? How did you
(04:27):
feel about that? And as you were growing up and
you wanted to do you eventually paid the role for
your own self as a doctor. What was your passion
and what type of medicine? I just reason like being
in the hospital for weird reasons and like I just
I didn't know, I really didn't know my mother's who
is a nurse who kind of went into to uh
(04:48):
the public health and then into um like policy and
Grant writing at the CDC said, don't be a doctor.
Don't have to be a doctor. But I waited way
too late in like medical school. That's when I kind
of like way too late after but being able to
help people, like being able to like save someone's life,
(05:11):
you know, like their their organs are like malfunctioning and
they're everything is going bad, and you you kind of
know you can help them fix them and almost like
given their life back. And that's just been incredible, Like
it's it's the best thing in the world. Do you
have a story like that, you know, a moment that
made you go, you know, this is why I do
(05:33):
what I do. This past week, I was taking care
of one of my patients who has like a multiple grocers.
So she's on amato suppressive medication and she she's she's
an obese b my large it's she's not she's almost
like like elderly, but she got COVID and she got
it very severely and she almost kind of needed to
(05:56):
be on in basis, But has there been a lady
but like there's kind of newer treatments that have come
out in the past, like like a few months. So
I was one of the first ones to to get
it like imflimated in this this hospital. So I got
her on that med and and she um recovered. But
(06:17):
it took about like, um, like what can happen? When
I was discharging her, you know, like she was on
like roomare no need for oxygen and she said, she
told me she's I thought I was gonna die. I
really thought I was gonna die. And thank you Dr
quite there, you know, like you know, I said, I
just wanted to to to cry, but I just kind
of like that smiled and he gave her like like
(06:41):
a like a nice hug in my my ppe. But
it's it is such an incredible feeling to be able
to because she was there. She was like if she
you know, like if she hadn't turned around, if if
we hadn't it was it was very scary because because
I've been her doctor for for about five years now,
you know, when I think about the things that we
(07:02):
have in come in and what we went through through
the pandemic and how our community's got just absolutely completely
dominated by this wave. You know, Um, I also think
about in our cultures that are not have never focused
in the word prevention. You know, we've talked to only
go to the doctor when something is really wrong, you know.
But yeah, I wonder how if you can speak a
(07:22):
little bit about that. What were some of your obstacles
and when you think about the culture, when you think
about the community, how did you feel that they reacted
based on what they knew and didn't know? We reacted
like well like it So it hit the Navajo reservation
very early. It was it was it was like China, Italy,
(07:43):
New York, Seattle, the Navo Nations. So even before a
lot of the kind of the CDC public health messaging
kind of occurred, we were we were in you like
a really bad surge. So like we were kind of
really learning that the public health message because early on
(08:04):
it was delayed and not consistent. But like once you know,
once kind of a few weeks into our surge, then um, yeah,
the tribal leadership, our hospital, you know, like we all
had had a consistent message, and I think we had
(08:25):
like just a really high rate kind of mask wearing
and social distancing, like a lot more than than some
of the neighboring kind of talents and states, and I
think that that really saved us. I feel like it's
you probably got infective between ten and fifteen on the reservation,
(08:46):
and is there there's other communities at thirty forty fifty
percent um that the infection rate. Describe a little bit,
how do your community responded? How did the reservation responded
to care for your elders and yours in the most
vulnerable community members. We had a lockdown from the the
(09:06):
NAPO nation president. We had the most aggressive lockdown in
the the United States. UM. I guess like during the
first surge, it was hard because that was like the
first time it happened. We ran very low on on PPE.
We changed our hospital, like we shut down the operating room.
(09:27):
Every department kind of gave half or a third of
their employees to some type of of COVID response. So
we had we had were like a sixty dead hospital
were not that big, but we were testing like five
people a day, and you know, like when the vaccine
rollout occurred, we were vaccinating a thousand people every other day.
(09:49):
You're like, so we did have kind of this this
giant response kind of from the hospital from the public health,
uh the department, and then there's uh there's Ersey's um
nonprofits and chapter houses that are really kind of um,
got a lot of donations and deliver food and water
(10:11):
and firewood to the thousands of families here. How are
you taking care of yourself? I mean what, how what
do you do for you? How are you finding the
balance through all this? I'm I'm trying. I'm trying. Um. Yes,
it's it's hard because there's there's there's such a need,
you know, like I could just go to the hospital
and get like twenty pages when I like walking the door,
(10:34):
you know, and then there's just people who just need
like the pharmacy, like they stuck the computers or whatever.
I logged on the man they jump on me so
um um, but like um, but seriously, just my patient store.
So they just meet like and then I can do it,
Like I'm far enough, I'm quick enough that I can.
I can I can help them, And there's just so
(10:57):
much to be done, you know, with all pretty much
mostly in the health service places have a physician shortage,
so you know, we need more doctors ursus like everybody archy.
But like I try to lead the hospital and like
play guitar or go hiking or kayaking or you know,
(11:19):
you just kind of enjoy the beauty. But it is
hard for me to leave the hospital because I just
I do like it. I do like it the difficult
problem and and just helping some like giving someone back
to life. Is He's just so rewarding and and and great.
(11:39):
Dr white Hair. I couldn't be more grateful that you
could share all of this and taking the time to
be able to spare the most words were very grateful.
So thank you, thank you, thank you wonderful And what
was the disclaimer? So my views and opinions do not
represent Indian Health Service, my views and and and statements
on my own. Thank you. Wow, what an amazing feeling
(12:05):
that must be to think this woman is alive because
of me. Truly the best hug ever, despite the ppe
and the love he clearly has for his work, right,
I mean, part of part of me wants to yell
at him and tell him to take a break, you know,
but I'm also moved by the joey he has for
such a difficult job. I also definitely want to learn
(12:26):
more about the Navajo community. So quenn we get back
from the break, we'll talk with the President of the
Navajo Nation, Jonathan nas and Ali Young of Protect the Sacred.
We're here today speaking with the President of the Navajo Nation,
Jonathan Nez and Ali Young, activist from Protect the Sacred.
(12:51):
President Nez and Ali, it's such an honor to be
in conversation with you today. Thank you so much for
your time and for being here with us. Um Wilmer
want to start us off. Thank you for being here, Alice,
so nice to see you. President as I'm I'm proud
of you know, being your presence here and thank you
for your time. And I guess I will start with
President as Um. What are some of your first reactions
(13:13):
after hearing Dr white Hair story made with many other
the Nette doctors and frontline workers are warriors such as
Dr white Hair. You know, we're encouraged and inspired that
many of our Navajo professionals are helping not just on
the Navahoe Nation, but all across the country. As you
(13:34):
may know, Wilmer, the Navajo Nation has contributed greatly to
the freedoms of this country. You know, you heard the
discussions about the Navajo Nation code talkers. You also heard
about I'm sure the uranium legacy, you know, ray uranium
being extracted from our Indian country and used in many
(13:56):
of the wars, and to this day, those uranium minds
are will open and have not been cleaned up, and
so we live with that devastation. But you know, with
what we're hearing from folks like Dr White here, it's
very encouraging and really inspiring to see our Navajoe citizens
doing some great things to continue the legacy of our
(14:18):
warriors from the past. So that's how I frame the
discussion throughout the COVID nineteen, you know, being warriors and
lady warriors, and if you're going into battle, you know,
you have to have, uh the armor and the weapons.
And that is Navajo's perspective, you know. And we've learned
since tom A Memorial that there are certain people that
(14:41):
were sent to protect the Navajo people from these monsters
that plague our citizens. And fast forward to today, there's
modern day monsters and one of those COVID nineteen and
what's the armor, the vaccine, what's the weapons, you know,
our masks and some of these very strict protocols that
we put in place. To Dr White here mentioned at
(15:03):
the beginning of the segment. So again just being inspired
by our younger generation really stepping up and pushing back
on a lot of these modern day monsters, including COVID nineteen.
Thank you, Prisidan and Atlie. How about for you? What
comes up for you? Yeah? I got emotional when he
was talking about the patient with m S. And I'm
(15:27):
like President Nez, just so inspired and grateful for our
people who haven't had many opportunities. You know, we've had
to fight for them, and for someone like Dr white
Hair to be in the position that he's in, you know,
a position to help our nation and come back to
our nation to help our people and to ensure that
(15:51):
he's saving lives because you know, we're a decimated population.
This is our ancestral homeland and now we only make
up around re percent of the population. And so it
makes me very proud of his work, but also the
work of many of our young people who bring that
knowledge back to our homelands to help our people, to
(16:14):
make sure that our society is thriving, and to ensure
that we remain here. M hmm. Thank you so much
for sharing the alley. I really love what you said
about this country. Being your ancestral homeland and how proud
you are of of Dr white Hair's contributions to keeping
the Navajo Nation safe and healthy. Yeah, thank you so
much for sharing that. And it also really struck me
(16:37):
when um, Dr white Hair was talking about how many
beds are at the hospital where he works. It's something
like sixty beds, right, and you know, the relatively small
size of the hospital bears absolutely no impact on how
big of a difference his work makes. It's it's just
truly inspiring, um. And So to turn it over to you, President,
(16:57):
as you know, we're talking about health care, So can
you speak about what healthcare for the Navajo Nation looks
like more broadly? Um, maybe explain what healthcare you know
looks like and if there are any differences between the
Indian health services where Dr white Hair works and the
health care that non native or Indigenous folks receive. Well,
(17:18):
thank you for that question, m R. And uh, you know,
we signed a treaty in eight where the naval nation
government nation people agreed with the federal government to protect
one another and there are some promises that were made
and we all signed the contract, which is a treaty.
(17:39):
But to this stage, some promises have not been kept
and one of those is in healthcare all across the
country four tribes. You know, I think, really healthcare in
Indian country has been neglected. I mean, look at the
Indian Health Services under the Department of Health and Human Services.
It has been underfunded since to start. And don't get
(18:04):
me wrong, with the limited resources that these healthcare facilities get,
they did an outstanding job throughout this pandemic with the
limited resources. Just imagine if we were fully funded, how
much more impact we could have done and maybe save
a lot more lives. You know. And not to put
(18:25):
blame to anyone, but I truly believe that the healthcare
system here in the Naval Nation and all travel communities
could be a lot better. But because of this pandemic
throughout the country, the health care system is in need
of improvements, not just in travel communities but all across
the country. Mm hmm. Yeah. So, you know, both you
(18:49):
and Dr Whitehair bring up the pandemic, and we heard
Dr white Hair share that there was a really effective
Navajo Nation response to the pandemic and to you know,
keep your comunity safe and healthy. So what were the
steps and actions that you took to keep the Navajo
Nation safe. And why do you think your strategy has
worked so well? Sure? Thanks again in our for us
(19:11):
on a naval nation. We have a different worldview, as
you know, we have a different perspective on things. You know,
there was nobody coming to our government capital saying you're
forcing us to wear a mask, you're forcing us to
stay home, you're taking away our freedoms. No people accepted
(19:34):
those very tough protocols. And it's because it wasn't about
ourselves being individualistic, but it was about take care of
our families, take care of our communities, and taking care
of our nation. And to this day, we still have
a mask mandate since last year, never took that mask
mandate off. And if naval nation were to be a
(19:58):
model or a case study mask do push back on
COVID nineteen and today we have over seventy of our
Navajo people, the residents that on our nation, that are
fully vaccinated. You know, we hear things like, well, we
don't know if the vaccine does work. You know, look
(20:21):
at the Navajoe Nation and today if you look at
the data comparing it to the United States of America.
Of course we still have breakthrough cases, but we're still
very low and the people that are ending up in
hospitals are those that are not vaccinated. So I think
and I plot out, I'm so proud of leadership of
(20:43):
all our public health professionals, Ali and getting the young
people to step up and to take care of their elders.
During the height of the pandemic. Of course, the friends
of the Navajo nation to you know, non Navajoa, non
natives coming together helping each other out. We were able to,
you know, get the message out to our citizens to
(21:04):
let them know that the safest place to be is
at home, and that's our way of life teaching. Ali
and I grew up knowing that at the home is
where the water is, at the home is where the
fire poker is, and that's the safest place to be.
And when we went through the height of the pandemic,
we just reminded our citizens, you know, stay home and
(21:26):
that way you are less likely to catch the virus.
So a lot of our culture, a way of life
teaching was inner men in our messaging, and I think
because of that, the elders stood up, the youth stood
up to protect all our people. So I'm so proud
of our novel people. But again, we're not out of
the pandemic yet. We still gotta keep the momentum going
(21:49):
and uh, you know, with the help of you all
and Ali, I think the momentum will continue to protect
our citizens. You know, for the most part. When you
think about how you magnified, how you broadcast the signal
of the community for the sake of not just the survival,
but like you said, taking care of our elders, you know,
that's something that we can really really learn from. And
(22:09):
you know, we've seen the the construction of a lot
of the strength of a lot of our communities. And
it's unfortunate, you know, moment, because some of our communities
have been kind of just pushed off to fans for themselves.
And I think moments like this when all of us
people of color can you know, can show up for
each other and understand that we have more things in
coming that we don't. I think that is a magical
(22:31):
moment when we realize that we are living on the
same ground and same other earth, you know, and we
share that together. I think it's when we get the
farthest as humanity. I also think about the many people
that have shown up. And in speaking of people have
shown up, I mean you mentioned Ali, who's someone who
I respect in a matter so much. And you know, Ali,
we've been working together on harness, you know, for a
(22:52):
very long time, and we were there from the beginning,
you know, and we've seen the evolution of that. And
Protect the Sacred is a program of hearts, and you
have spearheaded that beautifully, have taken it to all kinds
of heights, and UM, we could not be more proud
of that. Can you please share with us Protect the
sacreds initiatives and why the program was created. It launched
(23:14):
March when I came home from Los Angeles. Actually I
was out in Los Angeles for about four and a
half years. I came home to be with family, and
I actually used to work at Indian Health Service where
Dr white Hair works in ship Rock, New Mexico. And UM,
they reached out to me and they said, hey, we
(23:34):
heard that your home and you are connected with young people, like,
how can we spread the messaging among them about this
stay home message that is so important right now to
protect our communities. So I jumped right in and started
doing some brainstorming calls with them and creating messaging with
them that they then pushed out to us to push
(23:55):
out on our own social media channels to connect with
Native youth. And from at I came up with protect
the Sacred, and I kept putting that as a hashtag
at the end of my messaging because I said, look,
this is what we're doing when we stay home, when
we spread this message of what's happening right now and
the importance of staying home, we're protecting the sacred because
(24:17):
our elders are those who are most vulnerable, and our
elders are the ones that carry our ancestral knowledge and
our stories, you know, traditions, and our languages, and they're
the ones that need to be protected otherwise without them,
that's gone. And I saw a real threat to the
survival of our cultures. You know. I was hearing things
(24:38):
from Texas where they were saying that young people and
even the elders there were okay with dying for the
sake of our economy. And I said, well, that's not
the Native community. We're not okay with that, because this
has been our survival. This is why we still exist
today is because of that knowledge. And that's really what
(24:58):
protect the sacred works on and that's our our initiatives
really grounded and that COVID response work and bringing together
folks like President Nez, leaders like him, and also, as
he mentioned, our allies who are non Native, like Mark
Ruffalo who has been such a great ally to Indian Country,
and Paul read take O A. T. T. And many
(25:19):
others who stepped in to help us spread that messaging
among our Native youth because those are folks that our
youth get excited about because they're superheroes. And we created
a whole campaign around our Indian Country Hero Challenge which
was about calling on our Native youth to step up
in this moment to be our modern day monster slayers.
(25:39):
So the President Nez mentioned the monsters that plague our
community and related to that back to culture and community.
So in the Navajo Nation, we have a creation story
about our hero twins and they who were known as
the Monster Slayers, and that kind of messaging grounded in
culture is what resonates and that's really what we do.
(26:01):
And we helped to bring a lot of media attention
to the Navajo Nation through our allies, and then that
then turned into our civic engagement work and so that's
a huge focus area for us as well. But really
with Native youth engagement, so calling on our Native youth
to step into their leadership, and how do we support
that because that civic engagement pieces really it is related
(26:24):
to what happened to us during the height of the
COVID emergency in the Navajo Nation. Because with leaders who
call us to the table, with leaders who work with
tribal nations sincerely, then that's where we get that kind
of support. We have to make sure that we're engaged
so that we're electing leaders that will show up for us.
(26:48):
We'll be right back after this break. Welcome back to
Essential Voices. Turning it over you, President, as we've learned
about the Navajo nations response to the pandemic and how
you have ann precedented vaccination rate, which is amazing. Um,
it's incredibly inspiring given you know the major roadblocks that
the majority of this country is faced in the months
(27:10):
since the vaccine has been available to the general public.
And even though right now you're totally leading the charge
on high vaccination rates, were there any overarching roadblocks or
challenges to making I don't know, healthcare, vaccines and COVID
safety precautions available to the Navajo nation at large. Right,
I think just reminding our federal leaders of those promises
(27:35):
that were made between tribes and to filfill those promises.
You know, we got infrastructure money that's coming into tribal
communities to help get water and electricity, broadband, telecommunication, even homes.
Multiple generations of our people live in one home, and
(27:59):
just imagine one person bringing the COVID nineteen and back
into the house. How it spread like wildfire. Water of
our people, including electricity, don't have that. And now we
are petitioning Congress to do more and fulfill those promises
(28:19):
that were made. Now, in terms of the media, at
one point, you know, we yeah, we were on a
lot of TV segments because it was framed in a
way by the media that was saying, poor Port Navajos,
they're getting hit hard, look at them. And now we
turned the tide. We flipped it. Seventies of our people
(28:40):
are vaccinated. But where's the media now? They should be
here highlighting and making Navajo a model because we're so
interconnected than ever before. Whatever happens off the nation tribal
communities affects us and vice versa. But you don't hear that.
(29:02):
It's when you see in increasing cases, that's when the
media comes, and that just shows you that it's all
about the continued subjugation of the people, you know, and
feeling sorry for the nation. But let me just also
highlight that we're a resilient nation. We had to take
it upon ourselves. You know, we had to fight the
(29:24):
federal government at one point during the Cares Act funding
that we weren't even giving money while the rest of
the country were giving money to push back on the virus,
and we had to wait. We even had to take
the federal government to court to get our share of
CARES at resources. And I think that just shows you
(29:46):
that there is still some underlying discrimination and people will
call it racism in society today. It seems to me
like sometimes we feel as our communities ask for the
things that everyone is either getting or we try to
include ourselves and the solution make you know, even as
(30:07):
simple as what you're saying, offer what has worked for us.
You know, it's like we've kind of left to talk
to ourselves almost right. I mean, it's just a way
of reinstating that subjugation back onto people. From one generation
to the next. But I think what we've done here
(30:27):
on the Navajo Nation, those of us that we're here
on tribal lands during the time, is to flip it
and to say, you know, we were able to help
each other out during a crisis and to be able
to utilize the knowledge that has come back to the nation.
But at the same time, using our culture, our tradition
(30:52):
and our language two push back on COVID nineteen. Here
we're looking at it through our world lands, our worldview,
and not everybody is going to understand that. And for
both of you, as we go into the fall, we're
going to the holidays, you start seeing how these national
communities are getting ready to gather around and share the
(31:15):
table and all of that. And with this new variant,
have you both for your prospective platforms or where you
said from have you thought about those career goals in
which we can make public and we can help us
other communities who are allies that can help either amplithi
or or just show up for you too, and Ali,
we can start with you well for us to protect
(31:36):
the sacred we're focusing on the COVID vaccines right now
and vaccine outreach and encouraging vaccinations. And so we're working
in collaboration with some of those physicians and health care
professionals that I mentioned earlier to really kind of figure
out how do we communicate to you know, that hard
(31:57):
to reach population that hasn't come into get vaccinated. Where
and I think the President as can agree, our goal
is to get Navajo Nation to fully vaccinated. That's the goal,
and so that's what we're really focusing and I think
in addition, like I said, this civic engagement focus really
(32:17):
tying that in as we think about, you know, the
different elections happening, local elections and going into the midterm
elections next year, having that conversation with our indigenous youth
because it's important. As president and as mentioned there, this
nation to nation relationship that we have with the government,
(32:38):
it's a very special relationship that we have, and that's
why we have such a focus on that civic engagement
piece in addition to this COVID response. It's all in
our connected and because of that, we need to be
calling on our elected officials to say, hey, we need
support not only for I h S and we need
funding and resources, but also for our urban healthcare STEM
(33:00):
because of the Native population no longer lives on the reservations,
They live outside of reservations and cities, and so i
S is a federally run program, but our urban healthcare
facilities are often funded by nonprofits as part of their
treaty obligation they should also be funding urban healthcare facilities.
(33:22):
Thank you so much for that, Alley. Um, I definitely
want to hear more some time about how you think
funding could be diverted to urban healthcare facilities for Native
and Indigenous populations. Um, But for now, what are your
thoughts on this as well? Um, Presidents. For us, the
goals and objectives that we started with at the onset
will continue, and one of the things I want to
(33:44):
highlight is I hear a lot of often Navajo Nation,
our kids are going through some mental health issues, and
we knew that was gonna come. So what we did
at the onset we also said to our our Navajo parents, Okay,
the safest place to be is at home, and our
(34:06):
schools are closed, our kids are at home, the naval
nation is shut down, parents are at home, and so
we encouraged our families to come back together to share
stories and that's where Ali and Protect the Sacred Harness
all came in. You know, they were all at home,
so they you know, those that had internet access were
(34:29):
able to watch some of these segments. That we did
is to encourage our young people to learn their way
of life, teaching their culture, their tradition, their language. And
you know, that was something that we saw happen throughout
the Navajo nation. And we even encourage people to go
back to farming. Us We told our parents, don't let
(34:51):
your kids just sit at home and play video games.
Many of us grew up with some hard work around
the house, around the ranch, around the uh, the farms.
We even said, go farm, plant cornfield, or plant a
garden at the house. And and so we really encouraged
our people to do that throughout the pandemic. And you
fast forward today and the schools are are coming back
(35:14):
into session. We've gotten young people that have thanked us
and said, thank you President for challenging us. I've never
been this close ever to my parents or my grandparents.
I've learned so much about our way of life, teaching
and our language that I would have received in teaching
(35:35):
at the schools. And now we challenged the teachers and
the school administrators. Let's keep that momentum going in the schools.
Let's continue to teach our young people about our ways.
And uh, you know, with the vaccination, and I agree
with Alie is number one here on that woe to
(35:55):
get as many people vaccinated. We're also maybe one of
the first tribes to put in place that our employees
are to be fully vaccinated. And today of our naval
nation government employees are fully vaccinated. Next week is the
deadline for that. And if you don't be expected to
(36:18):
test very often, so they still got a choice. But
if they don't get the vaccine, they're going to be
tested periodically, and so that's the strategy also that continues.
And of course, as you know, the federal government that
is doing the same, excess facilities are mandating their employees
to be fully vaccinated. Yes, so our goal is to
(36:41):
get as high as we can in the percentage of
vaccination here on the naval nation. Wow, that's an amazing goal.
President as thank you. I also really like what both
of you, President Nez and Ali are talking about in
regards to um. You know, this cultural preservation, especially with language.
If we go back to the very beginning of Dr
white Hair's interview, he introduced himself in the Navajo language
(37:03):
and protect the Sacred Works to preserve and protect Native
and Indigenous languages. Um so Ali, why do these languages
need protection? And how does protect the Sacred work on
language preservation? Yeah, that is a major part of our
culture and how our stories have been passed down since
time immemorial. The Navajo language, the written parts of the
(37:27):
language that exists now and the way we teach it
is actually very recent because our stories and everything was
very oral and passed down orally. So that's why it's
so important. It's how we communicate those very important parts
of our ceremonies, traditions, and our creation stories that are
integral to our way of life as indigenous peoples. And
(37:51):
it's important because we're in this modern time and as
I mentioned, many of our people don't live on reservations
any more, and it's very important to keep our indigenous
youth connected in whatever way we can. You know, we
have to get creative with how we keep them engaged.
And you know, just a personal story, I wish that
(38:15):
I spoke our language fluently and I don't, and uh,
it makes me sad and and and of course there's
intergenerational trauma at play with that, because for me, both
of my parents are fluent in our language and they
didn't speak it in our household growing up because of
the way they were treated for speaking their language. And
(38:39):
so for us, they thought they were doing us a
favor and they thought that they were protecting us by
not speaking it or passing it down, because then we
wouldn't be picked on for having that as our first language.
And that's something I often talked to my parents about,
like I wish that you had. But again, it's not
their fault. It's that um trauma that they faced because
(39:00):
of these very racist tactics used against our community from
the boarding school era to the adoption era in Native
American history. And that's why for future generations, you know,
for my nephews who are young, it's important that they're
taking Navajo language classes and that we're finding ways to
(39:22):
provide that access to our Indigenous children. No, that's beautiful.
I appreciate that. You know. I was smiling earlier, Ali
when you were describing one of the many reasons why
sometimes languages not passed down and because for US immigrants,
as well, we go through a similar thing. You know.
There was one generation ago that basically came here and says,
in America, you only speak English, and you're dressed like
(39:44):
this and you sound like this. You have to blend in.
You know. The generation after that grew kind of resentful
because once they discover their DNA, they're like, why don't
I speak the language? Why don't I hear this music?
More often, the generation after that one picked up where
that was left off. So for someone those parents today
who never learned the Spanish, those new kids are now
(40:04):
we're like, whoa man like I need to hire a
big Spanish That's where he's at. The Spanish music, Spanish everything,
you know. And there's something pop culturally happening in which
is the resurface of our roots through the interest and
the common goal of understanding that our culture really is
us and it's who we are, and therefore that level
of pride surfacing again. I think that there's there's a
(40:26):
beautiful rediscovering our culture again, and I think that that's
that's where we're at now, and and that's that that culture.
To discover that culture, it's what is going to allow
us to continue to protect our elderly and to continue
to protect our heritage and carry that torch for the
next one. And we certainly have a lot to learn
from the process and and allow more conversations that we
(40:48):
had so we can continue to walk side by side
like we are as allies. And and uh m r
that you have something else to add, that's a beautiful image, Homer. Um. Yeah,
folks will king side by side and solidarity and in
community with one another. Um. But yeah, you know, Um,
I would really love to know from both of you,
President as an Alley about particular moments during the pandemic
(41:10):
where each of you felt proud of what you've accomplished
and Ali, why don't we start with your thoughts on this. Yeah,
one moment was at the very beginning when we started
to protect the sacred and we called on our Native
youth to step up in this moment and show us
what you're proud of, how you're proud to be Indigenous,
(41:31):
And it was to encourage a lot of our youth
to use this time at home to reconnect with culture.
And I think, as President and as this cultural renaissance
that's happening with our Native youth, who are I think
in a lot of ways, more proud to be Indigenous
than ever and really really want to reconnect. And I
(41:54):
know the history of our people's better than you know
many of our elders. And the one thing that I
was so proud of when we launched that it was
like a TikTok challenge. UM. We were on a Facebook
live and Mark Ruffalo was sharing a story about how
his kids were using TikTok and spending a lot of
time on TikTok because they were at home, and he said,
(42:16):
I want to see a bloom of Native TikTok's And
that's actually like what happened our native You've stepped up
and there was this boom of native TikTok and you
can like search that in TikTok right now and you'll
go down a rabbit hole of amazing Native content by
our Native youth and young people. And there was this
one video in particular that we highlighted that UM we
(42:39):
actually helped to produce and edit together with a group
of young Danette girls. It was a part of the
Don't Rush challenge that was happening early on last year
where people would toss like a makeup rush and then
they put it in front of the lens and then
they would have their makeup on and then they toss it.
We called it the Dnete Don't Rush challenge, and our
(43:03):
girls did the same thing. But they were doing what
they were passionate about in the first segment, and so
someone was playing basketball, someone was rushing the main of
their horse, a young cow girl, and then when they
would put the brush in front of the camera, then
they were in their dinner traditional clothes and just showing
that pride. It was really beautiful to see that. Wow,
(43:25):
that's amazing. Thank you for sharing the alley, Um and
what sticks out to you President, as you know I
mentioned it earlier, just seeing the Navajo people come together
throughout this pandemic. Just being proud of our Navaloe citizens
for hearing and honoring really their public health professionals and
(43:47):
also their leaders, you know, and that is a cultural
teaching to honor and respect those that lead, and that
made me proud as a leader. You know. Of course
there are some that are not going to listen. It's
the same thing throughout this country. But for us, we
didn't go over the hill or go into a bunker
(44:10):
or whatever. During the height of this pandemic. What I
was also proud of is our team here at the
Office of the President, Vice President, our administration going out
to the communities. There's a chapters. We visited all hundred
ten chapters and then we were halfway through the second
(44:30):
round by handing out PPEs, food and supplies to Navitle
people and just letting our Navajo citizens know that their
leadership is out there. Even though we were scared. We
were fearful we might catch the virus, but I knew
it was very important that our citizens see their leaders
(44:53):
be out there on the front lines, shoulder to shoulder
with their warriors, and it brought comfort to our warriors
and also our Navajo people. And just seeing the response
from our naval people just blew me away because the
Navajo people, I think we over use this a lot resilience,
(45:16):
but in our Navaho way, it's called ahtigo, which means
you know, you're able to do these things for yourself,
and it gets as close as to the family. But
even for a nation, if we call ourselves sovereign, we
better act like a sovereign nation. And you know what
Navajo people did just that, no matter what adversity comes
(45:40):
before us. We are overcomers and we're going to continue
to help ourselves. And you know what, at one point
we even help other people. We help the nation of India.
We develop homemade mask and remember when India was getting
hit hard, we sent mask out there from one nation
to the next. And so that's what true sovereignty is
(46:01):
all about. To be able to govern yourself, to help yourself.
And if you're able to do that, you are able
to bless otters and to navel people do just that.
I'm so proud of them. I'm proud of being able
to facilitate. But most importantly, I'm just so honored that
I was able to hear your words and your informations
(46:23):
and the pride and just thank you, thank you for
being part of assential Voices. Yeah, thank you. We learned
so much from the round Table. But all I really
want to do is be with my parents and hear
their stories and to think that, well, so many people
were using this lockdown to big bread and being tiger king.
(46:46):
An entire nation used that time to protect their history
and start a to renaissance. I'm so grateful that we
had this opportunity to speak with both Ali and President
and As this week. I mean, what an incredible honor.
And I just learned so much from both of them.
You said it there and uh m R, I think
I'm gonna go watch some of the amazing sounding videos
(47:07):
from the Protected Sacred Youth. Now, wait, Wilmer, what's up?
What are we doing next week? Oh? Yeah, this is
the part that we introduced. The next episode next week
on Essential Voices will hear from Essential worker Ben Hess,
who works at the grocery store and was sucking shelves
and keeping customers happy throughout the pandemic. Band story will
(47:29):
be followed by a roundtable discussion with actress, activists, and
director and producer Sophia Bush and Jim Arabi, the director
of Strategic Campaigns for the United Food and Commercial Workers
Local Fire Union. Thank you for joining us. Essential Voices
with Wilmer. Val Drama is produced by me m R. Raquel,
(47:50):
Alison Shano, and Kevin Rotkowski, with production support from associate
producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer Val Drama, Adam ren Old,
Leo Clem, and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was edited by m. R.
Riquel and Sean Tracy. And features original music by Will Risotti.
Special thanks to this week's Essential Voice, Dr. Lance white Hair,
(48:13):
and to our thought leaders Navajo President Jonathan Nez and
Ali Young from Protect the Sacred. Additional thanks to Harness
and Sean t Sells. This is a Clamor and w
V Entertainment production in partnership with I Heart Radios Michael
Dura Podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heart, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
(48:34):
listen to your favorite shows
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com