When Columbus first arrived, there were about 250,000 Native peoples living in Hispaniola, where he landed. Along with Christianity, the transatlantic slave trade and seething avarice, Columbus brought with him infectious diseases like diphtheria, measles, cholera, typhus and smallpox.
Within 25 years, 95 percent of the Indigenous population there had been wiped out by these scourges, leaving just 14,000 who would be subjugated, tortured, trafficked and massacred by the self-proclaimed discoverer of the "New World" and his men. All told, it is estimated that about 55 million people Indigenous to the Americas eventually died due to the spread of these foreign diseases.
Some Natives, like myself, maintain that the genocide of Indigenous people continues to this day, manifesting in a variety of ways. Imposed poverty, environmental racism, police violence, the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and the theft of our lands, resources and children are just a few examples of how the Indian wars never ended.
Disease still threatens our existence, too. In the United States, Natives are twice as likely as whites to develop Type 2 diabetes and our sustained oppression is the primary cause of it. When Natives were forced onto reservations we were no longer allowed to hunt, gather and consume the diet nor get the exercise that kept our ancestors fit and healthy. We were expected to live on rations high in sugar and starches that directly contribute to diabetes. Impoverished reservations are also commonly located in food deserts - meaning healthy options are still lacking.
But now we have a new plague. The novel coronavirus. Be it by reason or blood memory, Indigenous communities were immediately alarmed by it. Sure, we have been down this road before. Our populations were decimated by diseases we had no immunity to. It was not just that, though. We knew we were not prepared for it and we do not have the resources to properly combat it. Even though the federal government has a duty to provide Tribes with treaty-promised healthcare, their system is chronically underfunded and consistently fails us. COVID-19 attacks the lungs, and the Indian Health Service has only 81 ventilators for roughly three million Tribal members scattered throughout the country. With diabetics more vulnerable to complications from it, Native communities are especially susceptible. And with the elderly, those who keep our Native languages, more likely to die from it, the loss for Native people will be grave.
We were right to be concerned. COVID-19 is ravaging the Navajo Nation.