Native American tribes enforce mask mandates regardless of state bans

[turbinetree]

As sovereign nations, Indigenous groups are using their authority to make their own rules to protect students and teachers

Native American tribes across the handful of US states with bans on school mask mandates have asserted their powers as sovereign nations to defy the orders, with many also implementing their own testing and vaccine directives for tens of thousands of students and faculty in schools on their reservations as Covid-19 cases surge.

Under the US constitution, federally recognized tribes, such as the Navajo Nation and the Cherokee Nation, have self-governing authority, and so have been able to implement mask mandates despite the statewide bans.

Jason Dropik, board president of the National Indian Education Association and the head of the Indian community school in Wisconsin, said the majority of Native communities he had heard from in states with these bans have implemented mask mandates.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/31/native-american-tribes-mask-mandates-schools

[malaise]

1. Get thee to the greatest page

RFN!

[malaise]

2. Get thee to the greatest page

RFN!

[GusBob]

3. Our small tribe on a small Montana agency

I have lived here all thru the pandemic and they had strict rules: travel restrictions, mask mandates, curfews, lockdowns, shutdowns quarantine rules, isolation rules, police checkpoints. The results of which have been only 6 deaths. The current quarantine rules are more strict than the CDC

Currently the emphasis is on vaccine incentives. For some reason the tribal members have been slow to get their shots ( we are at 47% fully vaxxed). The incentives are significant; $500 or more

We are having a minor delta surge at this time.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. The slow vaccinations for that tribe is unusual...

... because Native Americans tended to get vaccinated much more quickly than other ethnic groups.

They were the reason that states like South Dakota were near the top in vaccination rates months ago, when they were first being rolled out nationwide. Their state ranking then kept dropping as the weeks passed, as expected since it's politically a red state.

[GusBob]

6. Yes I know

They vax has been here since December.
If I had to guess why the low rate: just a few deaths
starting in Feb cases died off, no active cases for months
there is some of the conspiracy stuff on top of "don't trust white man's medicine"
transportation is an issue for some elders as well, the clinic is going remote now

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. That's the kind of attitude that I would've anticipated...

... among Native Americans around the whole country, to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that NA's were instead far ahead of everyone else in getting vaccinated (in general).

There were several articles written about it months ago, offering various explanations. One of the ideas was that most tribal leaders were strongly recommending the vaccines, and that the generally stronger solidarity among NA tribal members meant that most of them followed the advice.

[electric_blue68]

7. Good luck for a quick turnaround!

[SheltieLover]

4. Excellent! 👏👏👏👏

[electric_blue68]

8. This is great to hear. Some good news.

[lagomorph777]

10. This time, let the white man self-genocide with their own disease.

The Native Americans are having none of it.