Bonus Episode: All Our (Socially Distanced) Relations

Hello relatives! Welcome back to another episode of All My Relations. I'm Matika Wilber. I'm the photographer at work on Project 562 and I am so pleased to be hosting this show in social distance mode from my improvised home studio. Welcome back to All My Relations. This podcast is usually co-hosted with Dr. Adrienne Keane but unfortunately she isn't able to join us today. I am very much looking forward to her return for all of us returning together that is in general because right now I'm spearheading this episode solo alone at home in quarantine. Here's the deal. I felt like there was an urgent need to put this episode together mostly because there's not accurate representation or enough representation of what's happening with pandemic in Native America. I myself have only seen a couple of articles that have been released. I know that there are large majority of organizations that have put things up on their website and that people are talking on social media but I got to tell you I don't turn on NBC and hear people talking about what's happening at IHS clinics in Native America. So I felt like this had to be done and I felt like it had to be done because as of this morning a lot of people have passed away including people in my own community here in Tulalip on the res and I think that we need some real information about what's happening in our communities. So I started thinking to myself who do we want to hear from? How are our communities being taken care of? How can we come together to take care of one another? And so I got on the ringer and I started calling the folks that I wanted to hear from and before we get into those conversations I think it's appropriate to take a moment to discuss COVID-19. So from what I've gathered this is what we know. We know that it came from an animal. We know that it's a novel virus meaning that it's the first time that we've seen it in people. We know that around the world there are over a million cases and over 58,000 people have passed away and that the US now has more confirmed cases than any other on earth with upwards of 265,000 as of today, April 3rd. And we also know that those numbers are a fraction of the real amount of cases that there actually are. For every confirmed case there are likely five to ten more people in the community with an undetected infection. So I heard somebody say the other day that what's happening with COVID-19 in Indian Country can be compared to dry timber. You know that this virus affects people with underlying health conditions and we know that in Indian Country we have high rates of diabetes, of heart disease, of obesity and we know that we're particularly at risk and that we want to protect our elders. And the other part of this is historically we know that our people, the native people of Turtle Island are not strangers to infectious diseases. It's a trauma that all of us carry that many of us have had to work very hard to overcome and for many of us this pandemic may be triggering that trauma. And historically infectious disease changed our way of life forever and if it weren't for that disease we would all live in a very different America. I thought I would read for you a passage from an indigenous people's history. It says quote whatever disagreement may exist about the size of pre-colonial indigenous populations. No one doubts that a rapid demographic decline occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. It's timing from region to region depending on when conquest and colonization began. Nearly all the population areas of the Americas were reduced by 90% following the onset of colonizing projects, decreasing the targeted indigenous populations of the Americas from 100 million to 10 million. Commonly referred to is the most extreme demographics disaster framed as natural in human history. It was rarely called genocide until the rise of indigenous movements in the mid-20th century. So it goes our people are no strangers to the great danger pandemic composed. We know about this struggle our bones remember. And in this globalized world we live in in which human beings have so drastically altered the evolution of nature and in which we so freely move about the globe with relative ease. Pandemic like the one we face today COVID-19 is always a potential threat. Bat said it doesn't mean that we are prepared and those working on the front lines and medical institutions have been caught off guard. The message of unpreparedness turned out to be a common thread amongst the officials that I spoke with. Dr. Henderson a Lakota and Cheyenne River Sue medical doctor master of public health and president at the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health had some words to this effect and some interesting facts based on the data that we can now analyze from its origins in China. You know this is really I mean it's really breathtaking you know it's really surreal to have this be happening and going on right now and you know if I you know from my perspective feel that way you know I one can only imagine what some of our relatives might be thinking you know including whether or not they should take this seriously or not. But you know the cat has been out of the bag now since November when the first cases came to light in the Wuhan District of China. What we learned about coronavirus 19 or COVID-19 we first learned from the experience that they have trying to manage that outbreak in China and right away it was quite apparent a few things. Number one COVID-19 is highly highly infectious much more infectious than the common flu or influenza. One of my colleagues at the University of Maryland Baltimore Veterans Administration he has a colleague who's been modeling the COVID-19 outbreak there in the Baltimore metropolitan area and she has determined that the average the typical individual with COVID-19 passes it on to eight other individuals on average some less than that some more than that. Influenza has a median transmission between two and three other people. So you know this speaks just how highly infectious this is. The other thing that they learned in China was that it seemed to impact older people worse and by older in China they considered 60 years of age and older and now you know some months after China has dealt with this dealt with it very well by the way. Public health experts across the world are commending China or their how swiftly they move to contain this and they've done an exceptional job. However what their data shows is that the case fatality rate for COVID-19 in individuals 80 years and age and older is 22% so 22% of people 80 years and older in China who got COVID-19 died from it. However for younger individuals for those that were in their 20s and 30s for instance the case fatality rate was around 3%. It wasn't just simply a person's age but it was the types of comorbidities that the older person could have and cheap among those they were seen was diabetes and cardiovascular disease cancer and chronic kidney disease all individuals with those four chronic conditions you know coupled with increasing age greatly increase their fatality rate when they have this. Okay let's just take a moment to collectively acknowledge that this is real that COVID-19 the novel coronavirus is among our communities it's in Tala it's reached the four corners area it's in the plateau in plain stripes it's an Indian territory it's gone to the Great Lakes it's in Haudenosaunee the virus is now among us and we are not prepared and although it pains me to turn towards the federal government one of my initial instincts was to contact one of our own with intimate knowledge of what we should come to expect from the feds congresswoman Deb Holland from New Mexico spoke to her efforts and had some underlying words of advice I mean the bottom line is we have got to get supplies to them they highlighted the fact that even if they had a lot of ventilators, right, it's you need to make sure that you have the professionals who are trained to operate them. So we are doing our best to make sure that IHS have the resources they need. But I think the more important issue is that we all need to stay safe and healthy. We can do more by preventing the virus from getting to our communities, right? It would be better to make sure that people aren't getting COVID-19 by all of our communities taking unprecedented steps to make sure that we're safe. We're doing everything we can to make sure that folks aren't getting COVID-19 to begin with, but we're absolutely fighting to make sure that tribes and the Indian Health Service get what they need so that they can service members who are sick. Whoa. From our she-roes mouth, Congresswoman Holland basically just said that she's going to go to work for us. She's fighting to get IHS the resources they need, but that our best defense is to not get sick and that tribal governments should exercise their tribal sovereignty to protect their people. I love Congresswoman Holland and I am one of her biggest fans and I'm super grateful for her coming on our podcast. It means the world to me, but I have to tell you after this conversation, I wasn't feeling that informed. So I decided to call NCAI President Fawn Sharp. For those who don't know, NCAI, the National Congress of the American Indian was founded in 1944 and it's the oldest, largest and most representative organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments. And we'll go straight into the conversation where we are discussing relationality or the concept of all my relations during pandemic. From my perspective as a tribal leader dealing with an issue that just three weeks ago, I had no idea I would be this emerged in trying to protect lives. It's a life and death situation for all of us, not only across Indian country, but globally. And really in this process, when I started to engage in looking at this crisis, it became quite clear to me that we may, in a worst case scenario, this country, we're going to betray our states and our federal government may not have the capacity to deal with this crisis. And it was very clear to me that no country, and similarly, has as the capacity because this affects everyone globally. I saw organizations outside the United States activate humanitarian arms. I saw a call out for public private partnerships. And as the crisis unfolded beyond that, we saw images coming out of Italy, images coming out of Spain, where the scale of the pandemic definitely exceeded their capacities to handle this crisis. And knowing that the United States is within the top five and then moved to four and then three, and we're still early in this process, I am very concerned at this point that tribal nations are not going to realize the level of support that is minimally necessary to protect lives. And so the idea of bringing everything that we have to bear together in Indian country, not only within our capacities, but with partners, whether they are state and local officials, federal officials, I found out this morning that we are going to have direct access to the strategic national stockpile for protective equipment. That's a good thing that is included in the legislation that passed the Senate. Hopefully, it will remain in the House. And so for us to deal with something that's this global in nature, it does require that we have relationships. And fortunately, in Indian country, because we've worked on so many issues over the years, we have pretty strong channels and pretty solid relationships, not only among our respective nations, but with foundations, with champions in Congress, with friends across our regions and within our local jurisdictions. And so this is a time now more than ever. It makes it very clear that having partnerships and having friendships, alliances is going to be the key to saving the lives of each and every one of us within Indian country and within our surrounding communities. Yeah. And the press release that you guys put out on March 18th, it says, "In the wake of the coronavirus, COVID-19 global pandemic, tribal nations comprised of some of the most vulnerable communities in the United States have been left out of the conversation. As the COVID-19 pandemic has now reached all 50 states, tribal governments also face heightened challenges to protect their citizens and have an adequate federal funding and resources to do so." I'm wondering if you could elaborate on that a bit and tell us from your perspective, what really that means. Yes. I believe that not only are tribal nations woefully unprepared, this entire country is woefully unprepared. And from my perspective, that is following, as we always have, within tribal nations, we follow science. We follow our ancestral teachings. We have North Star's that guide our public policy decisions. In the public health sector, the one true North Star that we are finding across the country in every country that's facing this pandemic, one of the quickest and fastest ways to provide a defense to the spread of this pandemic is really testing and broad testing and creating a baseline of who within your community is positive. Right now, it's very clear that people can be healthy and they could still have this virus and unbeknownst to them, they could come into contact with someone who's vulnerable. And with an Indian country, a large part of our population or elderly, a large population part of our population has the underlying conditions. And so it is critically important that we are able to test, test early, test broadly. And then, once you have a baseline, the public health scientists tell us, then you have to conduct surveillance testing and contact tracing. These are the examples that we see in countries like South Korea that were effective and were able to, in an early part of the pandemic, manage and to some degree, control it. But in this country, just this last week, we heard our briefings coming out of the White House that now we're only going to test those who are actually showing all the symptoms of, that's way too late. And so from our perspective, we are looking at ways that we can enlist testing services to our citizens. There's a tribe in Louisiana that issued a press release this week that there are -- The tribe she is talking about is the Koshada tribe of Louisiana who joined forces with the Vavera Pharmaceuticals to develop rapid testing. They are working toward FDA emergency approval for the Vavera Pharmaceuticals Rapid Test, which is a rapid testing kit manufactured by a German company, Pharmac A.G. So those are the sort of innovative things that we do. But above all, it's having the resources to find the best possible path forward to protect every single one of our citizens from that place where we stand today and what we know is minimally necessary to combat this crisis and the first step in making progress is really testing and that we -- no one in this country is prepared to even take that first step to address this pandemic. You know, tribes have traditionally had a fructious relationship with the federal government, which is required through treaty to provide health care and return for the past seeding of lands. But of course, we all know that IHS is dramatically underfunded and has limited resources. So given that we're in a time of pandemic, what is the federal trust responsibility right now to provide funding and resources to tribal communities? Yes. And from my perspective, excuse me, the federal trust responsibility is to ensure that tribes even get to a baseline of care. And at this point, it doesn't seem like even with the relief that we're getting out of this pandemic, we're even achieving that level of care, which is -- should be shocking and alarming to anyone who engages with tribal nations. And so from my perspective, it's not only ensuring that we have financial relief, but we do have access to an unbroken supply chain. And I am not entirely optimistic that we are -- we just need to, as tribal nations, exercise our sovereign powers, find the best possible path forward and stand on our sovereignty to enlist the resources that we need, knowing that we are sort of the last in line. Locally we are the last in line within our states. We are the last in line within this country. And we already have a stressed health care system. And so I'm confident that tribal nations are going to continue to be innovative. They're going to continue to do the very best that we can to look out for our citizens. But it's quite clear when you look at the level of funding that tribes have been able to achieve even with the stimulus package, we're effectively getting crumbs off the table. We're the last in line. And I'll give an example here in the state of Washington and trying to access various resources. Much of what is being deployed is being deployed to those hot spot areas like the Seattle King County area where we had the initial outbreak. Our tribes out here where I live in the Olympic 10s, so three hours away, we are the last in line to be able to secure any of those resources and equipment. So not only are we the last in line and funding, we're the last in line to get protective equipment. And when I see those images across the globe of those who are just left to die, I dread the thought that we're going to see those type of images come out of Indian country. I simply don't want our nations to be collateral damage to an administration that is woefully unprepared and has left us as an unforgotten population. That's simply not an option. We do have sovereignty. We do have standing to engage and try to find the best path forward for all of our nations. Congress has been alerted not once but twice. First with the US Commission on Civil Rights, Quiet Crisis Report. And last year's Broken Promises Report, those two reports over a 15 year period make it very clear Indian country is not only facing a quiet crisis, we are facing a raging crisis of economic, social and political marginalization. And so when this pandemic is exposing not only our unemployment levels, I mean the United States is fearing a 20% unemployment rate for some tribes, an 80% unemployment rate is our reality. So it's an opportunity for us to really advance those critically important issues that no alarm that we ever sounded seem to catch attention and always seems to fall on deaf ears. So it's not only advancing the public policies we need in funding to contend with this pandemic but how can we position ourselves well for the fourth package and for new policies because now more than ever, attention is paid to the plight of everyone in this country and Indian country because of our already overstressed healthcare systems, economies that are suffering were able to demonstrate that even more clearly. Global emergency or not, we are still firmly planted in familiar territory. Health and equality for many of our people remains at the forefront of our daily realities. Many of us know firsthand what it's like to go to the clinic, to beg for a referral and to hope that IHS will actually pay for that referral. I myself, having recently gone through pregnancy, was reminded of how unfairly we are often treated. In fact, every time that I went in for a checkup, they required that I take a drug test, which is not something that any of my white girlfriends were required to do. I also realized that IHS wouldn't pay for most of the standardized tests that pregnant women require. Just another reminder of how our bodies are valued in this system. While doing some research, I came across some work being done with the Urban Indian Health Institute that resonated deeply with me. I decided to reach out. Abigail Echahawk, a Pawnee citizen, is the chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board and she is the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, which is one of 12 tribal epidemiology centers across the US. 11 of them serve regional areas that are located on federally recognized tribes. However, the Urban Institute of Health is the only organization that specifically serves native populations in large cities. Much of the research that Abigail has done has been surrounding indigenous health equity, and I know that something that's really on a lot of our minds recently, Rebecca Nagel, who's Cherokee recently published an article in Vice that says the US has neglected Indian Country for years and now comes a pandemic. She reports, quote, "IHS reported that as of March 19th, the Indian Health Servant Agency has counted 37 ICU beds, 130 negative pressure rooms, 81 ventilators, and 1257 hospital beds among all of their facilities for the 2.5 million people they serve," but quote, "the actual number may be higher because they're still counting." Our people are already struggling to get the necessary supplies. Abigail, can you speak to these concerns? So this talk about health equity is never more relevant than it is right now in the midst of this pandemic. So as we've seen across the country, that we simply have a crumbling system in the Indian Health Service that is drastically underfunded by Congress where we don't even get the amount of money that is needed to provide basic standards of health care for native people who access facilities, whether they be tribally operated, operated by the Indian Health Care Service, or by their Urban Indian Health programs, is that the funds we get from the IHS are nowhere near what we need to serve our people well. And a result of that system has been the rampant health disparities we see in Indian country from heart disease to cancer, to infant mortality, and maternal mortality. And as we are now in the midst of COVID, I am very afraid and worried about the disproportionate impact that's going to happen in our community. So here at the Seattle Indian Health Board, maybe about two hours ago, I found out that what we've been waiting for materials related to personal protective equipment for our staff. So these are things like for somebody who has symptoms, our staff numbers go in and they wear a gown and an eye mask and gloves. And there's a shortage of all of those things right now in the country. So we've been waiting on shipments of them. So we got a box of something today and we opened it up. And instead of the materials we were expecting to see from the county in which we live, it was a box full of body bags. And so here we are. And it seemed like such a incredible metaphor for the mess that we're in, that we haven't gotten all of the personal protection equipment, although it's coming. We haven't had access to all of the tests that we've needed. We just got the access to 200 tests just several days ago, even though we've been asking for more or four months. And here we receive a box of body bags instead of testing materials and instead of personal protection equipment. And we think it's a mistake. I can't even understand why they would have sent us a box of body bags, but that's what we got instead. And I really hope it was a mistake that they sent it to us. But in my heart in thinking of all the work that I've done in this area is that that's kind of a metaphor for what's happening in Indian country right now. We are not getting what we need to address this. Our systems have not been funded the way that they should be, the way that our tree rights say they should be. And we, not all tribes and urban Indian programs are prepared to have all of the resources that they need in order to serve their people well. We're really fortunate that there are some tribes who were had incredible emergency preparedness plans in place. And our doing an incredible job, I would point out to the Lummi Nation right now and other folks who are doing what it takes to serve their communities well in the midst of this outbreak. But not everybody has had those resources or the ability to make those plans. We will see a disproportionate impact in Indian country and right now. I'm angry about it. I am frustrated as we look and see what's happening congressional right now is we have so many national native organizations who are working so hard to make sure that native people are included in these stimulus packages and other things that are going to be coming down that are to address COVID-19 in our communities. But it is really our responsibility as a community to come together and say, "Hey, this isn't right to use our voices to call our representatives to push for justice to not be silent about the inequities, but to continue to raise our voice and to come together and to support the efforts of folks like the National Congress American Indians, the National Indian Health Board, the National Council on Urban Indian Health, all the folks who are pushing forward to making sure that Indian country gets what we need because what I don't need is a mistaken delivery box of body bags. I need the resources to serve our community and that's what we're not getting. A large part of why this has been so confusing, panic inducing, and alternatively for some, the way we're going to move forward. and causing many to fundamentally question the very fabric of modern life. The sheer pace of which information or just as often misinformation moves amongst us can be somewhat stifling and overwhelming to say the least. Many of my friends and my sacred circle are actively taking media breaks. As I milled about my socially distanced house, trying to best process and navigate it all, one thing became crystal clear. Most and foremost, we must right now do everything in our collective power to protect our families, relatives and communities. Just as we always have, so what specifically is that? What is our greatest defense, our strategy in combating this seemingly invisible threat that looks nebulously about? I did the best thing I could think of. I called my auntie. She's an emergency room physician in Bosnian, Connecticut with a lifetime of experience. [phone ringing] Hello? Hello? Hi, my tricker. Hi, auntie Edie. Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me. As you know, I'm calling you live from our podcast All My Relations to Discuss Coronavirus. We need some of that anti-doctor wisdom and advice. I guess the main question I have for you is what should we be doing to protect our families? Well, I think the first thing to do in terms of protection of family is obviously try not to get sick. The preventative ways of not getting sick is what they've been advertising. Washing your hands is most important. And I can't stress that enough. When you walk in your door, wash your hands. The first thing you should do is go to bathroom sink, kitchen sink, wash your hands 20 seconds. And you are out in the open. I think what you have to remember and all of us do it about touching your face. Obviously, since you go out and you're pushing a shopping cart, touching fruit or vegetables or whatever, could you get coronavirus? Who knows? Maybe you could. But don't touch your face because that's a way of getting the virus that's through your mucus on membranes, your nose, your eyes, your mouth. And so don't touch your face while you're out. And then go back home and wash your hands. Wash your fruit. Wash your vegetables, whatever. And I have this little mantra that I'm saying now whenever I see people, you know, and I tell people to breathe and stay calm and wash your hands. And I think if we all follow that, obviously not sneezing in an open area covering your, you know, mouth and nose when you sneeze with your elbow rather than your hand, which is something that we should have been taught when we were really, really young. And something that I think people forget and has to be emphasized, you don't, you don't cover your sneeze with your hands, cover it in the quicker your elbow. Something that we all should have been doing from the beginning to prevent the spread of colds. I mean cold spread just like, you know, corona virus spreads. Influent the spread in the same way. The statistics presently are 80% of people have a mild illness and they get over it. 80% recover without a problem. So Aiki had running nose coughs, you know, fever. They didn't feel good for a few days, a number of days, but then they got over it. Okay, 20% of people then have more than that. Maybe have some oxygen requirement in order to not feel short of breath. And a good number of percentage of those people with the supportive care are going to survive. And then I think statistically they're saying now that 5% of that 20% of people who are hospitalized will require ventilators support. And all of this is supportive care because obviously we don't have treatment for it. And you always have a way of making us feel better, don't they? I just love her. She's also a bomb cook. It's important to remember that medical professionals across the nation expose themselves to these types of viral threats on a daily basis. In order to safely do so and always show up for those in need, they must follow a strict sterilization and sanitation protocol that keeps them and their patients protected from COVID-19 all the way down to the common cold just the same. These days, a standard practice you and everyone you know should be doing this too. Here's a short excerpt from Dr. Price in New York City. You may have already seen this circulating on the internet. It's an informal call on Zoom with his friends asking him questions about what we should be doing to protect our families. As I think in the hospital the last two days, the thing that makes me smile a little bit is that I actually know now that I won't get this disease because I know how to protect myself. And so I just want to give you guys a few very, very practical tips to how to protect yourself. Know where your hands are and know that they're clean at all times. Walk around with Purel. When I leave my apartment, everything that I see that I'm going to touch, I make sure that I'm pure all first. So when I leave my apartment door and I go to the elevator, it's okay that if I touch it with my hand, then I pure out. So we know that if you keep your hands clean, that you're not going to get this. The second point is that this is not a disease that we're getting because someone is sick and touched something and then an entire community of 10 people get it because they touch that. It's mostly from sustained contact with people who have COVID-19. Out of abundance of caution, we also make sure that everything we touch, we're cleaning our hands. The overarching theme is sustained contact with someone who has this disease, which the vast majority is people with fever and aches, or someone who is about to get the disease. So someone in the next one to two days who is going to develop symptoms of this disease. And so the way that you get this is the transmission of the virus almost exclusively from your hands to your face, from your hands to your face. And so it's either into your eyes, into your nose, or into your mouth. The second thing is you have to start psychologically working on the connection between your hands and your face. I touch my face all the time. You scratch your nose. And so the virus has taken advantage of this. And the reason why everyone gets this disease is because have sustained contact with someone. So someone at a party has this and you shake their hand and then you touch your face. It's that simple. That is how you get this disease. So what does that mean? I think there's two practical things that you can do. One is just to start to be aware of when you touch your face. A tool, Galwande, who is a Harvard-Train surgeon, I think is very famous, actually has a recommendation for people to just start wearing masks. And the idea here is not that the mask is going to prevent you from getting COVID, but the reason to put out a mask is because, and I do this in the hospital, is you stop touching your face. And I think those two things combined is incredibly powerful and will prevent the transmission of the disease in your family in 99% of cases. So the third thing, what do you do if you get this disease? And this is, I think, if you listen to nothing else through this entire thing, just please listen to this part. In Wuhan, China, throughout the world, the vast majority of spread of COVID-19 is through home and family transmission. So what do you do? If you're able, have the person in a separate room. If you're able, have the person who's sick, have their own bathroom. If the person has to come out and interact with people in the family, this is a perfect indication for one medical mask. And the reason is you want to put the mask on the person who's sick. And so the point is to not have sustained contact with someone in your home who has this disease, you're going to want to take care of them. Now that we know how to combat this virus, we can also be thinking about boosting our immune systems on a daily basis and remembering to turn to our original teachers, the plants. I called Linda Black Elk. Linda is from the Kataba Nation and she's an ethno-votentist specializing in teaching culturally important plants and their uses as food, medicine, and materials. It's good to become confident with a few different plants and a few different things that you can always keep in your sort of medicine cabinet, keep in your repertoire, but I think it's also very important to consult with knowledge holders, medicine people, people who hold that and work with it every day. So SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the actual virus, the infection that happens when you get sick is called COVID-19. And right now we're trying to be really proactive in my family. We're eating well, we've incorporated a lot of fermented foods into our diet. We are making sure that we get plenty of vitamin D every day from the sun, and if it's a really cloudy day, we actually it's the only supplement that I personally take, and that is a vitamin D3 supplement, just to make sure I keep my immune system high and healthy. We're also burning sage. They've actually found that the smoke from sage, artinesia species, is antimicrobial, but it also just helps us feel better. It just makes us happier. And when you're happier, your immune system is higher because stress and anxiety will lower your immune system. So another thing we're doing to be proactive is making sure that we are praying together, talking together, spending time together in a good way, but also making sure everyone has their space to de-stress and take care of themselves. We are using elderberry elixir to keep our immune system high. When I make my elderberry elixir, I always use raw honey. I always use start and yeast, which is actually one of the primary components, the primary ingredients, basically in tamiflu. So it's a powerful anti-viral as well, and that mixed with the elderberry is wonderful. So I always add other anti-virals, like start and yeast, cinnamon, clove, ginger into my elderberry elixir. So we're using that. We are also drinking other anti-viral teas as well, just on a daily basis, a little bit here and there, like licorice root, which is a traditional medicine here, metal tea as well. And using echinacea, none of us have any autoimmune disorders, so I really highly recommend echinacea for boosting your immune system. This is a time when we are remembering our relationships and we're remembering how to be good relatives. We had forgotten for a while, I think, how to be good relatives, but we're figuring that out again and why that's necessary. We can see that Mother Earth, one really beautiful thing coming out of this time, the very sad difficult time, is that the Earth is healing herself. And we can see that, make three satellite images, we can see that through wildlife returning to areas where it has not been in a very long time. By us socially distancing ourselves, we are giving the Earth a chance to breathe for a little while. And I think that's a really beautiful gift. And I think it's sad that it took such a global pandemic to make us see it, but it's happening, and I'm excited. Wow, Linda shared so many beautiful ideas. As you could hear, we had a hard time with our audio and parts of our conversation were nearly inaudible. But one of the things that we discussed that is really sticking out to me is that maybe not all of us have access to some of those traditional plants. Maybe our grocery stores don't sell them, maybe we aren't going to the grocery store, maybe we don't have money for the grocery store, so what should we do then? And she said that one plant that all of us can turn to is something that people might consider a weed, but is actually incredibly potent and useful, which is dandy lion. She also said that it's a really good time for us to reach out to our traditional plant keepers in our own nations. So taking heed, I did what she said, and I called my cousin Valerie. Valerie is a native nutrition educator, and she's from the Muckleshoot tribe, and you might recognize her from her work that she did with us on the Food Sovereignty episode. For those of you who know me, you'll know that my favorite thing to study is plants and their actions on the body in particular. And so the immune system, it's almost like our body's own department of defense. It's like our own armor that sits right underneath our skin and lives in our guts and in our bones, and it's what helps us to fight off the millions of bad germs that we're exposed to every single day. And you know, it can show up in its own way to help fight off those germs, and when we fortify it, it can be really strong. And so I like to think of it as our sort of internal interface to the external environment. And so, in the end of the pandemic, people are really experiencing a lot of fear and anxiety. And so one of the most important actions that we can all take to empower ourselves during this time is to fortify our immune systems and do the best we can to support our entire community's immunity. I mean, it starts with staying calm, but we can find so many answers in our ancestral teachings and those traditional wellness practices that require us to really cultivate our relationships with the living world around us and with our ancestors. This is actually our greatest strength, you know, having always organized ourselves around these practices. I know that you and others that I've spoken with have been really having to stick up for our traditional medicines and, you know, like in some ways you've been attacked. Yeah, I just feel like people are having to adjust their daily regimens and life schedules and a lot of our own inner stuff is surfacing and that's in rightfully so. We are the descendants of people who witnessed, you know, a pandemic apocalypse happen not that long ago where 80 to 90 percent was our mortality rate. And so I think a lot of that memory is sort of stored away in our DNA and pandemics bring change. They've swept through populations and one thing that happens consistently in history is every time pandemics sweep through populations, the ancient knowledge of natural medicines and the healers who carried that knowledge base have faced persecution. And so what can we do now knowing what we know about, you know, the historical response to this? How do we honor the traditional healing practices and not something we all organize ourselves around to attack or pick apart at this point? Nobody is saying that our traditional plants and medicines are the cure. Because of today, March 31st, 2020, there is not a cure for the coronavirus. So we are just saying that these are practices that we should be employing every single day anyways. And that no matter what you do, these will benefit you and your health, whether we're in a time of pandemic or just trying to live our lives and stand on the right side of our healing story. I asked Valerie, can you give us some bullet points of ways that we might boost our immune system? And this is what she said. Remember that water is the first medicine and that drinking plenty of water will actually keep your muoclosal lighting in your throat and lungs and sinuses hydrated and this reduces your chances of getting sick. Some better put plants in the water and then drink some beautiful medicine tea. So rose hips and rose flower tea are really great for tightening and flame tissues. They're high in vitamin C. They can help ease sore throats and have been used as a remedy for colds and flu's throughout the world for centuries. Lemon bomb is another one that's pretty easy to get to. It's got anti viral properties. It's safe for kids to drink and right now my kids are home. We're unschooling at home and I have them drinking lemon bomb tea every day and it's incredible how it helps them. They focused and is also really great for easing winter time depression. It gets you out of that winter slump. And then you can put bones in water and boil them up and make bone tea or bone broth which is why chicken soup is the go to remedy for colds and flu's. Incredibly high in immune building properties and fortifying minerals like calcium and magnesium and iron and selenium and zinc. Like a geek out on more micronutrients forever. But they are great bases for soups. You can boil your rice or pasta in it or you can just drink it like you're at Starbucks and a really fabulous Starbucks cup. Number two, I would say to eat well. you know, eating more whole foods at this time, more fruits and vegetables, things that consist of one ingredient, try to eat lots of colorful things that are high in antioxidants and vitamins and minerals, and don't forget your forminive foods. That is what keeps your gut health really strong and that fire in your belly alive. 70% of our immune system actually lives in your gut. And some studies actually say at to 80%. And so if you want to keep those unwanted visitors feeling unwelcome, make sure you have a good digestive fire. Number three is to, I really dislike it when people say don't stress out because like us the worst advice ever to give somebody who's stressed. This is a stressful time where all's worried so sick, but not to add more stress when you are sleep deprived and constantly stressed that your immune system function is diminished. And so we really want to try and think about the things that help you to stay calm, maybe walking outside or playing with your animals, or playing more games with your kids, music, dancing, singing, and seeing a lot of social distancing powwow going on online. That is probably very good for people to diminish their stress or even just sitting quietly for seven minutes can decrease your stress hormones. I'm in some the act by nature. And so, you know, getting seven to nine hours of rest in night is the work that I put here to do, just try to do. And for me that is literally just laying down and closing my eyes for seven hours. I try to sleep in and out of sleep. But as long as you can just rest your body for at least seven hours, you're going to be seeing a lot of immune-building benefits from that. The fourth thing I would suggest is for people to just spend more time in nature, nothing is barring you from going outside and sitting in your lawn or getting your hands in the dirt. Springtime is just around the corner here, and there's so many wonderful wild spring edibles that are bursting through the ground. You know, it's the time to go outside and witness the uprising. I think about plants like Nettle who emerge from a soil with their stems reaching for the sunlight. And how can we be like that right now or dandelion? And no matter what man tries to do, they can't get rid of dandelion. Like how do we be like the dandelion? And just keep coming back and being big medicine in the world. And so go outside, sit by a tree, nap in the grass and feel rejuvenated. Be empowered by our resilient heritage and hold these teachings really close to your heart right now. I think that's what we need now more than ever. Thanks, Val, for that wealth of information. It's always so good to hear from you. I'm honored to bring you into this next conversation with Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who is a member of the White Earth Band of a Jibway, and she shares her personal experience with COVID-19. You know, I'm concerned that there are still places in Indian country that are not necessarily heating the wardings of the CDC. I know that there are certainly tribal members. I'm here until I go up on the rise and I still see some folks going about business as usual. And so, you know, I'm wondering, can you talk to folks? Can you talk about what happened with your brother with Vaughan? And hopefully help people to see why this is, why we're in such an epic moment right now? Absolutely. I mean, the first thing that I would say is, you know, for a whole host of reasons, most of them being a colonization and institutional racism, you know, our communities find themselves with many underlying health conditions like heart disease and diabetes, asthma. And those are the very things that puts you at additional risk if you contract COVID-19. And so, I think for our community, for Native communities, we need to take this really seriously. And that our elders are the ones who are most at risk. We have a responsibility to protect them and to care for them. And that is why taking the seriously really matters. It's one of the best ways we can take care of each other. My brother, Ron Golden, he had cancer. And he was recently diagnosed with cancer after spending weeks and weeks with my dad, caring for my dad, as he was in hospice. We lost him just at the end of January. And so, once, yeah, it's been a real difficult time for our family. But, you know, Ron returned home to Tennessee after helping to take care of our family and take care of my dad. And just a couple weeks after he returned, was diagnosed with cancer. So, he had started treatment and gone home. And then shortly thereafter, having trouble breathing was brought back to the hospital. They put him in intensive care. He was placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. He was a great big tough guy, Marine, a veteran, and he couldn't fight it. And so, you know, this is my plea. And this is why we're telling his story and sharing his story. Is that, you know, our family members who have these underlying health conditions, we have a responsibility to them to stay home, to wash our hands, to practice social distancing, which is essentially, you know, keeping six feet between you and the folks who don't live within your home, which is so hard. And so, you know, I acknowledge that it is so counterintuitive that we are Indian people, right? That in times of heartache and tragedy, we come together and we take care of each other and we feed each other. You know, we just, we make it happen. And so, that is why it is incredibly important for us to remember that the best way we can care for one another, we can care for our elders, we can care for our families and communities. And so, that is why we are trying to stay away from one another. Now, with that being said, it's also, I think, an important time reminder for me to also know that we have our medicines that are available to us in this moment too. You know, as we are smudging, when we put our a seamage back, go out and offer up those prayers, that is really meaningful and is a way that we connected to. And I think it's just important, it's been important for me during this time to remember that we have those points of connection, that we have those traditions, that we have those ways that have always been with us. And now it's an important time to rely on those things and to bring them into practice when this all feels too much or too overwhelming. But folks need to take this seriously, especially as we look to our relatives with underlying health conditions and to our elders specifically. Thank you so much Peggy for your heartfelt words and for your message to Indian Country. We appreciate you sharing Ron's story with us and our heart and prayers go out to you and to all of our listeners and to all of our friends and relatives. You know, be of strong courage, our heart and prayers and love are with you in this time. And before we wrap up, let's go to this conversation with Dallas Goldtooth. Dallas is an activist and an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network and he's also a co-founder of the 1491s, a comedy troupe that we all know and love so much. Hello! Hello, Dallas. Hello! Ahoyama! Dallas, this podcast is called All My Relations. I know that's a term that you're very familiar with. Here in our territory we say "Tibak Tee Ae Shad" which translates to basically like I live for my relatives. But we've been thinking about what does it mean to be in good relation with land, with water, with our non-human relatives, with our ancestors and with one another. So before we dive into this conversation about coronavirus, I'm wondering if you could talk about how that term "All My Relations" has affected you and your work and your life and in the way that you conduct yourself. Yeah, that's a good question. I think I have a really weird like a roller coaster relationship with the term "All My Relations" because you know, it's a phrase that we use. I'm Dakota and within the Dakota diaspora, we say the phrase "Midakee Owasi" which translates loosely as "All My Relations" my relatives or all my relations and like they're all my life. I've just yeah rollercoaster relationship where like at some points I'm really proud of them really like yeah man I get it I'm there and at other times I'm like man that shit's cheesy. It really depends on when I hear it really when people invoke it it's like sometimes I'm like oh they get it they understand it they're coming from a the person that is using this phrase is coming from a cultural foundation that I'm familiar with as opposed to some situations right here it mean stated or invoked where I'm like this person has no idea where this concept comes from or or their their concept of it or their usage of it is not in line with the way my community sees it. The way I was taught was that we close our prayer with that phrase Medaki Owasi because it's a it's a recognition of our place as human beings in the greater family of creation. What I love about our teachings when it comes to the phrase all my relatives or all my relations is that it's just a solid recognition that we are not alone as human beings in this world. We don't stand apart from all creation it's a recognition that we are we are a part of all creation and you know we're we learn that we're the youngest brothers and sisters on this planet and you know and that the plants and trees and all the animals and are all older relatives to us that's family that's the recognition of that we all live as family and that's such we have a responsibility to live as family. One way is explained to me and I really love this concept was we call the rocks and the land itself you know we have we call it grandfather or grandmother right the rocks are grandfather rocks or grandmother the water and I remember I found where I heard this someone said how do you treat if your grandfather or grandmother has a condition where they can't talk or they you know can't take care of themselves what's your responsibility as a grandchild to take care of them right well it's the many of this it's kind of the same thing is we have a role in responsibility to speak up on behalf of those that can't speak the what the Western world sees as inanimate objects are simply relatives who can't speak in a large job one of our responsibilities is to speak up on their behalf to defend their rights so that's how I kind of see this that concept of all my relatives all my relations my partner pointed out to me the other day he said you know the the irony of this circumstance and what we're learning from this circumstance is that the earth will do what it needs to do to take care of itself and and if we're not in good relation with the land you know like that this is what happens because if we consider and this is what we're sort of I'll give you the train of thought we were thinking about the fact that coronavirus is a novel virus that that had to go through two different animals before it could you know become contagious to people or before it could infect people and we think about like the snakes and the bats that they believe that this came from and how we've destroyed their habitats and we've destroyed the places that they live and we've developed this large agricultural system and as a result of all of those choices that we have human beings have made we are now seeing new forms of pandemic but that that virus is you know a direct has a direct cause and effect a relationship with us I'm wondering what do you think of that I agree with you I agree with the idea that it's it's crazy how this situation is bringing us together in so many different ways I've been thinking about this for the past couple weeks now because I've been seeing a lot of people saying well this is just mother nature is a way of you know addressing the greater issue of imbalance across the planet and I feel that's not that's not accurate that's not really adequate assessment but to put it straight this is man made and you know it is is via nature of course through a virus that we're that that's causing this pandemic but you know that just to say oh this is mother nature a way of bringing us in the balance this is part of nature really hides the fact that you know the economic decisions within China created a situation where people have created these massive food markets and farms where they have they harvest and collect exotic animals and keep them in cages and put them in in horrible situations where they have to share liquids of their body fluids which causes the transfer of diseases from animal to animal and eventually to human being and this is of our own creation the way I see it's almost the how what's the phrase like the I think of it as the consequence of our behavior exactly that's what it is it is exactly it is an exact consequence of our own behavior and very much a symbol of our own self-destruction or our own self-destructive kind of mentality that we have I do see this power in saying that this is nature showing us its power the virus is alive it's a part of it's a part of the world but it's a result of our own self-destructive behavior and I think that the beautiful thing about this is I feel people if if there is a light to this all this is the fact that people are kind of seeing what really is important in their life right being together making sure that your community is safe those are all valuable things that I think we take for granted I think really people are like saying oh how do we make sure our communities are safe how do we make sure you know who are at most risk are taking care of like these are really great conversations it sucks that we're having them in a situation right now in this scenario but it's I'm happy to see people have these these discussions what this pandemic has showed us is that in many instances corporate bankers don't matter financial asset managers don't matter corporate executives don't really matter who matter teachers matter nurses health care workers people who are providing your food folks that are making sure that you have heat and making sure that you your your community has the infrastructure those folks matter and I think that is showing us the inherent fallacies of capitalism overall because we put our priorities where the money is rather than putting our priorities and energy into the folks who actually improve the quality of our health one thing I have been witnessing you probably seen across social media lately the past week is tribes asserting their sovereignty and their shutting down their borders like they're setting up like checkpoints at the borders on the major highway going into their communities I don't know if you've seen that by seeing that like up in Montana they've got Matt and Minnesota some of the communities there where they have at least checkpoints the tribal police set up checkpoints to monitor people that are coming in and out and they potentially keep outsiders out and to see such a high number of that such a high instance of that happening can't or made me happy I'm like yeah like that's right that's a that's a great way to see tribes assert their self determination and to protect their communities and that's something probably wouldn't have seen three months ago four months ago you know so this crazy it is wild to see that because of a pandemic we're also seeing tribal nations truly take steps towards asserting their self determination and that's kind of wild because at the same time a lot of our communities are in a situation where we really are in assistance a really do need assistance from the federal government to help out as as dictated by you know by treaty rights as dictated by a long history of agreements and understandings between tribal nations and the federal government but nonetheless I think communities are saying look no one's going to protect us except ourselves and we need to do that now question I've been kind of processing is what's the world going to be like after this there's no way it can be an understatement the world is changing right now this is a moment that it will be in history books this is a moment that will be studied and talked about for years this is a moment that almost every single person on this planet can reflect upon and that there are very few moments in the history of the world in which human beings can do that so this is a monumental time that we're all a part of. To go even deeper, it's a moment that we are all sharing. So often in our lives, when we go through some difficulties, it might be a challenge or difficulty on an individual basis, or it might be a challenge or a difficulty for a community, a struggle that your community is going through, or it might be a struggle that a number of communities are going through, or it might be something that the nation is going through at that moment. But rarely, is there ever a moment where every single person on the planet is sharing that same experience. And that's where I feel like this tremendous amount of love out of this moment because I am not alone in what I'm experiencing right now. I cannot believe that I'm alone in this moment because there are millions, billions of people going through the same thing in different ways. And that's, I'd send my love and energy out in that way because I worry about it. I worry about the folks that are like, women that are, their home is not a safe home because of their partner. I worry about the children who are in homes that may not necessarily be safe environments for them. And now they have to be there. I worry about just elders and people who can't be around their loved ones. These are all things I worry about at the same time. I'm like, okay, that's a lot of energy of people sharing in that experience. And that's transformative. And that's what I hope for. That's why I'm like really looking at how this world, how are we going to come out of this? And we have a decision to make whether we really are going to address it and try to change the system. Or we're going to put our blinders on as we come out of this and say, okay, that was just the moment. Let's get back to business as usual. Even though business as usual is what put us into a situation where our communities are dealing with higher instances of infection and death because of this pandemic. Yeah. Yeah. When you really take a step back and you look at it from that much, you know, that much wider lens like you talk about, it's really, it really is touching. It's moving, you know, to think of the collectiveness in this moment of suffering and also of hope, right? That many people are working together to try to find solutions. So, you know, like in some ways, you have like this devastation happening, but in other ways, you have like tribes like Kushada and other organizations coming together to see how they can help one another. And you know, it's always in crisis or pandemic or times of loss that we see people lift each other up and take care of each other. Exactly. Cragmatically, how do we change up the way our way of life? How do we change up this world so that we don't set ourselves up for another pandemic? Like to be honest, I think in general, we don't know, but we do know that we have to. And that's a good place to be, that at least recognize that something needs to change, right? And I feel like people are recognizing that. Thank you, Dallas. I'm grateful for you reminding us to think of the big picture, because yes, indeed, we are all sharing in a collective moment. COVID-19 is a changing narrative of epidemic. And this narrative is telling the story of a wildly infectious disease with mysterious biological behavior and an unfolding cultural phenomenon that is revealing the most fragile, inspiring, and outraging attributes of our society. We're one week into April of 2020, and nobody really knows what will become of this pandemic. But we do know that our success or failure is very much writing on the decisions made by our leaders, which now more than ever will influence our ability to stay socially distance, because let's face it, social distancing is a privilege, and many of our relatives don't have access to social distancing measures. Without mortgage suspension or unemployment benefits or access to equitable healthcare, the effort to flatten the curve relies on our ability to stay home, and many of our low wage workers might not be in that privileged position. So although this episode has said over and over and over again, we have to stay home, we have to stay home, we have to wash our hands. I feel somewhat conflicted trying to summarize this, because it doesn't feel as though these conversations offer and resolve. And I'm doing my best to say my prayers and to have hope, as I'm sure all of you are, we're trying to remain calm, to wash our hands, to ingest and share traditional medicines. I've been doing a 30 day yoga challenge and sleeping as much as possible. But as I was putting this episode together this week, I was also coming to terms with the fact that the decisions that are being made are going to affect the people that I love and care about. That as we're discussing these statistics, those statistics are my people, our people, my auntie with underlying health conditions and a nursing home just tested positive today. My mom and grandmother have both been exposed and are both in quarantine. We've already buried two relatives here in Selape who weren't able to fight off the virus. This pandemic is scary and it's real and in times like these, I remember that my ancestors made it through pandemic. And so will we. This will end. This episode is now coming to an end. Special thanks to producer and editor Teo Shance. It's all possible because of you. Thank you. Music composition by Alex Chatzie with Progression by Teo, episode art by Sierra San. Production assistance from Kristen Bowling. Thank you to our guests. Dr. Henderson, Congressman Holland, President Sharp, Abigail Echohawk, Dr. Ed Chul, Dr. Price, Linda Black Elk, Valerie Seagress, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, and Dallas Goldtooth. My hands are raised to all of you. Thank you for listening, for sharing and contributing to our Patreon. I love you. My heart is with you during this training times. And here's a little love for my house to yours. I'm reminded to laugh. And that we are in fact doing this for our children. Well my relation.