Fighting Isolation & the loss of culture
In Indian country, isolation is often a way of life. Traveling through the remote reservations of Montana, the Dakotas, New Mexico, or Arizona, you can drive hundreds of miles, and several hours, before you see a gas station, never mind a motel or a place to eat. Native peoples who chose to live more traditional lives, on land belonging to their ancestors, don’t mind the isolation. They prefer it as their way of life.
However, the recent pandemic has transformed this freedom of isolation into loneliness.
During this time of COVID, when you and I are doing our best to be careful, to stay safe and healthy, our Native American brothers and sisters have an additional burden, a very different reason for keeping outsiders out and tribal members in. For many tribes, an invasion of COVID has the potential to wipe out whole generations of Native elders, and with them, their ancient language, story, ceremony, and history.
Native people living on tribal lands are quarantining to preserve their past and ensure their future. The mission is worthy: save the lives of the elders, save the culture. But in doing so, the mental and emotional isolation is breeding more addiction and mental health issues, among other problems.
The Navajo Nation is one of the many reservations on strict lockdown and weekend curfews. Navajo tribal lands cover over 27,000 square miles stretching from northeastern Arizona, into Utah and New Mexico. It is home to more than 300,000 people. To give you a perspective, if you placed the reservation on a map of New England, it would nearly cover the states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
On a reservation of this size, access to health care becomes difficult in normal circumstances, but when you add a pandemic, the problems and the fears multiply. There are simply not enough medical facilities to service the population.
Food shortages have also become a result of this pandemic as the lockdown of the reservation continues.
None of this, however, has not stopped Lutheran Indian Ministries staff at Sacred Ground-Mesa from swinging into action.
Knowing that many of their Native brothers and sisters on the Navajo Reservation were in need of food, our team loaded more than 4,000 pounds of food, provided by a local food bank, into our vans and delivered it to hungry Native people near Tuba City and Winslow. Their motivation: Proverbs 11:25, “a generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
Later, they packed up and delivered boxes of food to group homes that serve Native people in and around Phoenix.
Lutheran Indian Ministries – Sacred Ground in Mesa also shipped 90 care packages to reservations throughout Arizona and New Mexico for the families of the homeless Native people we serve.
Native people serving their brothers and sisters, their own communities. Because you have been faithful through your prayers and gifts, Lutheran Indian Ministries can provide and encourage, especially in these tumultuous and turbulent times!
We remember daily that God is on His throne, and He is in control. And because He loves us, He watches over us and provides us with everything we need to be uplifted and sustained, despite the chaos swirling around us. He is the calm in every storm and our safe space when we are troubled.
This is the message we share with each basket of food. With food and the Word of God, through your goodness and the work of the Holy Spirit, we refresh body and soul.
Despite the challenges of COVID and quarantine, we have been blessed by workers in the field who boldly and courageously continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, disciple others in the faith, and provide programs to help our Native brothers and sisters as they walk on their own healing journey toward wholeness every single day.
Your generous gift to Lutheran Indian Ministries today allows us to continue to meet the critical physical and spiritual needs of Native peoples in Alaska, Washington, New Mexico, Kansas, and Arizona during these troubling times.
We Praise God, and we thank you!
I am constantly praying for you, dear friend. Praying that God will bless you and keep you. That He will guard you and protect you from all harm and danger. And that He will lovingly hold you in the palm of His hand and grant you good health and give you lasting peace.
May you be richly and wonderfully blessed!
In Him,
Tim Young Eagle (Pawnee)
Executive Director
Lutheran Indian Ministries
P.S. I love to see what the Lord is doing when we allow Him to work through us! I look forward to sharing with you how your gift today will be put to work to impact Native American ministry. Thank you – God bless you!
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