Voices of Native Nations in the Southwest during the COVID-19 Pandemic
This podcast series amplifies Indigenous voices and experiences of resilience and mental wellbeing during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stories from first responders, educators, traditional knowledge holders and practitioners, and the substance use recovery community highlight challenges faced, lessons learned, and culturally rooted approaches to healing.
Each episode also provides information on local services and resources available to Indigenous communities in northern Arizona.
This podcast was funded through Project HOPE and created by Northern Arizona University’s Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER) in collaboration with Tribal members from the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation.
Voices of Native Nations in the Southwest during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Frontline Leadership on the Hopi Reservation
In this episode, we speak with Beatrice Norton, a frontline worker from the Hopi Reservation. During the pandemic, Beatrice served as the manager of the Office of Aging and Adult Services for the Hopi Tribe and chairwoman of the Oraibi Village Board. She shares her experiences supporting elders and leading her community through a time of crisis.
This podcast shares Indigenous stories of resilience and mental wellbeing during and after COVID-19. Hear from first responders, educators, traditional knowledge holders, and recovery community members as they reflect on challenges, lessons, and culturally grounded healing. Each episode also highlights local resources for Indigenous communities in northern Arizona.
Created by NAU’s Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER) with Hopi and Navajo Tribal members. Funded by Project HOPE.
We would like to acknowledge Dr. Darold Joseph for sharing his beautiful flute recordings with us. It brought a meaningful dimension to the podcast and his artistry is sincerely appreciated.
Resources: https://linktr.ee/voicesnativenations
Hello and welcome to Voices of Native Nations in the Southwest during the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm Melinda Smith, and in this series, we're speaking with community members who stepped forward in unique and powerful ways during the pandemic. These conversations will highlight the lived experiences of first responders, educators, traditional knowledge holders, and practitioners, and members of the recovery community from Native nations in the Southwest. Their stories offer wisdom, strength, and lessons for our communities and future generations. Today, I'm honored to welcome Beatrice Norton, who is a frontline worker from the Hopi Reservation. Beatrice, thank you for joining us and sharing your story.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker:Could you begin by introducing yourself and telling us about your role and your connection to your community before and during the pandemic?
Speaker 1:During the pandemic, I was still working and I was a manager of the Office of Aging and Adult Services for the Hopi Tribe. I also at that time I am the chairwoman of our village, uh, O'Reilly Village Board. And we had just been organized a few years just before the pandemic. So I think we were probably going on our fourth year once we got organized, you know, developing our community with different things and when the pandemic hit. So those were the main two things I was doing at the time when the pandemic came around.
Speaker:Great, thank you. What did you learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and your role as a frontline worker in your community?
Speaker 1:Well, when the pandemic hit, one of the first things that I learned is that the tribe as a whole, and I'm sure this is true for everyone, is that we were not ready for the pandemic of this, you know, something of this magnitude. There were a lot of things as a first responders and as communities and as a whole tribe. There was nothing in place on, you know, and and because Hopi villages are sovereign villages, you know, they have their own governance and usually either they have a board or they have traditional governance. You know, none of our villages were prepared for such a thing. And here in O'Reilly, especially with us, with our newly organization, one of the things was that, you know, it was really up to the board to make a lot of decisions. It was up to the board to do a lot of the things that needed to be done as far as, you know, we had to close up our village. We had to sort of work with our community to ensure that people were safe. And, you know, when there was a household that had the illnesses, you know, we would are we were the ones that had to quarantine them and you know, try to get whatever equipment or food and things like that to them, supplies to them, you know, and so we were the main contact. As far as my position as the manager of the elderly, aging and elderly services, you know, all our programs were we we closed up totally. The tribe just totally closed up. So it allowed me to work within my own community at that time, but still keeping in touch with the tribe, you know, as far as you know, where we were at, what needed to be done. But because we had the nutrition services, you know, that closed up so we weren't able to do the um noon meals for our elderly at that time. I do a lot of uh cultural presentations in the community on different topics related to HOPI. But for me, what I learned during that time as far as, you know, I guess looking back at our stories and primarily look looking back at our prophecies, this was one of the things that, you know, really caught my attention. Uh, and a lot of the prophecies, you know, we feel and know that sometimes, you know, they're they were just warnings, you know, because we have a system of how we should live as cultural people, as traditional people, Hopi people. We have our our value system and we have our clanship and we have you know our ceremonies that dictate to us, you know, the lives that the kinds of lives that we were supposed to be were supposed to follow. But when the pandemic hit, it really hit me hard because I could see that, you know, when we as Hopies, and I guess overall as native tribes, you know, we have our teachings of how we should live, treat each other's, be protectors of the environment, be good to each other's, you know, human beings and people taking care of each other's. And, you know, with the way that our world has been changing, it was noted that, you know, if we don't live according to the spiritual guidance, you know, something like this would happen. And it really made me see that because of the way our communities were, you know, we've become so ingrained in the modern society, and we're forgetting who we are to live as one people being kind to one another. And all of those prophecies came to light from that, and knowing that, you know, we as families, you know, we have such a lot of social ills. We have families that are broken. And I think today, you know, in in our modern world, we've become so modernized that we take things for granted. We take each other's for granted, we take our ceremonies for granted, we take everything that was situated here for us to coexist. We don't see that as important anymore. And so what the pandemic to me it was telling us, you know, wake up, look back at your teachings, look back at the spiritual guidance, look back at your prophecies. And I come from one of the oldest continuous inhabited villages. I was raised up in a really traditional family. And so I am aware of all of these prophecies, the teachings, and it really came to light that we were not on the right path. And so something, you know, our caretaker, we call it Masa, uh spiritual guider, is trying to wake us up as a as a whole, as so, you know, not just Hopi, but I think the whole world that we are going in the wrong direction and that it it was maybe meant for us to wake up and look at, but it came in the form of a this virus. And in our prophecies, it it does say that those tart times are going to be coming. I never imagined it to come in my lifetime, but I I bear witness to what can happen. And so it was very enlightening to me at the same time. But I thought all our ceremonies stopped. We weren't gathering as people, we weren't seeing our neighbors, our relatives, you know, we were afraid of each other's and, you know, again, taking each other's for granted, you know, and putting all of those things aside, I thought that that would at least wake people up. But with the pandemic eventually going away, it's unfortunate that it just seemed like we just picked up where we left off and continued, you know, our family conflicts, uh, the way we treat each other. But there are a few people that I've talked with who said that that made them realize that, you know, having those grudges, but being a little bit more kinder to the to the neighbors, to other people, is not, you know, the way we should be, but to eventually, you know, come back together as as those nations that, you know, work together. And so that really is what I learned from the pandemic. But I think in in some sense, there are a few people that have learned something from going through this pandemic. And um, it's unfortunate that we had to experience something that's so so devastating.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that and especially um thank you for the work you did supporting the elders and sharing cultural presentations in your community. You shared that the pandemic really served as a wake-up call, kind of reminding you that people need to turn back to traditional practices and teachings and values. Could you talk more about how those teachings and values helped you personally and as a community to navigate the difficult time, the pandemic?
Speaker 1:Yes, we're a really small village here, and it really brought out the community to look after each other as like it used to be. You know, there were a lot of nonprofit organizations, outside organizations that came to our aid as far as bringing in food, bringing in wood, things that were necessary, you know, to get us through that period of time. Even our own local people, you know, the sharing really, I saw a lot of that sharing of each other's. And when someone was sick, they reached out asking if there was any medicine that they could recommend that you know they could take. And people were there offering suggestions, but also too, they were actually giving them the medicines that they they recommended. Um, they were giving out things that I know that for me, you know, it ended up that my mother got COVID. And I and I lost my mother during that that period of time. She died during the pandemic. And a lot of my friends, my co-workers reached out and they brought me gifts of things that I could use to get through that, you know, grieving period to keep me busy, you know, to to kind of give me that boost that things are going to be okay. And that way, I think it brought out those kinds of traditional types of things, again, really taking care of each other's as a community.
Speaker:That's great. Thank you. And I'm sorry to hear about your mom's passing.
Speaker 1:It was difficult.
Speaker:What sustained you during the pandemic in your role as a community member and a manager of the aging and adult program?
Speaker 1:I think a lot of you know, prayer, you know, and sometimes we we forget to do that too. And and I think really just humbling yourself, because we we say that Hopies are are humble people, but really humbling ourselves that, you know, there's nobody better than you. You're not any better than anybody, that we're all the same, even through the losses that we had in our village, although we didn't have the types of burials that we had. It was just at least reaching out in one way, in one somehow, phone call, letting them know that they are in your thoughts, prayers. But it really took a lot of prayer to get through this and just being humble about our lives and ourselves during that time. That it again, we were all hit in what in some way or another. But that really was what helped me get through this hard time.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that. It's really powerful to hear how prayer and the small, that meaningful acts of support, like a phone call and just letting others know that you're thinking of them. Could you share a little bit more about what those moments of connection meant for you personally and how they may have influenced the way you carried out your work in the aging program?
Speaker 1:I think, you know, with that, I was not able to see a lot of our elders. And it was really heartbreaking that through just the word of mouth or even phone calls, when one of our persons who came, our elders who came to the nutrition center passed, I would hear about it. It was really heartbreaking knowing that, and we do go back, and when we open up that we were not see a lot of our elders because I think they were hit the hardest during the pandemic. And I could really reflect back on that period of time when I lost my mom, how hard it was. And so giving that support at not so much during the pandemic, but I think once we started showing up and uh back to work and then you know, going out in the community for little events and things like that. I was able then to share uh my condolences with the families and uh share what I experienced during that time losing my my mother. Just giving each other's that strength, I guess also to say continue to be strong for your families, be strong for your community.
Speaker:So it was a really hard time. Just want to honor the strength that you have and had, you know, it took a lot of strength to carry out, you know, continuing on with your work and just being there for your community and your family during the pandemic.
Speaker 1:A lot of it too was you know posting things on Facebook that encouragement is one thing that helped help people encourage each other's on Facebook and looking at it and you're saying that we're all experiencing some sort of hardship during that time.
Speaker:Great. Thank you. What were your sources of strength or hope during that time? And can you share a moment or memory from that time that stands out to you?
Speaker 1:One of the things that, you know, again, like I said, Facebook. There was also uh behavioral health services also did a um support group online where you could log in and be part of the face for that support group. There were also um our local station, uh radio station, K-U-Y. I also had things going. You could log in on the internet and had discussions about what people were experiencing, sharing, you know, your experience. I think this was probably one of the I'm usually a strong woman and I'm able to withstand a lot of these the different pains that I've had, you know. But I think just because my mom was such a strong person and and my hope was always for her, you know, to that she would go to sleep in the end. And when that didn't happen, I think that really the hard part. And I really experienced a lot of emotional pain, anxiety, and I was still able to connect with behavioral health services to get, you know, and talk to a therapist that really helped to talk to a therapist online to talk through what I was experiencing, you know, the anxiety, the fear, and things like that. Also, some of the local people, one of the very, I think one of the things that I my memory on that is that there were it was a family who organized a virtual walk in remembrance of those that were lost during the pandemic. And it was uh titled Forget Me Not. And it was where you pay into it, but you ordered your t-shirt. And there was one day set aside where you would do a actually do a virtual walk on your own in remembrance of those that you lost. And my daughter and I signed up for that, and we did our virtual walk for my mother, and it was those kinds of things that creative minds that were working, doing different things, events that you know, virtually or however, not gathering, but doing things that got people out to do things to relieve them of all of this stress and this anxiety. But that was one of the memories I have. I still have my t-shirt, forgive me not, and I have a sticker that I need to put on my car because you know I'll I'll never forget my mom.
Speaker:It is beautiful the walk and Facebook and having different ways of staying connected to people even when you can't physically be with each other. How did your experience during the pandemic impact you professionally and within your community?
Speaker 1:I think that experience here in my community is that for me, it was having to remember and to think that to humble myself. In my community, I I tried to be in mind that we've got to be more kinder to each other's. Like I said, our village was just barely getting organized. And there were those hopes and dreams of what we were gonna be working towards. But it's unfortunate, but it was really beneficial to us because of ARPA funds, the CARES funds that came along, that our village was able to do a lot of things. I come from a community that doesn't have running water, and that was one of our main goals when we were created as a board, is to start working on our water. And so that's what we did. But with this coming along, IHS was there letting us know that these are there's funds to do what your community wants. And so that was one of the things we finally got our water well drilled for us so that we were able to have a place closer to our village to get our water. We don't have to travel five miles to get our water, but it's just across the road from our village. So it really was also, you know, professionally really working with a lot of the uh officials and really advocating for those things that we needed. And so out of this whole experience, we were able to get our water well. We were able to get solar systems in our homes and some of the homes in the main village where we don't have electricity. And this solar system was a system that could support a refrigerator and several uh outlets in the house because there's no refrigeration in the village because of the no power in there. We were able to get ported on the truck that disposes of the waste. We were able to get that truck. We were able to get a big building where, you know, our storage building for a lot of our supplies that we were getting and improvement to our road, those big water hauling units, trucks, so that we could bring the water closer to the village, fill them up, and that people could go and get their water, you know, in their water bucket. Just really a number of things. And currently now we are uh still working on the last of our ARPA projects, you know, bathrooms. We'll be getting a wash terrier, and hopefully now we will be uh running the water and sewer line in the northern part of our village for those individuals that live on the outskirts of the village for that system. So it really was having to work with a lot of these reach and reaching out and advocating and going down and to the tribal council or either, you know, to the ARPA committee trying to justify all of those projects. And since then, we've had a lot of high officials visit our village. We've had news reporters come and written stories about our experience. So again, professionally, that really helped having us to advocate for our people.
Speaker:Great, thank you. What do you hope others, especially younger generations, take away from your experience?
Speaker 1:I'm hoping that the younger generation could really heed the stories of our elders. Prophecies are there as guidance to us that we should not head in, you know, certain directions, because prophecies are meant to be warning signs for us, that they would at least hopefully listen to their elders who are aware of this, who have these stories, but also to be uh more cognizant of the cultural teachings and the traditions, that they are very powerful, that they are very powerful. And so that, you know, this type of thing doesn't ever happen again. Because, you know, as we stray from those teachings, it's warning us that we need to keep on that path of our teachings, of our elders, of our spiritual guidance, who is for us hopies is the masa. You know, that's all late for us out there, but a lot of the younger generation don't really heed those warnings, and that, you know, they need to really look back and really have that respect for their culture and their teachings, and really have that respect for ceremony, the ceremonies that we do, because it's to get us in tune with our spiritual nature, you know, and that we coexist here, you know, with our land, the animals, the spiritual beings, and things like that. That they don't that just take it for granted that, you know, it's just something that we do, but there's a bigger and and and a powerful meaning behind it. And that they learn their language because language is very important for that understanding of really the deeper meaning of our stories, because it loses its flavor when you interpret it in in English. But when you hear it in Hopi, it hits right here at your heart, and it has a more deeper meaning than having to interpret in English. So I'm hoping that they can embrace their culture again, the teachings, embrace their language, and that you know that they they heed the guidance of their elders and our our spiritual guide.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that. Yes, it's powerful to hear how you hope younger generations will reconnect with traditions and teachings. And could you share more about how do you think we can help the younger generations not take these things for granted?
Speaker 1:It really is up to you as parents, as families. It starts from the home. You know that everything starts, should start from the home. I know that there are initiatives, you know, in our communities to do it in the schools, doing it out in the community, but I think that it really would be more meaningful if, you know, it could start from the home, that parents take that time to tell the stories, to tell and teach them and to show them around here in, you know, locally what is all available here for us as a means of uh healing, as a means of in the spiritual nature. And I reflect back on one of my cousins. He one time said uh to us as a group, he said, because during the school year, people were saying, Oh, we're gonna be taking a trip to Disneyland, we're gonna be going here, you know, places like that. And he said, you know, rather than taking them to Disneyland, why don't you use that time to take them on a trip here to go see some of these cultural sites and teach them all these cultural sites are about? Because go in your backyard and teach them what is available to us here. Don't spend your money taking them to Disneyland. They can go on their own whenever you know they they become an adult. And I have to agree with what he says because a lot of our younger generation don't know where some of our cultural ceremonial sites are and how we use them. And so you can't go to these sites when sometimes when you're initiated, but there are other sites that they can go to. And so I really wish that these things, teachings can begin at home because it's going to be more meaningful. But so that they start learning at a very young age and even learning about their uh cultural identity, who they are, their clanship, what they stand for, things like that. That's really my hope.
Speaker:Beautiful. Thank you. The final question is what message would you share with someone preparing to serve their community in times of crisis?
Speaker 1:I think that you're not not ever gonna be prepared. You know, we practice it. We should be practicing it anyway, every day. You just have to gather that strength, you know, in in times of crisis. You can't just stay back and watch. You need to go out and see what I can do. You're you have to offer yourself. Sometimes it's scary, but who's going to do it? It's you, especially when you're in a leadership role. People look onto you as that person to step forward. And that's part of our teaching. And so it really shouldn't be too much of a no-brainer, you know, not to do it when there is a crisis happening. But again, you know, knowing that we know who we are in our communities. We know who are like our elderly, and those are those ones that should be prioritized, check on them, do what you need to do for them, not be afraid, you know, to advocate, uh, to speak up and to speak with, you know, different organizations for what you need, but also to collaborate and also, you know, if you don't know what you need to do, you know, there are these organizations of expertise that are around us that we can go to. So don't wait for someone else to do it. And that's really what sometimes we do. I wish that someone would, you know, do this. You know, why not you? Be that leader, because I think we all are leaders in our communities and that we should step forward in any any time of crisis, but come together as a group and decide, okay, what do we need to do next? I think too, in in some ways we need to be a little bit more prepared, you know. Again, playing that devil's advocate. What if this happens, what do we do? Because sometimes there's only one way in, one way out. Um, we live on mesas, and sometimes it's hard to get into, you know, our villages. And so it's it's all of these things that we need to take into consideration and begin a little bit of more preparation on how we need to deal with crisis when it happens. Hopefully it doesn't happen, but you know, eventually they they will, something will happen. Not just with no like the pandemic, but we also have our weather is so unpredictable. You know, our high winds, we've had floodings and those types of things in our communities are those things that we need to step forward.
Speaker:Beatrice, thank you so much for your work and service to your community during the pandemic and beyond. Your dedication and care have made a real impact, and it's truly appreciated. We're also deeply grateful to you for taking the time to speak with us and share your story and your hopes for the future generations. Your words carry strength and guidance and inspiration, and your story contributes to a broader understanding of how Native communities responded with resilience and care and cultural strength during a time of great uncertainty. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm happy to accommodate you because it's one way of healing as well to talk about it because you know you never can get over what we've been through. It was quite an experience. So for me, this is one way that I heal as well.
Speaker:Absolutely. Stories are so powerful. Thanks again for sharing yours. This is Voices of Native Nations in the Southwest during the COVID 19 pandemic, and we're honored to share these conversations with you. You can listen to more episodes on bus. Sprout. Thank you for joining us for Voices of Native Nations in the Southwest during the COVID-19 pandemic podcast series. This podcast was developed by the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research at Northern Arizona University with support from Project Hope, a global health and humanitarian organization transforming the health and well-being of communities around the world. For more information and links to resources related to this series, please check the podcast description. Thanks again for listening, and we hope you'll continue to learn from and share these powerful stories.