Nevada National Guard Helps Shoshone Tribe in Fight Against COVID-19

JULY 29, 2020 | BY ARMY STAFF SGT. RYAN GETSIE

Nevada National Guardsmen with medical task forces 221 and 17 traveled north to assist the Shoshone Health District with COVID-19 community-based COVID-19 test collections in Duckwater, Nev.

According to Shoshone Health District records, their combined efforts July 1 resulted in testing 102 residents: 57% percent of the population and more than 80% of the active older adult population.

The Shoshone are a Native American tribe in eastern Nevada, where their people share a long and rich history. They are also known to be a part of the Great Basin American Indians, and at one point in history, the Shoshone tribes could be found stretching from central Wyoming to Texas, into California and up into parts of Canada. Although not known for their jewelry, Shoshone artists are famous for their beautiful beadwork, paintings, hides and woven baskets.

Army Staff Sgt. Keith Linford, with the Task Force Medical 17, discussed his take on the number of people tested within the timeframe. ”We tested over a hundred people in just four hours,” he said. ”I think that’s the largest number compared to all the other rural communities so far.”

Brenda O’Neil, the health manager for the Duckwater Shoshone Tribal Health Clinic, discussed some of the challenges her people faced the past few months as the pandemic spread throughout the country.

”Any time we leave the reservation, the closest store for supplies is 77 miles away,” she said. ”Some of those stores were out of basic necessities like bread, flour, sugar and toilet paper. We had to sometimes travel further to cities like Las Vegas or Reno. That would expose us more to the virus.”

Having to travel hundreds of miles for testing was also a major hurdle for tribe members. The closest hospital with any type of specialty care is in Ely, Nevada. There’s a cost associated with transportation, rooms, meals and any other incidentals, O’Neil said, adding that personnel and scheduling, along with the logistical requirements, need to be taken into account when planning medical trips off of tribal land.

”The majority here are elders, and they make up about 60% of our population,” O’Neil said. ”We didn’t want them leaving the reservation and possibly exposing them to coronavirus.’

Many interesting stories about the background of the Shoshone Indians are found on the NPS Site.

Historic Tribes of the Great Basin

The tribal peoples now living in the Great Basin are descendents of the people who have been in the region for several hundred to several thousand years. When early explorers first entered the Great Basin, they encountered many different groups. And although there were several distinct tribes speaking various (but closely related) languages, the basic lifestyle was similar across the region.The native people of the Great Basin knew the land intimately and understood the natural cycles. Small family groups hunted and gathered, patterning their lives to take advantage of the diverse and abundant resources. The land provided all their nutritional needs as well as materials for clothing and shelter. They hunted small and large animals, such as jackrabbits, antelope, and waterfowl; gathered pine nuts and berries; and dug roots and tubers. Enough food was harvested every summer and fall to carry them through the winters. Where the geography and climate allowed it, some also fished and farmed small plots. These were resilient, flexible, and adaptable people.Explorers and settlers who encountered these tribes focused on their lack of material goods and labeled them as destitute, primitive, and savage. But the native people had lived off the land successfully for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Material goods would hinder their nomadic lifestyle, and remaining in one location would not allow them to take advantage of the seasonal cycles. Their lifestyle allowed them to survive in a harsh desert environment that pioneers thought of as inhospitable. The native people were craftsmen, weaving beauty into their baskets and painting their pottery. They made jewelry and told stories. They had families and religion. These were not the traits of destitute people barely scraping by, but of successful people with a rich culture.Several distinct tribes have historically occupied the Great Basin; the modern descendents of these people are still here today. They are the Western Shoshone (a sub-group of the Shoshone), the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute (often divided into Northern, Southern, and Owens Valley), and the Washoe. With the exception of the Washoe, all the Great Basin tribes are Numic speaking, which means that their languages all belong to the Numic language group. They are not the same language, but are closely related. The Washoe language belongs to the Hokan family, which also includes the languages of several Californian and Southwestern tribes. Anthropologists use language to judge the relation of one people to another. Generally, the more closely related two languages are, the more closely related the people who speak them.