Tribal Leader Roundtable

COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of the Community – everything from economic activity, community activity, to managing the public health crisis. Overall, there have been 23 deaths and nearly 588 individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19.

We are a small community with a membership of a little over 1,300. We’ve had a number of members who have tested positive for the virus. Per capita-wise, we did encounter a high rate of the virus.

When the current coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and the federal, state, and local governments began to shut down, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe passed a Resolution enacting a public health emergency, creating the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Incident Management Team (IMT).

The pandemic has impacted us immensely. Initially, not knowing the severity of COVID-19 and what came with it, sent the whole world into a different mind thought.

We’ve incurred financial losses in the millions of dollars; we’ve had to furlough and lay off hundreds of tribal government and business employees; we’ve had team members and customers who have lost loved ones; and we’ve been forced to conduct operations in a whole new way throughout our organization, etc.

The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria is proud to say that our team members on the tribal government side as well as our casino resort have done a fantastic job assisting in the combat of this crisis.

Through courses with the Emergency Management Institute and other opportunities through FEMA, we’ve been able to lay down the groundwork to assist our members during the COVID-19 situation.

Tribes are making difficult and dramatic choices to protect our communities, tribal citizens and employees’ health and safety from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Our tribe is a close-knit community and we have all known someone or we ourselves have been affected by COVID-19. It takes a mental toll on our tribal members as we face this health crisis, but I feel we have come together to care for each other and keep our spirits strong during this time.

The impact from the pandemic has been felt far and wide, and our nation will be in recovery for months if not years to come. In March, we closed our tribal government and Foxwoods Resort Casino for the first time ever since opening over 28 years ago.