Trahant Reports

SUMMARY: How are the COVID-19 numbers counted in Indian Country?

As once source put it: ‘‘Physicians lie awake at night worrying about numerators. Epidemiologists lie awake at night worrying about the denominators’ indiancountrytoday.com

There remains uncertainty about whether tribal enterprises -- namely casinos that employ less than 500 people -- will even qualify for the program. And not just tribally-owned casinos … all casinos.

The coronavirus pandemic is like nothing we have experienced before. The virus is new -- and something we humans have no protection against -- and governments including tribal governments are still trying to figure out how to respond.

The biggest concern about the COVID-19 might be human behavior. Can we all adjust, quickly, so that we don’t spread it on? Can we stay home? Away from people? And this is the big one: Can we wait in line?

The virus now known as COVID-19 wasted no time finding its way to Indian Country. And tribes, casinos, and other institutions are all coming with plans for the “what’s next?” Every tribe is coming up with its own answer. And that is sovereignty in action.

Tribal leaders, like all politicians, bristle when the press is not perfect. Sometimes quotes are not quite right -- and perhaps even out of context. But most of the work, the day to day reporting, is a mechanism to let people know what’s going on. And that remains essential.

The race to be the next president of the United States heats up this week. And Indian Country will get a voice in the days ahead. Some of the caucuses in Nevada will be in tribal communities.

The federal budget for next year is out today. May it rest in peace. In the State of Indian Nations, National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp called the federal budget “incompetent.”

Nothing in the document released today will change that perception.

There is so much going on this week. The first votes will be cast for the next president of the United States in Iowa. The current president will give his annual State of the Union speech. And the matter of an impeachment trial in the United States Senate comes to an end with a likely acquittal.

So now what?

Will impeachment force President Trump from office? It takes two-thirds of that body voting to remove a president from office -- and that’s unlikely to happen in a body controlled by Republicans. But the trial is not the end of the process -- If the Clinton impeachment is a guide, then, there will be a lot of litigation ahead.