Mississippi Indian Tribe Devastated by the Pandemic Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

Mississippi s Only Federally Recognized Indian Tribe Bears Brunt of State s COVID-19 Cases

Nationally Native Americans are hospitalized at 5 times the rate of whites

Sisters Kristi Wishork, left, consoles her daughter Renaya Farmer, 5, as she and her sisters Kristina Taylor, center and Kaydee Taylor, right discuss their late mother Miss. Sharon Taylor, 53, who died of coronavirus in June. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis in Mississippi, the state's only federally recognized American Indian tribe has been devastated. COVID-19 has ripped through Choctaw families, many of whom live together in multigenerational homes. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Almost 10 percent of the tribe's roughly 11,000 members have tested positive for the virus. More than 75 have died. While Native Americans are less than 1 percent of Mississippi's population, they have suffered 4.5 percent of the coronavirus deaths statewide, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of cases as of July 20. The once-flourishing Choctaw economy is stagnant, as the tribal government put in place tighter restrictions than those the state imposed. July brought a glimmer of hope, with some coronavirus infection numbers dropping among Choctaws, but health officials worry that with cases rising elsewhere in the state, the reprieve is temporary. On July 31, Mississippi recorded its highest single-day coronavirus-related fatality count: 52; Tuesday saw 51 deaths. Kristina Taylor of Tucker, Mississippi, holds a portrait July 22, 2020, of her late mother, Sharon Taylor, and the mortar board she would have worn during graduation at Choctaw Central High School. Rogelio V. Solis/AP

Health care worker gets COVID-19

As a community health technician, Taylor, 53, took the virus seriously from the start. She answered calls from tribe members with symptoms and delivered medicine. In June she herself fell ill. Kristina Taylor, 18, one of Sharon Taylor's five children, learned just before her mother was admitted to the hospital that she had been named valedictorian of the tribal high school. Her mom had predicted the accomplishment for years. In some of their last moments together, Kristina showed her mom the speech she had prepared for graduation and the Choctaw beadwork her sister used to decorate her cap. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > But the Rev. Bob Goodyear says the cemetery doesn't have much more room to expand, in part because of another pandemic. The Spanish flu of 1918 took lives so quickly that residents didn't have time to put up markers, and 400 victims are buried in an open field on cemetery grounds. "I pray it doesn't come to that this time,” said Goodyear, whose Catholic church has always buried Choctaws, regardless of faith. The tribe recently voted to establish a community cemetery nearby, which will ease the burden. Goodyear isn't a Choctaw but has ministered in the reservation community for decades.

High poverty ailments intertwined

As in other Native American communities, coronavirus deaths among the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians have been such as diabetes, and high blood pressure that are present in more than 4 of 5 deadly Mississippi cases, said Thomas Dobbs, M.D., Mississippi's state health officer. That's something that holds true across the country, where American Indians and Alaska Natives are hospitalized for COVID-19 complications at more than five times the rate of non-Hispanic whites, according to data through July 25 from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The reservation hospital where Taylor worked can't handle patients with severe coronavirus cases; they're sent to facilities elsewhere in the state. Taylor died June 22 in Jackson, about 80 miles from home. In Neshoba County, named for the Choctaw word for wolf, more than a quarter of residents live below the poverty line. It's a rural area, characterized by dusty red clay and rolling pine-filled hills. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. More on health AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS