(calm music) - Good evening, everyone.

I've Denver mayor Michael Hancock.

Thank you for joining us for this important conversation about your health and the health of our community.

I'm hosting this series of conversations in response to the COVID pandemic, focusing on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines that are now becoming more widely available for more of us and dispelling the myths and misinformation that may prevent you from making the best decision for yourself and your family.

We're focusing on communities of color because the data shows these communities are being disproportionately impacted by the COVID pandemic in both the number of cases and deaths.

The virus has killed American Indians and indigenous people, excuse me, in the US at especially high rates.

But experts and leaders from tribes across Colorado are doing something about it.

We're privileged tonight to have several of them here with us for our panel.

I wanna welcome Adrianne Maddux.

She is executive director at Denver Indian Center, excuse me, Indian Health and Family Services.

The IHFS has been administering COVID vaccines for the last couple of months.

We all also welcome Rick Waters.

He is co-executive director of the Denver Indian Center.

Good to see you, Rick.

DIC has been partying with the IHFS and holding COVID vaccine events.

Rick is a member of a Qualla and Cherokee tribes of Oklahoma and has worked in Indian country for over 4 years.

Jennifer Wolf, she is founder and CEO of Project Mosaic and has worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations.

She is on the John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health COVID-19 Communication Advisory Board.

We've got some deep people here, and finally someone I've known since my teenage years.

Darius Smith is director of the Anti-Discrimination Office in Denver's Agency for Human Rights and Community Relations and the American Indian Liaison to the city and County of Denver.

I wanna thank all of you for being here and representing several different tribes and perspectives.

Each of our panelists will take a few minutes to share important information on how COVID is impacting native American and indigenous communities and what is being done to help.

Adrianne, we're gonna start with you again.

Thank you for being here with us and we're gonna have a good conversation.

You have seen the impacts of this pandemic up close since the start.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

- Absolutely, thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here today.

I am a member of the Hopi Tribe in Arizona and I have been with the Denver Indian Health for 13 years.

Early on during the pandemic, you know, as it swept across our states, our initial concern was how the virus would impact our community and our clinic.

We tried to stock up on the essential PPE that we needed, but it was unavailable.

So it took a lot of advocating, coordinating to get the PPE that we needed so that we could start testing our community.

And that was a huge effort on its own.

But moving forward when vaccination plans were being drafted we had to decide who we wanted to get our vaccines from.

Indian Health Service or from our state.

We opted to go with Indian Health Service because we do have a contract with them and that is the purpose of our clinic.

So in early December we received our first vial of Pfizer vaccines.

We had to make a trip down to Albuquerque to get it and it only allowed five vaccines.

So it did vaccinate our frontline providers.

And since then we have been getting Moderna.

And as of last week we started getting Johnson & Johnson.

Vaccine hesitancy as a public health challenge in tribal communities, especially given the federal government's history of medical abuses committed against native people, the urban Indian Health Institute surveyed natives and found that 75% are willing to get vaccines, mostly at a sense of responsibility to protect their communities and preserve their cultures.

So that suggests that culturally relevant messaging is key to building vaccine acceptance.

Misconception and vaccine hesitancy has created a slower distribution in our community.

And within our own program we've had feedback that people wanna wait to see how it affects others and many people still believe in the conspiracy theories around the vaccine.

Our current infrastructure does not have the capacity to vaccinate our eligible members.

It is not large enough.

So we have partnered with our friends at Denver Indian Center, providing vaccines in their gym every Friday.

Individuals are eligible for the vaccine if they are an enrolled member of a tribe, non-native members are eligible if they are in a household of an enrolled member or if they are caretaker of a member, or any employee of an Indian education program, department school or business.

As of today, we have administered 1,053 vaccines.

Priority tiers are being followed, but we are moving quickly through those tiers because our population is much smaller.

We are currently vaccinating and getting people in 20 and older with underlying conditions.

To keep up with the demand we brought on temporary staff, it really has been a huge event.

It's like planning an event every week, but we did build a call center with temporary RN staff to alleviate the front desk handling calls related to COVID vaccines and our data entry center.

We did build staff to help with the workload on registration.

I really applaud our staff.

Aside from vaccine distribution we are still running a regular health center.

Our staff they're tired but they are really excited about getting people vaccinated.

Our goal is to vaccinate our communities so that they can be reunited with their families.

- Thank you for that very detailed information.

Let me clarify a couple of things.

75% of your constituents said they plan to get vaccinated mostly out of a sense of responsibility but you also acknowledge the importance of culturally relevant messaging.

Can I ask you to expand on that a little bit more?

And how was it so effective with the American Indian community?

- We find that due to historic trauma many of our families don't wanna hear messaging from the federal government, just for obvious reasons.

So it was really important that this messaging is coming from the community itself, from members, you know, like our clinic, the Indian Center, people all on this call today, because it's important that we're hearing it from community member to community member.

If we're demonstrating that this vaccine is essential then, you know, we're trying to change that stigma of, you know, the conspiracy around vaccines.

Many people feel that, "Oh we're just gonna get COVID if we get the vaccine."

So we're trying to correct the messaging that is out there.

- I appreciate that.

Rick, you have been, thank you for joining us, by the way.

It's good to see you, my friend.

You have been one of the people who I had to turn to for a better understanding of our American Indian community and indigenous community.

What have you heard in terms of the concerns, doubts, optimisms with regards to the American Indian community?

- Thank you, mayor, for inviting the Denver Indian Center to be a part of this discussion.

In regard to the vaccine I've had the opportunity to hear a wide range of opinions coming from Indian people across the country, including Denver, ranging from those that feel the vaccine is a government conspiracy to continue the genocide or termination of Indian people, to those in support and endorsing the distribution of the vaccine to everyone, you know, as soon and quickly as possible.

However, the most common sentiment I've heard expressed is the concern over number of tribal elders that we have lost and those that remain at risk of contracting the virus.

And to that point, with respect to the political, religious, scientific, and cultural influences or differences around the vaccine I'm observing a collective or a concerted effort by tribes and individuals to participate and seek getting the vaccine as quickly as possible.

Much for the reasons everyone wants things to get back to normal so that we can begin to gather again safely at social events such as powwows, ceremonies, funerals, celebrations, which are all important to Indian people because we are a very social oriented group of community.

In response to the doubts and rumors expressed about the vaccine I encourage people to gather as much information as they can from reliable sources when they're discerning or deciding whether or not they should take the vaccine.

For our local native community the Denver Indian Center employs a staffed COVID native response team that is prepared to take calls and respond to individuals that may have questions about COVID or just needed additional support to help cope with stress and anxiety that's been brought on by the pandemic.

In addition, one of the most frequent requests received by the team has been "Where are our nearby testing and vaccination sites?"

along with "What are the eligibility criteria and how do they schedule an appointment?"

So the team keeps a current list of local sites providing tests or the vaccine but generally we refer to the Denver Indian Health and Family Services.

So we're just very excited to continue our partnership with them.

We consider them a sister organization actually.

Since implementing the native COVID team in the late fall of 2020 we have received over 1600 inquiries or encounters with people calling and wanting to get more information not only about testing, but the vaccination itself.

And we have a team that, I think Adrianne alluded to, it's made up of people that are trusted by the community.

They're not necessarily a formal psychologist but there are people that are aware and knowledgeable about cultural aspects and our community responds to them.

And this program is funded by FEMA and will run through the June of this year.

- How long did it take for the various key organizations within the American Indian community to begin to wrap up upon the beginning of this pandemic?

Let's say we've gotta come together and go to work.

And what other hurdles did you all experience in terms of the community acknowledging the seriousness of this pandemic?

- We jumped on it right away, almost to the year.

I think we're recognizing in the celebrating, not celebrating but recognizing when COVID first started.

And I remember making calls to Adrianne and the Denver Indian Family Resource Center and other organizations to see what we could do and find out what are the needs, what are the fears of the community right now?

And we administered some surveys to the community with a focus on our elders, again, just to get the feedback.

And it was interesting to see what the response was with respect to making sure communication lines, what were their concerns and issues.

But almost immediately we began, and not only our organizations, but community representatives from around Denver and Colorado, started coming together and seeing what we could do to provide opportunities for our community to navigate this pandemic, from food, to transportation, to issues around the rent and utility bills, and just kind of the whole gamut of things that everybody was facing but especially our community.

- Thank you for that.

And we all welcome Jennifer Wolf in from Project Mosaic here as well.

Jennifer, first of all I gotta tell you, I was really excited to hear that we had an advisory member to John Hopkins which has been ground zero for, you know, tracking the data from this virus.

And every time you're watching, doesn't matter what station Fox, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, they are using data from John Hopkins to track and to inform America how we have been impacted by this pandemic, by this virus and the pandemic.

Can you talk about the impacts that you've seen?

- Yeah, first of all, I just like to greet you in our traditional way.

(speaks foreign language) Greetings from the ancestral territory of the Cheyenne Arapaho and new tribes and I greet you warmly in my eligible language.

I am the owner of Project Mosaic which is a consulting firm that works with tribes and native organizations across.

- Yeah, I have my master's in public health.

So, a lot of what we do are public health strategies, communication strategies, social media strategies.

And yeah, we are just really trying to use, you had asked about you know how we are responding to this and we are really focusing on reminding folks that Native people have adapted and endured 500 years of pandemics and injustices.

Because, and the way we've survived is by leaning on our greatest strengths.

We wouldn't be here if our families were not fiercely protective of our loved ones, especially our elders.

And we're also incredibly resilient people.

And we continue to value our elders as culture bearers, storytellers, language keepers, and our link to our ancestors.

And you will also hear from many Native Americans.

And when they speak about seven generations, and this is the idea that what we do now will affect the next seven generations so really a lot of what I do is strategic planning but Native Americans are the natural strategic planners because they're thinking, seven generations down the road.

So one of the other assets that our people have that a lot of people from outsider communities are not aware of, is our sense of humor.

Others may see us as a very serious or stoic people, but in reality, our ability to laugh together has gotten us through centuries of hardships.

And Indian humor, as it's called within our own communities is a way that we build trust with one another.

If you can tease you can forgive.

And if you can laugh, you can connect.

So, those are also very important tools in health communication strategies.

But speaking of trust, the flip side of that is something that Adrian mentioned, you know it and it stems from our protective nature that I was talking about, we're very cautious about trusting outsiders and institutions and with good reason.

We aren't just going to wear a mask or get a shot, because the government tells us to, because listening to the government without question hasn't worked well for us in the past in many situations.

So that's why it's extra important for our communities to demonstrate and role model health behaviours from within, and to remind ourselves that our core values include protecting one another, wearing a mask is a sign of respect and strength, and getting a shot is an act of resilience.

And so that's how we behave as modern day warriors today.

I'm just really want to applaud Rick and Adrian, and so many of our sisters, you know, it's amazing that they call each other sister organizations because we really do act like a family in many ways.

You know, we've pulled together so well to launch some incredible public health communication strategies, and the collaborations that happened between our community partners of not only the Colorado commission of Indian affairs but also the Denver American Indian commission.

That meant that allies from over 30 organizations and our two tribes, the Colorado the Southern Ute tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute tribes, work together to create culturally appropriate infographics, P essays.

We have a text hotline for a COVID and community resources.

You know project mosaic help bring some of these ideas to life, but really the heart and the soul of these campaigns, was the community and the community partners, and we leaned heavily on those indigenous cultural values to inform strategies, remembering that we are not victims in this crisis, but we are empowered to protect one another through mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing and now the vaccine.

So the PSA is in the materials definitely featured well known leaders and elders demonstrating these acts of love, including Adrian and Rick.

But another Rick also mentioned the survey.

One of the surprising results from that, that I will also bring up is, you know, we asked, they asked the elders, you know, what sort of hardships are you facing?

Housing insecurity, food insecurity.

And one thing that really got to my heart was that a lot of our elders said that they're lonely, they're facing isolation.

So, you know, being that we, we value and we honor our elders to such a high degree that was just a important reminder to all of us that we need to be checking in on one another.

Because our elders are feeling lonely - Because my question follow up question to you was going to be we've just experienced an amazing year, where many of our elders, many of us, all of us have been isolated and cut off of our normal way of going about our lives.

And, you know, wondering what the coping mechanisms were for the American Indian community to help each other get through the very difficult times over the last year.

- Well, I would just like to see more of what some of the good work that's happening on Southern Ute tribes and Ute Mountain Ute tribes.

They're doing a lot of cultural sharing activities, virtually, you know, where young people can get online and learn how to make fry bread or knit learn how to make a ribbon skirt or learn how to do some of these traditional things, and it's really making the elders feel valued and it's providing new opportunities for youth to learn some of these cultural assets.

- Let me turn to Derrius, who is a native of this great city and someone again I've known since teenage years.

And how long have you been with the city, Derrius?

- 17 month, 17 years this month.

- So we started at the same time, we started two months before I did, when I came on city council but Derrius, every panel we've done on this COVID series, we've had a survivor, and so I was surprised to learn that you were our survivor today, having contracted the virus and actually been was hospitalized with the, with the virus and I also understand, your beloved mother contracted the virus.

Talk about your experience a little bit.

You know people don't realize that most people came out of this came out of that experience.

- Well, it was a shock.

November 19th Roughly I got, I got sick.

I was playing golf out at a revalue ranch golf course and I kept, I just wasn't feeling well.

And within a few days, I ended up at a clinic at Kaiser and I had a coughing spill and basically what they told me, I'd been coughing for three hours straight.

My stomach muscles were just tightening, cramping.

Cause I was there, they took a quick test.

They did a rapid test, show that I had it.

Called the ambulance, and I was over to St. Joe's for eight days.

And I ended up losing about 20 pounds and, but great care.

The Doctors Hospital staff was wonderful, a wonderful facility and then I get out and two days later, My mother took a turn for the worse, and, and if I get emotional about it because I was more scared for her than myself, and she ended up being there for 11 days.

And she took a while to recuperate but I saw her yesterday and she's walking a lot more she's using her Fitbit she's getting steps trying to get 10,000 steps every day and we kinda have a little competition within all the family members.

She's doing great.

- Appreciate that Derrius.

I know we're all glad to see that you're, You're healthy on the man and doing well.

Any, any side effects from your.

- No, you know that the interesting thing was, I was very emotional.

I would say a couple of weeks afterwards and I got some, I got a coffee from a brand new Dutch Brothers, and they wrote, we, you know, we were taught it was a long line to get my coffee, and so the woman knew that I was having coffee for the first time in three weeks.

And so when I got up here to get my coffee, they wrote, we glad we're glad you're well and we love you and when I saw that I just started crying.

And and I think that that's what happens with a lot of individuals who, who deal with this is it's a very emotional thing.

- Yeah - And, and we have organisations like the Indian Centre and Desus to help with moving people from that isolation to have the ability to talk with people who are positive and people who are encouraging and saying, you're not alone.

And I think that's important and so thank you for having this panel today.

- No, absolutely.

And again, we're glad to you and mom are doing well.

You both keep it on I think that the survival stories have been very important share that one we are we are we all have been victims of this virus, no matter what community you come from what socio economic group you're from until you can survive it.

But more importantly, before we go right, there's always a series of questions I like to ask the panel, just briefly, we Are we all in agreement that we should be encouraging our community members to get this vaccine?

And Adrian, can you talk about how it felt when you completed during Have you completed your series?

- I have.

I completed my series in December.

I lost my mom in October, - Sorry to hear that.

- It was really important to me to be with my dad.

And so it was getting the vaccine was an urgency and not only that but I needed to do it for the clinic.

And so, I did I had all my series and my whole family has that are very close, connected with my father.

- Fantastic.

Rick, how does it feel when you complete your series?

- Obviously the relief was there, but literally.

I had just a little bit of a sore arm, but I know different people react differently.

I had good friends of mine, that really suffered the following day, but it went away very quickly and, again, it's a sense of I guess assurance that we're less likely to catch, catch it and have the most devastating effects.

- Jennifer, have you had your series of shots done?

- Yeah, I have.

I have.

- And what was the first thing you did when you got your shot done?

- Oh gosh, you know, it was such a relief.

That was a weight off my shoulders.

And but really didn't compare to the weight that came off my shoulders when my parents got vaccinated because every act that we've done that social distancing is everything has been to protect them.

- Good good good okay so this is the last segment that we do this thing called bust the myth.

And and basically we try to dispel whatever myth we may have heard out there from our particular community.

One of the myths that I've heard is that you have to pay for the costs, and I'm gonna bust the myth.

This is a free vaccine.

The United States government paid for us as American citizens and residents of the United States to be vaccinated.

Let's go to Rick.

Rick, can you bust the myth?

- Yeah, first one and it hit early on was I was getting a lot of calls from people in the community saying, we're not worried about it because Indians don't catch COVID.

So that definitely was a myth.

my home state.

Very, very rapid spread of the disease but - I hear a lot of different ones and we did have a patient that said, his mom told him it would make him sterile and that is not true.

- Oh man with the vaccine would make him sterile or the virus would make him sterile?

- The vaccine.

- Wow, wow, thank you for busting that myth.

- Yes, well you know I have to collect these type of myths because we're creating response guide for Johns Hopkins Centre for American Indian Health.

We have a whole spreadsheet of, you know, we collect these and we come up with a response and come up with more scientific and some of them we try to have like humorous responses sometimes too.

I heard some say it's a government scandal that there's a chip placed inside the vaccine.

- Oh.

- You know, honestly, if the government wanted to track you, they've got a much better way to do it.

- (Laughter) (Single clap) - And most of our hands Right here They wouldn't need to put that in our bodies where we are giving them a much more efficient way to find out everything we're saying and doing it everywhere, we're going.

- Well, I will say that in all the series we've been doing that these are the best myths that I've heard, and I appreciate you all played along and busting the myth for us and, and also for taking the time to have this conversation with this very important topic for our American Indian and indigenous communities.

This is a an important time for all of those critical as we are about to see more vaccines coming to our state.

We need to make sure our people get vaccinated Hey, I want to, again, thank the incredible panel of experts who joined me for this important conversation, and our partners at Rocky Mountain Public Media for helping us reach as many of you as we can.

And thank you for continuing to wear your mask, socially distance and avoid gathering with people outside your households.

Together, we will move from rescue to recovery.