Luminaries in Lower Yakima Valley recognize COVID-19’s impact on tribal communities

A brisk winter breeze ruffled luminaries as people placed them a few feet apart on both sides of Fort Road, starting at Karlee’s Koffee and continuing past the main offices of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.

Nettie Dionne and others with the popular coffee shop Dionne owns began setting 336 of the bags Friday morning, joined later by members of the Yakama Nation COVID-19 response team. Each bag had sand to anchor it and a flameless candle to illuminate it. Later they headed to Jacelyn’s Java in Wapato, joining Wheeler Enterprises in placing 336 additional bags from the espresso stand around the adjoining Wheeler’s Kountry Korner property and Wheeler’s Pawn nearby. Lorraine’s Espresso also participated, and Loren Corpuz of the Yakama Nation Warriors played “Amazing Grace” at Karlee’s Koffee to pay tribute.

Every luminary represented a life lost in Yakima County to COVID-19. Some had short memorial messages and names familiar to Dionne and her staff as customers and friends. Many were tribal citizens.

Dionne and her staff wrote the names and messages on the bags Wednesday. “It was very emotional,” said Dionne, adding that a staff member’s grandparent died of COVID-19.

“We’ve lost customers that we’re used to seeing every day. They become like family to us. And then you can’t go to a funeral to pay your respects,” Dionne said. She hopes the luminaries bring “a little bit of strength and healing” to those impacted by the disease.

“Our ultimate hope is that it brings hope to families,” she said. “It’s a way for us to bring our community together.”

With more than 4,100 COVID-19 deaths in Washington, including 336 in Yakima County at the time the luminaries were placed, numerous family members and friends are mourning loved ones. And the pandemic is disproportionately impacting people of color, especially the American Indian and Alaska Native population.

As of Tuesday, the Yakama Nation reported 1,360 total cases of COVID-19, one tribal citizen hospitalized and 44 deaths of Yakamas due to the coronavirus.

“We lost another tribal member recently,” Dionne said Wednesday.

In mid-December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing a higher COVID-19 mortality rate for Native people in 14 states, including Washington, through June 2020. The age-adjusted COVID-19–associated mortality among Native people was 1.8 times that of non-Hispanic white people and was higher among men than among women, the report said.

The disparity in mortality was highest among people 20 to 49 years old, according to the report. Among those in their 20s, 30s and 40s, the COVID-19 mortality rates among Native people were 10.5, 11.6 and 8.2 times higher than those of white women and men, respectively.

“The excess risk, especially for American Indian/Alaska Native males and persons aged 20–49 years, should be considered when planning and implementing medical countermeasures and other prevention activities,” the CDC advised in its report.

People with underlying health conditions are at greater risk of becoming ill and dying because of COVID-19, health experts have stressed. Inequities in public funding, infrastructure and access to health care, education, stable housing, healthy foods and insurance coverage have contributed to health disparities — including higher levels of smoking, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease — that put Indigenous people at even higher risk for severe COVID-19–associated illness, the CDC said.

Vaccination efforts are in full swing on the Yakama Nation, with the Indian Health Service clinic in Toppenish providing doses to tribal members who qualify.

Impact on Indian Country

In Yakima County, according to data provided by the Yakima Health District and the state as of Jan. 15, American Indian or Alaska Native people comprise 2.7% of COVID-19 cases and 6.5% of the county population. Hispanic or Latino people are 45.6% of the cases and 49% of the population. In comparison, white residents are 15.7% of the cases and 42.7% of the county’s population. Racial and ethnic information is missing for 33% of the cases.

Yakama Nation and other tribal citizens on the 1.3-million-acre Yakama Reservation and other deeply connected reservations in the region — including Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce — have experienced the devastation of COVID-19 throughout extended families and close-knit communities. Leaders and respected elders have died, siblings and aunties, parents and friends. Young adults and grandparents, many of whom live in extended households, have left children and grandchildren without caretakers and teachers of tradition.

In a recent video posted on the Yakama Nation Info Facebook page, Leland Bill talks about surviving COVID-19. His wife, Samantha Redheart, and son Jeffery Rice Bill are with him. Bill, who recently turned 44, tested positive April 27 and is still recovering after weeks in the hospital. Doctors told him it would take nine months to fully rehabilitate.

“I lost a lot of people that I loved. I almost lost myself,” he says.

“I was scared our entire family were going to be on a ventilator,” his wife remarks.

The luminaries placed Friday along roads within the boundaries of the Yakama Reservation represent all Yakima County lives lost to COVID-19. But organizing the luminary remembrance meant even more for Dionne, Trina Wheeler of Wheeler Enterprises and her daughter, Terryanna Wheeler.

“It was important to us because we’re from the Yakama Nation, but we were talking about how much this is impacting Indian County,” Dionne said. “We have a higher risk of dying from it.”

Yakama and COVID-19 survivors

Dionne ordered 650 bags, with plans to place them Thursday. Snow delayed that a day. She didn’t want their messages marred by snow, slush or mud. Friday’s breeze meant they needed more sand to anchor them, but sidewalks and blacktop were clear. Dionne planned to remove them Saturday.

In comments on Dionne’s original Facebook post about the luminaries, people asked for those messages. Miss you so much mama, one said. Miss you brother. Rest in paradise. Love you and miss you every day. Those placing the luminaries put a fresh red rose next to those with personalized messages.

Among those who died were a good friend’s parents, Simon and Diane Sampson. Simon died June 14, Diane two weeks later from COVID-19 complications. Married for 50 years, they were community activists who worked to improve public safety, education and good will. Simon was a strong voice for tribal fishermen and their Indigenous fishing rights.

Dionne and her husband, Richard, help others impacted by COVID-19. Richard played for the Yakima Sun Kings in 2004 and 2005 when they won back-to-back championships.

They both had COVID-19 in May and shared their experiences in Facebook posts. “It gave me really bad anxiety after I posted it,” but it started a dialogue, she added. “I hoped that it helped other people.”

She closed Karlee’s for almost two months out of an abundance of caution. “I feel like I did everything right and I still got it,” Dionne said.

“It’s a very sneaky virus and I just wanted people to know that, to be extra careful. It will find a way if you put your guard down,” she said.

Traditions on hold

To limit the spread of COVID-19, tribal leaders have put strict limits on gatherings, including funerals. The Yakama Nation is sovereign, and able to set its own rules and guidelines. The Nation’s Tribal Executive Committee has taken precautions similar to those ordered by Gov. Jay Inslee.

Tribal leaders also ask families to leave out specific information about traditional ceremonies when they run obituaries, which are appearing after dressing and burial have already taken place. Overnight services aren’t happening because of COVID-19 requirements.

One staff member had to stay goodbye to a grandparent on Zoom, Dionne said.

“For us, for our people, our funerals are very important to us and we have ceremonies that we have not been able to have for our loved ones,” she said. “It’s hard to leave a loved one and you don’t get to honor them.”

HollyAnna CougarTracks Decoteau Littlebull and her husband, Jeff, both became ill despite taking precautions to avoid COVID-19. She is doing much better after she couldn’t keep much food down for weeks. She was also mourning the loss of a cousin in early December. Her cousin was like an older sister, and Littlebull admired her greatly.

She misses her.

“That was tough … so tough,” said Littlebull, who said she stopped counting how many loved ones she’s lost to COVID-19 “because it was depressing.

“I’ve lost family; my husband has lost family. We’ve lost tribal leaders who are considered family,” she said. “And not to be able to go to their funerals, it’s just …. it got to be too much. It was driving me crazy. I was starting to get frustrated, to get mad, to get angry.

“It’s heartbreaking you can’t be there for your friends and family,” she said.

Following Yakama tradition, relatives will wait at least a year to hold her cousin’s memorial, “maybe two years to give her the right tribute.”

Littlebull is concentrating on her own recovery now and has released herself from mourning so she can gather traditional foods. “I’m going to prepare myself, get myself stronger so that when it’s time I can go to gather the foods that we need for the memorials,” she said.

“I personally released myself and had my own little ceremony, made my peace with the Creator and told him I’m doing this now because I’ve given myself time now to grieve for all my family members I’ve lost and maybe those to come.”