Lakewood woman embarks on journey to raise awareness of COVID-19 impacts on Navajo tribe

Like many people, Burlene Padilla was laid off during COVID-19.

A former instructional aide at Muckleshoot Tribal School, Padilla, 38, began reading articles during quarantine about injustices related to COVID-19 happening on the Navajo reservation. Padilla, who currently lives in Lakewood and has lived in Washington state for 13 years, is a member of the Navajo tribe. She began calling family members to ask whether what she was reading was true.

They confirmed the dire situation in Navajo Nation, where about 170,000 people live as of the 2010 Census.

“They’re having trouble getting basic supplies,” Padilla told The News Tribune.

Padilla wanted to draw attention to the lack of resources and supplies available to people living in Navajo Nation, which has the highest infection rate in the country, according to Rolling Stone. Padilla decided to walk to Gallup, New Mexico in her moccasins to draw attention to the situation.

Padilla talked to her daughter Keisha, who just graduated from Muckleshoot Tribal School, about the idea. Keisha encouraged Padilla to make the trip and began planning ways to support her mother.

Keisha Padilla, who has been walking with her mother in Washington, said she hopes the walk promotes unity between tribes. She plans to meet her mother in Gallup with more supplies for the last leg of the journey, which is planned for July 8.

“I wanted to help have other tribes come together as one — the whole Native community,” Keisha Padilla said. “We are all one people, and we should come together to help one tribe that really needs it.”

“She’s like my little campaign manager,” Padilla said about her daughter. “It kind of just snowballed from there.” Padilla’s son DeAngelo has also been supportive. He’s been walking and documenting his mother’s trip so far.

Keisha Padilla started a GoFundMe page and helped create an Instagram account and Facebook events to document the journey. James Rideout, a Puyallup Tribe council member, helped Padilla plan and find a starting spot.

Padilla said people have stopped her as she walks to show their support, offer her water and donate money for supplies. Padilla carries a sign that reads “Navajo Tribe we support + heart you.”

Padilla and her family have collected coffee, tea, hand soap, sanitizer and tissues, among other goods. Padilla said she collected these items based on a list from a church on the reservation, as well as reports from her family on what they need.

She said her goal is to raise awareness about the lack of supplies, health care and preventive education on the Navajo reservation. Additionally, she wants to draw attention to the role of racism in creating these problems.

“The main reason that makes me want to go is the underlying, innate racism that is being targeted toward the Navajo tribe,” Padilla said. “The racism down there towards Navajos is pretty bad. I know, because I experienced it when I was younger.”

Padilla remembers being discriminated against during the 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak, in which infected rodents spread a pulmonary disease that killed 53 people, almost half of whom were Indigenous.

During the year she attended public school in Gallup, New Mexico, she remembers students making derogatory remarks about Navajo tribe members carrying the virus.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, racism is being expressed again. Martin Hicks, the mayor of Grants, New Mexico, told the New York Times on May 4 that he blames Navajo people for the outbreak, saying, “We didn’t take it to them, they brought it to us.”

On April 7, a man was arrested in Page, Arizona for encouraging people to kill Navajo people over the virus. The man wrote on Facebook that people should use “lethal force” against members of the Navajo tribe because he believed they were “100% infected.”

Padilla started off in Tacoma on Sunday. Family members, friends, and acquaintances joined her for the walk. Among the walkers was the runner Rosalie Fish, a friend of Padilla’s daughter and graduate of Muckleshoot Tribal School, who has spoken out against missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Padilla planned to walk in Nisqually on Monday. Her plan is to walk as far as she can in each city before driving to the next location. Her tentative schedule is as follows:

Day 1: Tacoma

Day 2: Nisqually Indian Tribe

Day 3: Olympia

Day 4: Portland, Oregon

Day 5: Boise

Day 6: Salt Lake City

Day 7: Las Vegas

Day 8: Phoenix

Day 9: Flagstaff, Arizona

Day 10: Holbrook, Arizona

Day 11: Granado, Arizona to Window Rock, capital of Navajo Nation

“I would love if other people would join me and walk with me for a little bit, or just say hi,” Padilla said. She plans to conclude the walk on Wednesday, July 8, after 11 days.

Padilla said part of the reason she wants to go home and bring supplies directly to people is that she thinks the organizations that are supposed to be helping are not doing sufficient work.

“It’s really hard for me to trust outside organizations, like the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), because I looked up their website, and it says ‘high-quality customer service to our Native Americans,’” Padilla said. “Well, we are not getting that on the Navajo reservation. Nobody’s really doing anything about it.”

Padilla, who will be a fifth-grade teacher at Puyallup Tribal School this fall, said she wants to do what she can to help her tribe.

“It’s very hard for them to even have stuff sanitized, because there’s not the supplies,” Padilla said. “My goal is to take supplies that are needed for the people so I know it’s going to be put in their hands.”

This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 11:23 AM.