Katherine Goodlow, who is from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, spoke out about how she had seen people in her town die too soon. She said that six people she knew had died by suicide, car accidents, or appendicitis. Besides that, she said that four family members had died of things like COVID-19 and liver failure.
According to Goodlow, this is very bad because “most Native American kids and young people lose their friends at a young age.” She said, “So, I’d say we’re basically used to it, but it hurts worse every time we lose someone.”
People of color do die faster than white people. In fact, the difference in life expectancy between the two groups is said to be almost fourteen years.
An Oglala Sioux Tribe member and doctor named Donald Warne is co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. He said that a mix of social and economic problems are the main causes of Native Americans dying young.
“It’s almost blasphemy for a doctor to say…the answer to addressing these things is not hiring more doctors and nurses,” Warne said in support of “community-based preventions.”
Along with more parenting classes, house visits, and case management, he said that making medical care easier to get is what he thinks should be done. Warne also talked about the programs they already have in place to help indigenous mothers and children, as well as ways they can continue to make it easier for people who need it to get solid, hands-on medical care.
To stop people from dying too soon, a lot of government officials and health experts have worked together to find a better way to make sure that Native American women and moms can get health care.
Goodlow is a well-known example of how many people are living now because she shares her mom’s two-bedroom house with seven other people, which must be hard. All of this is made worse by the fact that they can’t get medical care and don’t have much help from their tribe and communities.