Household Income The median household income for the Navajo Nation is $27,389, which is approximately half that of the State of Arizona ($51,310) overall. One-third (32%) of all households on the Navajo Nation have incomes of less than $15,000 when compared to the State of Arizona (17%).
Poverty rates on the Navajo Nation (38%) are more than twice as high as poverty rates in the State of Arizona (15%). Almost half (44%) of all children under 18 years of age are considered to be living in poverty, while one-third (34%) of tribal members between 18 and 64 also live in poverty.
The Navajo Nation encompasses more than 27,000 square miles across three states – New Mexico, Utah and Arizona – and is the largest home for indigenous people in the US. As of August 2020, the Navajo Nation had successfully flattened the curve.
The Navajo Nation encompasses more than 27,000 square miles across three states – New Mexico, Utah and Arizona – and is the largest home for indigenous people in the US. As of August 2020, the Navajo Nation had successfully flattened the curve.
The Navajo Nation encompasses more than 27,000 square miles across three states – New Mexico, Utah and Arizona – and is the largest home for indigenous people in the US. As of August 2020, the Navajo Nation had successfully flattened the curve.
“I've always been interested in messaging, especially around health-related issues and one of the first interventions I took part in here was there was a billboard erected by the Pepsi Company on the reservation that showed four large cans of pop with water dripping off of them because they were cold and refreshing and it said, "Welcome to Pepsi Country." But this was advertised in a community where one out of four adults over the age of 45 has adult onset diabetes, so a Public Health Nurse and I, named Lorie Smith, went out one night and wanted to correct that sign to get people to think about the messaging a little differently. So we changed the message to read, "Welcome to Diabetes Country." We wanted people to think about the connection between their health and their diets and we also wanted the Pepsi Corporation to reconsider whether this was the most appropriate place for that ad. Well, the billboard ran for a month with the altered message. Then [Pepsi] took it down and it never returned.”
- Physician Artist Chip Thomas, on his public interventions for health and nutrition on the Navajo Nation
Chip Thomas’s Painted Mural showcases corn as a nutritious alternative to junk food sold in supermarkets.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, Dinétah, the traditional homeland of the Navajo tribe of Native Americans meaning "among the people" or "among the Navajo” in the Navajo language, is a food desert with only 10 full service supermarkets for 170,000 people scattered over an area larger than West Virginia (27,500 square miles). In the 12 supermarkets on the reservation, over 80% of their inventory was found to have no nutritional value, qualifying as junk food.
American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) in the IHS Service Area 2009-2011 and U.S. All Races 2010 (Age-adjusted mortality rates per 100,000 population). Indigenous people and Alaska Natives have long experienced lower health status when compared with other US citizens. Lower life expectancy and the disproportionate disease burden exist because of inadequate education, disproportionate poverty, discrimination in the delivery of health services, and cultural differences. These are broad quality of life issues rooted in economic adversity.
As early as the '50s, scientists, public health workers, knew of the dangers of radiation exposure. Finally, in 1967, on the front page of The Washington Post, there was an article, talking about the dangers of working with uranium. But even still, very little was being done on the reservation to tell workers about these dangers and to protect them.
From 1944 to 1986 hundreds of uranium and milling operations extracted an estimated 400 million tons of uranium ore from Diné (Navajo) lands. These mining and processing operations have left a legacy of potential exposures to uranium waste from abandoned mines, mills, homes and other structures built with mining waste, which impacts drinking water, livestock and humans. As a heavy metal, uranium primarily damages the kidneys and urinary system. While there have been many studies of environmental and occupational exposure to uranium and associated renal effects in adults, there have been very few studies of other adverse health effects. In 2010 the University of New Mexico partnered with the Navajo Area Indian Health Service and Navajo Division of Health to evaluate the association between environmental contaminants and reproductive birth outcomes.This investigation is called the Navajo Birth Cohort Study and will follow children for 7 years from birth to early childhood. Chemical exposure, stress, sleep, diet and their effects on the children’s physical, cognitive and emotional development will be studied. These images show JC with her younger sister Gracie, who is a NBCS participant.
Green references the long history of uranium mining on the Colorado Plateau/Navajo Nation (90% of the US’s nuclear arsenal during the Cold War came from Diné land), and the resulting contamination of the land, water, livestock and humans since 1942. This left over 500 abandoned, unsealed mines littering the land and water sources.
