CGTN Correspondent Toby Muse recently traveled to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota to cover how the community has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Toby sits down with Digital Producer Lisa Chiu to talk about how he reported the series and what he learned talking to the community.

Native Americans have been hit hard by COVID-19. They’ve been twice as likely to die of the virus compared to white Americans. The virus has triggered a cultural crisis, targeting some of the last speakers of the Native American languages – the elders. But the reservation is fighting back to save their languages and keep people safe. They’re also vaccinating people at a quicker pace than the rest of the United States.

Episode 1: Fighting COVID on a Native American reservation

The coronavirus has been a hardship for Native American communities, particularly the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. But the tribe has undertaken a number of measures and successfully brought its infection rate down. 

Episode 2: The loss of Native American languages

Language loss is accelerating around the world. It’s especially true among Native Americans, in part because of bigotry and many schools forbidding their instruction. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse with the deaths of some of the elderly who can’t pass on the language.  

Episode 3: Native American communities see rapid rollout of vaccine, but still struggle

Across the United States, Native American reservations have been some of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, the vaccines have arrived and they’re inoculating people faster than the rest of the country – but it has its challenges.

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