Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes grieved for people who died every week from COVID-19.
When families called the tribe to help pay for funerals, Barnes had to turn them down.
The U.S. Treasury Department counted the tribe’s population as zero instead of 3,100 when it distributed CARES Act relief funding a year ago. Bad data forced Barnes and other tribal leaders across the U.S. to respond to the pandemic with little federal aid.
During the worst point of the pandemic in northeast Oklahoma, Barnes said he learned about new infections every day and two to four deaths a week.
“We had people dying,” Barnes said. “We didn’t have resources or ways to help.”
The dispute remains at the center of a federal lawsuit filed by the Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and joined by two other tribes. The Treasury Department announced in April that it would give more CARES Act money to some tribes in light of an appeals court ruling in the case.
Because of that decision, the Shawnee plan to exit the federal case. Other tribal leaders continue to push for equitable aid and an explanation of what went wrong.
More: Navajo Nation surpasses Cherokee to become largest US tribe
Another local tribe shortchanged
Eastern Shawnee Chief Glenna Wallace said she has repeatedly asked for a review of the initial funding formula, which counted her nation’s population as 221 instead of 3,650.
She points to parallels from 1830, when the Eastern Shawnee were forcibly removed from the Ohio Valley to the northeast corner of Oklahoma. The tribe received 58 acres of land, a fraction of what the federal government promised.
“We’ve never been in a position to be able to financially help our tribal citizens, and it was about the same with COVID,” Wallace said. “It was a repetition.”
Congress passed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic…
