“Too little, too late,” says Democratic New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall
By Cheyenne Haslett and Laura Romero | ABC News
Native American tribes were expected to see some long-awaited relief money from the federal government trickle in as soon as Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department — but the battle is long from over with no timetable set for the remaining funds and a court fight over some of that cash potentially going to for-profit corporations.
The nearly 600 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. have not yet received any of the $8 billion set aside for tribes in the CARES Act, which passed over a month ago, despite the devastation Native American tribes have disproportionately experienced from coronavirus.
Navajo Nation, for example, the nation’s second-largest tribe, has the third-highest rate of infection in the country, behind New York and New Jersey. Cases in the Navajo population made up 55% of total cases in New Mexico as of Monday.
