Reservation vax booth, photo courtesy White Earth Nation.

Here’s an encouraging example of how to work alongside a Native community with public health messaging and support to dramatically boost the ranks of the vaccinated. In a recent CDC blog post, Stories from the Field: The White Earth Nation, the authors explain how officials of the northern Minnesota tribe made a strong effort via a variety of trusted media sources and public events to describe the link between traditional Anishinaabe cultural values and the threat to the community posed by COVID-19.

Among the results:

• White Earth led Minnesota in vaccination rates for many weeks early in the COVID-19 vaccination push;
• More than 16,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered (as of September 2021); and
• More than 93 percent of White Earth Nation’s elders were vaccinated.