The loss is devastating. The first person in the state of Oklahoma to die of COVID was a Cherokee

citizen named Merrill Drive. That's Chuck Hoskin, Jr. He's the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

They've been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have lost a lot of people. We have lost a lot

of elders including fluent speakers and one of our biggest worries is that as we try to save the

Cherokee language and hang on to and revitalize our culture that COVID is having a negative impact

on those efforts. And it's not just the Cherokee Nation. Over the last year, we've seen Native

Americans across the country suffering a disproportionate impact from COVID-19. Now this has

caused impact by pre-existing health conditions, lack of water and sanitation, underfunded health

systems and also multi-generational homes that make it easier to transmit the virus. But when it comes

to vaccine administration, some tribal health providers are outpacing counties and states.

So for today's episode, I'm going to hand things over to CNN's Harmite Corps. She's been reporting

on the situation in Indian country. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent.

And this is coronavirus. Fact versus fiction.

More than two and a half million Native Americans get their health care from the Indian Health

Service, a federal agency that's been historically underfunded, according to the National Council

of Urban Indian Health. Others are served by systems operated by tribes, like in the Cherokee Nation.

Indigenous tribes are sovereign nations, which means they have the authority to make their

own decisions, independent of the United States. For tribal health providers, that authority extends

to health care too. Something that's worked to their advantage when it comes to vaccine distribution.

It means tribes can determine for themselves who to vaccinate first, and how exactly to go about

doing it. Frankly, when the United States provides resources and gets out of the way, the Cherokee

Nation does a wonderful job at delivering health care. Chief Hoskins says the Cherokee Nation has

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