(Photo courtesy of Ute Mountain Casino Hotel) Volunteers and employees of the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel in Towaoc, Colo., load food onto trailers to assist with coronavirus relief efforts on Ute Mountain Ute lands. And the Navajo Nation, which begins just south of Towaoc, announced 558 cases Thursday amid a rapidly escalating outbreak that’s straining the rural health care systems in northwest New Mexico and northern Arizona. “My hat is off to our tribal council and our tribal chairman for just how they’ve stepped up for their community,” Scheer said, adding that the casino’s relationship with distributors has been helpful in getting supplies like toilet paper.Īn estimated 650 of the tribe’s 2,100 enrolled members received food, water and supplies in the first two weeks of the program alone, and the casino’s hotel has been converted into lodging for Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officers and first responders.Īs of Friday, there were no known coronavirus cases on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, but Colorado, with 6,202 confirmed cases and 227 deaths, had the second-highest per capita infection rate in the Western United States after Washington. Walk into the hall this week, he explained, and you’ll see no bingo players, but plenty of employees and volunteers dividing up sacks of rice, beans, flour and powdered milk.ĭrivers then load the food and cases of bottled water onto trailers and deliver them to tribal members in Towaoc and the town of White Mesa in Utah’s San Juan County, which is also on Ute Mountain Ute land.

The long tables are filled with scales, scoops and boxes, said Rick Scheer, the casino’s general manager.

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