As virus tears through reservation, Navajos give lifeline to elders and families

FILE PHOTO: Relief workers pose at a farm, used as a base for aid to Navajo families quarantined in their homes due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Hogback, Shiprock, New Mexico, U.S., April 7, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Hay

SHIPROCK, N.M. (Reuters) - To the sound of birdsong on rolling grassland, a pickup truck crawls up a dirt track to bring firewood and food to a Navajo family of seven whose father died of the coronavirus hours earlier.

Five young relief workers, wearing masks and gloves, unload the provisions at the door for the now quarantined family. It is the first death the mostly female volunteers said they had been called to in this northern area of the nation, the largest Native American reservation in the United States. The family, who live on the plains south of Shiprock, asked that their names and location not be used.