Citizen Potawatomi Nation Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett recently announced that employees at the tribe’s healthcare facilities must get a Covid-19 vaccination and other workers must be vaccinated by December 31 or “face termination.”
The rule applies “without exception,” Barrett said. The tribe operates the Grand Casino Hotel and Resort and several other businesses near its home base in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Barrett said 587 workers, or about one-quarter of the tribe’s employees, remain unvaccinated. “Having unvaccinated employees is a hazard to the tribe and the public. Devoting a team of valuable health workers to examine the testing of 587 unvaccinated employees is a waste of time and money.”
Barrett said it’s his responsibility “to make decisions for the good of the tribe, our employees, our guests and our community. We do not want to lose you as an employee or see you die of Covid-19 or cause one of us to die.”
Originally Barrett said he would allow unvaccinated employees to test weekly for Covid-19. He changed his mind “after much consideration and reading a lot of negative emails from employees about people’s ‘rights.’
“We still have people saying vaccinations are ‘untested,’ ‘not safe,’ a ‘hoax,’” he said. “Nonsense.”
Barrett noted the Citizen Potawatomi Nation offered $500 to employees who were vaccinated by September 30, and still offers free vaccine shots for employees during paid work hours. The tribe also hosted several vaccine information sessions for employees led by doctors.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated Native Americans are much more likely than white Americans to become critically ill or die from Covid-19. Barrett pointed out that positive test results more than doubled at Indian Health Services clinics recently, from fewer than 400 cases to around 800.
Oklahoma’s statewide vaccination rate of 50.9 percent is the 14th lowest in the U.S., nearly 8 percentage points below the national average of 58.8 percent.
