When COVID-19 isolated Americans, health officials of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe of Louisiana knew they needed to work faster.
MARKSVILLE, La. — When COVID-19 isolated Americans, health officials of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe of Louisiana knew they needed to work faster.
The tribe had established a need for a rural health clinic just a year before the pandemic pushed community health needs — like vaccinations and clinical care — to the surface.
“We knew we didn’t have the experience or expertise in hand to address [COVID],” said tribe chairman and CEO Marshall Pierite.
So, the tribe hired a chief medical officer, Dr. Arthur Webb, who was previously based in Washington D.C., to organize vaccination efforts with tribe members.
“He had other experience dealing with Native Americans,” Pierite said. “He’s the one who actually started planting the seed for a clinic.”
About the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana
The Tunica-Biloxi people first appeared in the Mississippi Valley. In the late 1700s, they settled near south of Marksville in east-central Louisiana. Today, the Tribe has more than 1,600 members throughout the United States, primarily in Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois. The modern Tunica-Biloxi Tribe is composed of Tunica, Biloxi (a Siouan-speaking people from the Gulf Coast), Ofo (also a Siouan people), Avoyel (a Natchezan people), and Choctaw. Although ancestry is typically intermixed through marriages, tribal members typically identify either as Tunica, Biloxi or Biloxi-Choctaw. The tribe owns and operates the Paragon Casino Resort, the largest employer in Central Louisiana. For more information about the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, visit https://www.tunicabiloxi.org/ and “like” us on Facebook.