The effects of the pandemic

by Peter Twitchell

I am eternally grateful to the Native organizations who provided us with Alaska COVID relief aid the past two years. First, the Orutsararmiut Tribal organization in Bethel, and the Bethel Native Corporation, and the native corporation Calista – thank you.

I can’t forget our United States Congress for the COVID relief funds that they dispersed to the people of America. The government and the native organizations made life much better for all of us.

The pandemic of 2020 separated us from our loved ones, our friends, and each other. Many of us lost a loved one and friends. Little did we know that our lives would change so suddenly. Around the world we were all impacted in the way we lived, it was like a door closed on humanity.

Our economy was affected and we were all impacted by business closures, schools, people were out of work having to adapt to the new way of life and interacting with each other.

We will not soon forget the crippling affect the pandemic has had on us and how much closer we became as a global community. We learned to respect, care about, and cherish one another more than before. It wasn’t perfect but as families we became closer and more loving towards one another. We reached out to others more to help them as best we could.

I believe we reached out to the homeless, the sick, and the hungry as never before.

We donated money, food, clothing, and aid to the less fortunate among us. These are characteristics we inherited from our tribal elders since we’ve been in existence as indigenous tribes.

For a while we forgot about our neighbors. We were awakened by a deadly virus to just how vulnerable we are as people and that we are not super human beings no matter how much or how many millions of dollars we may have in our coffers and investments.

I want to extend my sincere thank you to ONC, BNC, and Calista. I’ve always loved the native indigenous word “Calista”, which means worker because I believe Calista Corporation truly works for its tribe and tribal members. Quyana!