• April Twarkins, left, a registered nurse serving as a medical assistant at Whiteriver Indian Hospital, talks to Lafe Altaha, right, about his health before checking his vitals at his home in Whiteriver, Ariz., on March 17, 2021.

  • Medical staff from Whiteriver Indian Hospital arrive at a tribal member’s house to administer the COVID vaccine in Whiteriver, Ariz., on Feb. 18, 2021. Systemic social and health inequities, along with multiple generations all living under one roof, put rural communities like this one at greater risk from the virus.

  • Kristen Parker, right, and Justin Tafoya, left, visit the home of a White Mountain Apache tribal member scheduled for a COVID vaccine in Whiteriver, Ariz. on Feb. 17, 2021. Parker is a pharmacist and outreach director at Whiteriver Indian Hospital, while Tafoya, a registered nurse, serves as a public information officer.

  • A medical assistant holds a folder with the list of patients she will be visiting that day in Whiteriver, Ariz. on Feb. 17, 2021.

  • Victoria Moses, an Indian Health Service contact tracer, checks the progress of patients before heading out into the field for home visits in Whiteriver, Ariz. on Feb. 17, 2021.

  • Before hitting the ground, medical workers discuss plans for the day at Whiteriver Indian Hospital on Feb. 17, 2021. Each day at 9 a.m., a team of medical professionals and tribal members gathers at the hospital to evaluate the spread of the virus. The morning session lasts about half an hour, then staff are assigned cases to follow up on.

  • Kristen Parker gives Emanual Kahsai and Dealva Larzlere updates on patients they will be visiting at home in Whiteriver, Ariz. on Feb. 18, 2021.

  • April Twarkins, an outreach supervisor at the hospital, uses a pulse oximeter to monitor tribal councilman Arnold Beach’s oxygen levels at his home in Whiteriver, Ariz on Feb. 18, 2021. The medical team started using pulse oximeters to assess patients’ vitals more accurately and spot positive cases before more pronounced symptoms developed.

  • Kristen Parker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine needle outside Whiteriver Indian Hospital before heading out into the field on Feb. 18, 2021. Parker says that everyone in the community has been touched by tragedy during the pandemic. But now that she is able to deliver vaccines, she says, “It feels amazing to be part of the solution.”

  • Ashley McCreery, a medical support assistant, injects a resident with his second dose of the vaccine at his home in Whiteriver, Ariz., on Feb. 18, 2021. Once vaccines became available, health care workers started offering shots by going straight to residents’ houses.

  • Tribal member Bonnie Lewis holds her granddaughter’s hand as she receives her second dose of the vaccine outside her home in Whiteriver, Ariz., on Feb. 18, 2021. Lewis got her second shot – completing her vaccinations series – and she encouraged her neighbors to do the same.

  • Bernard Henry, holding his daughter outside his home in Whiteriver, reflects about the time he contracted COVID-19 the past summer on Feb. 17, 2021. Henry, a father of nine, was scheduled to get his first shot when this photo was taken. While he remains wary of potential side effects, he feels relieved about getting vaccinated. He got COVID but experienced only mild symptoms. His wife, however, was hospitalized last year and is still recovering at home.

  • A medical assistant explains the vaccination procedure to a tribal member at a vaccination event inside the town’s gymnasium on Feb. 17, 2021.

  • The White Mountain Apache Tribe holds a community vaccination event at the Chief Alchesay Activity Center in Whiteriver, Ariz., on Feb. 17, 2021. By the end of April, more than 7,000 tribal members were fully vaccinated and no new COVID deaths had been reported in months.

The coronavirus pandemic hit Native Americans especially hard. But as the spotlight turned to larger communities like the Navajo Nation, the much smaller White Mountain Apache Tribe quietly battled to save its people. Last year, the community of 15,000 in eastern Arizona was considered a hotspot. By Sept. 1, five months after its first recorded COVID case, the tribe had 2,400 cases and had lost 39 people. Over the next six months, there were 1,500 new cases and just 10 additional deaths. The tribe slowed the spread of the disease and helped curb death rates through a combination of intense contact tracing, surveillance of high-risk individuals, and vaccinations.