This section contains oral history excerpts in text and audio about the experiences of members of the Auntie Sewing Squad throughout Covid-19. All of these excerpts are accompanied by annotations that provide historical context, discussion questions, and recommended citation. These oral history excerpts can be utilized in lectures, primary source analysis assignments, and class discussions.

By November 2020, the U.S. averaged about 1,231 COVID-19 deaths daily. The reported death toll was nearing 300,000. The Trump presidency had failed to properly inform the U.S. public about the safety protocol for a worldwide pandemic, including social distancing and staying at home, much less provide PPE. Masks had become a point of political contention, rather than a health measure. Kristina Wong, a performance artist in Los Angeles, assembled the Auntie Sewing Squad, a collective of mask makers who made and sent homemade masks to vulnerable communities across the U.S. By November of 2020, the Auntie Sewing Squad consisted of 800 members and sent over 300,000 masks to underserved communities, including Indigenous communities on reservations, asylum-seeking communities at the U.S.-Mexico border, farmworkers who were considered essential workers, and incarcerated or formerly incarcerated members of U.S. society.

News outlets reported that COVID-19 reached Navajo Nation after a revival at Chilchinbeto Church on March 7, 2020. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose rapidly from 26 on March 17 to 49 on March 21. Navajo Nation quickly became a hotbed for COVID-19 infection. Indigenous communities were made particularly vulnerable due to the failure of the United States government in living up to its treaty obligations, including providing well-equipped and staffed health services. Theresa Hatathlie-Delmar of the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Funds collaborated with Kristina Wong of the Auntie Sewing Squad to obtain mask-making supplies for Navajo Nation. Badly Licked Bear, a curator and an educator, steps up to drive a van of sewing supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) from the Los Angeles to the reservation in Arizona.

Adriana Camarena is a lawyer, writer, and community activist that organizes around anti-police brutality issues in the Latinx community in San Francisco. In 2016, she accompanied the family of Luis Gongora Pat, an unhoused Mayan Indigenous man who was killed. They sought justice and promoted alternative responses to policing unhoused populations. In March of 2020, COVID-19 reached U.S. Camarena joined the Auntie Sewing Squad in May. On May 25, police suffocated George Floyd in Minnesota and in response, protests emerged nationwide. By August 19, California Governor Gavin Newsom reported that the state was battling 367 known fires. On August 26, Camarena worked with Jose Gongora Pat and Carlos Poot Pat to pack a U-Haul to deliver 34,560 fl. oz of bottled water to Petaluma People’s Resource Center for farmworkers who were evacuated due to the wildfires. They also delivered hundreds of masks and two pallets of bottled water to farmworkers in Healdsburg.

Navajo Nation includes nearly 174,000 people living on tribal lands in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. News outlets reported that COVID-19 reached Navajo Nation after participants congregated at Chilchinbeto Church on March 7, 2020. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose rapidly from 26 on March 17 to 49 on March 21. Navajo Nation quickly became a hotbed for COVID-19 infection. Indigenous communities were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 due to the failure of the United States in living up to its treaty obligations, including providing health services. Theresa Hatathlie-Delmar is a member of the Navajo Nation and part of the Deer Springs and Salt clans. She describes the beginnings of her grassroots organization, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Funds, later named Yee Ha’ólníi Doo DBA. Hatathlie-Delmar later coordinated with the Auntie Sewing Squad to get sewing supplies and make masks for Navajo Nation.