Caring for the Navajo Nation

Brian LaCroix will host a discussion with Navajo Nation EMS Director Chris Kescoli, EMT Penny Hoskie-Johnson, and Medical Director Chelsea White, MD.

A rare look at EMS on America's largest native reservation. Learn how the Navajo Nation provides care and transportation of their residents and visitors in a land that transverses four states. A true indigenous people, anthropologists believe the Navajo arrived in the American southwest around 1300. Recognized as sovereign Native-American Nation, the Navajo Indian Reservation was established according to the US Treaty of 1868. It is geographically situated within four mountain ranges where the native people are said to “receive protection under these sacred mountains.”

It’s the largest land area held by a Native American tribe in the U.S., comprising about 16 million acres, or about 25,000 square miles, approximately the size of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined. It takes nearly 4 hours to drive from east to west across its’ borders. There are approximately 298,000 enrolled members; with over 173,000 Navajos living within the EMS response region on the reservation. Navajo Nation EMS serves under the Executive branch of the Nation, and reports to the Division of Public Safety.