Gallup (NM)

The coronavirus has disfigured Gallup, a small New Mexico town near Native American reservations, that is now one of the hardest hit places in the country.The virus’s spread upended the local economy, which over the years built up around tourism and the railroad and heavy industry.Shop owners, residents and aid workers are now trying to figure out how to make it through.The Place Hit Hardest by the VirusDec. 27, 2020Hospitals in Gallup are nearly full. Most stores are empty. The unemployment rate in the county where the city sits is one and a half times the national average. Earlier this month, it had the most cases per capita of any metro area in the United States, according to a New York Times database.As the pandemic has steadily marched across the country in recent months, places like Gallup have been among the hardest hit.The Lions Club rodeo has been held every June in Red Rock Park. It was canceled this year.Perched between the Navajo Nation to the north and Zuni Nation to the south, almost half of Gallup’s residents are Native American, according to census data.Native American communities have been particularly vulnerable to the virus, at one point accounting for nearly 40 percent of all cases in New Mexico, even though those communities make up less than a tenth of the state’s population. And some who have so far been spared by the virus are nonetheless reeling from the consequences of the economic slowdown.Eric-Paul Riege, a 26-year-old artist, is the son of a veteran and hotel manager and a Navajo mother who taught him the art of weaving. His work has appeared in galleries and collections around the country. But paid projects this year all but dried up.Eric-Paul Riege’s art has appeared in galleries and collections around the country. But paid projects have dried up so he’s been working shifts at a local diner.When I met Mr. Riege, he was working shifts at a diner called Grandpa’s Grill, processing orders for takeout food.Route 66 cuts through Gallup. The town has relied on tourism to help drive its economy, counting on visitors to shop at local galleries and trading posts selling Native American art and crafts. But limits on activity in the area have made that hard.When the region was experiencing an extreme wave of virus cases in May, the city locked down, and state police officers and the National Guard barricaded highway exits to prevent people who didn’t live in Gallup from entering town unless it was an emergency.A residential street in Gallup.Last month, long after the barricades came down, trading posts were open but closed for indoor shopping, limiting the chances of anyone passing by to stop and browse.Perry Null, inside his shop, Perry Null Trading. He estimated that his business was down by 40 percent this year.The iconic El Rancho hotel, where John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn and other Hollywood stars once stayed, was roughly a quarter full.Under current New Mexico restrictions, the El Rancho hotel cannot have any indoor dining.Gallup is in many ways a relic of conquered Indigenous lands and American expansion. Many of the trading posts, for example, are owned and operated by white people. Those small shops sit in the shadows of McDonald’s, Walmart and other big American franchises, where cars and people often spill out of parking lots now.Customers waiting to get into Walmart just before Thanksgiving. Local officials say smaller businesses often have to operate with stricter virus guidelines than the big box stores.Bill Lee, the head of Gallup’s Chamber of Commerce, said there has been a growing economic divide because of the restrictions put in place by local and state officials. Smaller businesses often have to operate with stricter guidelines, including rules preventing in-store shopping, while bigger box stores, especially those deemed essential, could operate with fewer limits. “The governor has chosen winners and losers,” Mr. Lee told me.The Coronavirus Outbreak More