Tanya Ball may be working from home these days, but she is contributing to a community-wide effort to protect people from the coronavirus. Ball is the Guardians Coordinator for Dane nan yḗ dāh Network of the Kaska Nation in northern B.C. And like other guardians across the country, she is helping her nation respond to this crisis.

“We are here to help as much as we can,” she said.

COVID-19 poses unique challenges to Indigenous Nations. With limited medical resources in communities and a history of losing people to previous waves of contagious disease, Indigenous Nations recognize the serious threat of this virus. Patrols, outreach to elders, food distribution and preparing families to go out on the land can keep people safe. Indigenous Guardians have the skills to help with those efforts.

Ball is one of those guardians. She grew up in Lower Post, studied environmental science at college, then served as a GIS technician before joining the Dane nan yḗ dāh Network. On the job, she has received training in wildfire response and evacuee registration and has worked extensively with elders and knowledge holders.

“Right now, I’m using GIS to make a map for emergency support services,” she said. “If an ambulance has to pick someone up, they need to know how to find them. During the wildfires, we registered everyone, how many people were living in a household, if there were special needs. Now with COVID, we are making sure we know who might be at high risk.”