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Choctaw Indians bear brunt of virus outbreak in Mississippi

Almost 10% of the tribe's roughly 11,000 members have tested positive for the virus.

Credit: AP

Family members gather with a portrait of their wife, mother, and grandmother, Sharon Taylor, in the photo frame, at their Tucker, Miss., home, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. From left back row, are father, Franklin Taylor, 54; Damien Shockey, 21, fiancé of daughter Kristina Taylor, 18, holding the portrait of the mother; daughter Kaydee Taylor, 15, second from right in the back row; son Klifton Taylor, 2; daughter Kristi Wishork, 25, front row left and her children, Colby Wishork, 1, daughter Renaya Farmer, 5, in front, sons Xavier Wishork, 2, center and Braydon Farmer, 7. For the Taylor family, June 2020 was supposed to be for celebrating daughter Kristina being selected as valedictorian from Choctaw Central High School, the tribal high school for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Instead, the family buried the mother, a victim of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

PHILADELPHIA, Miss — As confirmed coronavirus cases skyrocket in Mississippi, the state's only federally recognized American Indian tribe has been devastated.

COVID-19 has ripped through Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian families. Almost 10% of the tribe's roughly 11,000 members have tested positive for the virus. More than 75 have died.

The tribal economy is suffering.

The tribal high school's valedictorian lost her mother around the time of graduation. Family members remembered Sharon Taylor as a loving mother and grandmother dedicated to her faith. She worked as a community health technician on the reservation before she died of the virus in June.

Credit: AP

Kristina Taylor, 18, cries as she holds a portrait of her late mother, Sharon Taylor, while she and her older sister Kristi Wishork, 25, recall the care their mother had for her children and grandchildren, Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at their home in Tucker, Miss. Taylor, 53, died of coronavirus at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson on June 26 after two weeks in the hospital. She never saw her daughter Kristina, the class valedictorian at Choctaw Central High School, graduate. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians

Halito! Thank you for visiting the official homepage of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. On behalf of the Choctaw people, as the Tribal Chief, I would like to welcome you as you begin to explore our rich and vibrant culture and the many life-ways that identify us as Choctaw.