As coronavirus surges and wildfires grow, local community mutual aid organizers in New Mexico have responded much differently than state officials.

Rather than placing responsibility on individuals, Indigenous-led mutual aid groups approach the pandemic, and now the 2022 wildfire season, with the understanding that public health is a matter of community responsibility.

To understand how these mutual aid efforts work differently, it is important to understand the geography of the place where the wildfires are raging, and the material realities of how COVID-19 affects marginalized communities.

Smoke from wildfires settles within the landscape of the northern Pueblos, called the Tewa Basin, because of the way it is shaped. And coronavirus has disproportionately impacted Indigenous communities in New Mexico, because of existing racist inequities like unequal prior health status, unequal access to health care, and the prevalence of multi-generational households.

If there’s smoke coming from anywhere, the Pueblos are going to be impacted, said Marquel Musgrave, membership and communications director for Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

“Just like if there are other things coming from Los Alamos National Labs: they’re gonna be impacted the most,” Musgrave (Nambé) said of the northern Pueblos.