PHOENIX-In March, Tawny Jodie was preparing to travel to Israel for her first trip overseas. By July, she was masked and delivering food boxes in rural New Mexico amid a deadly pandemic.

A full-blooded Navajo, the 20-year-old said she was compelled into service when COVID-19 started ravaging her community and others across the Navajo Nation.

With the virus dispropor-tionately affecting tribal nations due to health disparities, poor infrastructure and chronic under-funding to fix persistent problems, young people like Jodie have stepped up to help others, preserve their culture and start the he...