Have the Navajos been hit hard by the virus?
Pretty hard, as of Apr 7 426 cases 17 deaths in a reservation of about 175,000 tribal members living on the reservation and the same number off the reservation. Compared with the entire state of NM at 794 cases and 13 deaths at a population of just over 2 million. A pretty solid hit as the reservation occupies 27,000 square miles of land in Utah, Arizona and NM and is sparsely populated.
By comparison to the rest of NM, yes.
My guess would be because of Gallup being basically an 1-40 stop for travelers and many of the Navajo working the service jobs there.Big, extended families, probably a lot of religious ceremonies-both traditional and church.
The reservation is super rural though. I drive through it pretty frequently. Houses can be many acres apart.