We lived on the line of Leech Lake Reservation (near Cass Lake, MN) but except for that and the Crow Reservation, the rest of our reservation experiences were in the southwest.
(IHS hospital/clinics)
Yes, they're all different; laws, customs, landscape, tribal government, etc; more than most people might imagine.
Some tribes (Navajo Nation included) are still receiving direct health care. There's a huge hospital in Gallup, NM, as well as another in Shiprock. Health care is supplied by the federal Indian Health Services (of HHS). In no way should this be construed as "far below" most US Standards.
Other tribes have opted out of direct health care preferring to receive Title 638 funds to administer for their health care. These tribes' health care naturally varies with the way the individual tribes administer their programs.
The Navajo Nation is larger than the state of West Virginia, so the analogy of town-level government wouldn't seem to apply.
Having lived on reservations, Navajo Nation being one of them, I'd opine that the co-morbidities are the main contributing factor. The diabetes rates on the rez are many times that of the US population as are the rates of alcoholism.
Also households are very often multi-generational and more crowded than in the US.
Yes, they do have their own lockdown policies. On a drive in western NC this past month, we had to turn around as the Qualla Boundary was blocked by tribal police.
In the US, the right to travel is one of the most basic. The right to work comes along somewhere close to that. I couldn't have imagined Americans would ever stand for such a thing, but current attitudes seem poised to easily fall over to that.
Basically, it's a "license" for freedom. What a convoluted and contradictory concept. Given the past, and Germany's "Never Again" sentiment, I'm surprised this can even be considered.
It's not the rate that matters. It's the actual number of deaths.
SO FAR, this flu season, the CDC attributes 20,000 to 52,000 deaths to the flu in the US alone. Coronavirus has killed a tenth of that worldwide. So, no. Coronavirus is NOT anywhere near as bad as the regular flu.
Yes, they're all different; laws, customs, landscape, tribal government, etc; more than most people might imagine.