We know little about the impact of social distancing policies on the residents of tribal reservations that tend to have lower levels of infrastructure and resources than neighboring towns or cities. A public health emergency such as the pandemic and the resulting restrictions and closures could further impede access to quality food for populations that customarily have less availability of fresh food options. We study some of these effects using mobile phone data. We investigate how the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions affected travel to convenience stores and supermarkets on AI lands relative to the rest of the country. We compare the average distance traveled and the type of grocery store destination for those households residing on reservations to those residing off reservations over 2019 and 2020.
