MISSION — Shortly after Gov. Kate Brown forced Umatilla County to revert to baseline COVID-19 restrictions, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation voluntarily revived many of its earlier social distancing rules.

Starting Tuesday, Aug. 4, Umatilla Indian Reservation residents will be bound by several existing and new directives, according to a July 31 press release.

Gatherings will be limited to 10 people, inside or outside.

Nonessential travel off the reservation will be limited to a 75-mile radius.

The Nixyaawii Governance Center will be open only by appointment and tribal community facilities will be closed until further notice.

Community sweating, an important tradition in the Tribes’ religion Washat, is prohibited, although sweats between household members is still allowed.

Funerals are subject to the 10-person gathering limit and someone must record the names of attendees for contact tracing purposes.

While the Tribes are trying to reduce mass gatherings and person-to-person contact, the CTUIR is avoiding a total shutdown of a few services and enterprises, including the Wildhorse Resort & Casino.

Starting in March, the CTUIR closed Wildhorse as businesses across the state closed their doors to curb the spread of the virus.

Wildhorse resumed operation in late May with new social distancing measures in place, but the July 31 announcement added some new restrictions to the resort and casino.

The casino floor will close from midnight to 8 a.m. daily and the cineplex will be closed. The casino’s restaurants and Wildhorse’s two off-reservation properties — Hamley Steakhouse and Birch Creek Golf Course — will move to takeout-only models.

Kayak Public Transit was also put on hold for months during the Tribes’ first shutdown, but the CTUIR is keeping the service open. Kayak provides regional public transportation from the Pendleton area to places like Pilot Rock, Walla Walla, Washington, La Grande and Hermiston.

The Tribes were a success story in the early months of the pandemic, quickly implementing and enforcing anti-COVID-19 measures that helped the CTUIR avoid any reported cases as the rest of Umatilla County saw cases rise.

Informed by the Tribes’ fatal history with previous epidemics, tribal officials weren’t bound by the state’s shutdown mandates when making decisions. But the tribal government voluntarily introduced new social distancing rules, and officials attributed the actions to the Tribes fending off the virus in the early days of the pandemic. The CTUIR began relaxing its COVID-19 precautions in May and early June.

But since the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center announced the reservation’s first case on June 16, the CTUIR’s case count has grown to 60 total cases and one death.

In addition to announcing the new rules, the CTUIR directed residents and tribal members to a new COVID-19 informational website — ctuircovid.info.

The website includes weekly surveillance summaries from Yellowhawk, the clinic tracking key local numbers and statistics from pandemic.

The Tribes are monitoring five metrics and comparing how they stack up against the Tribes’ goals.

For instance, Yellowhawk’s July 24-30 report shows that the CTUIR met three out of its five goals that week: 5% or less growth, 95% or more of cases contacted within 24 hours, and five or fewer hospitalizations.

The Tribes didn’t meet their standards for the other two goals: more than 8% of COVID-19 tests were positive over the past two weeks, and far more than 30% of COVID-19 cases couldn’t be traced to a known source in the past week.