Ireland Pays Tribute to Choctaw Nation’s Kindness

As reported by Ireland Calling, city officials in Cork, Ireland were looking for a unique way to mark the Choctaw Nation’s generosity and kindness during a dark period of Ireland’s history: The Great Irish Famine. Approximately one million people died of disease and starvation, and another million were forced to leave Ireland in order to survive. Even though the Choctaw Nation had suffered their own tragedy, by being removed from their homelands, they felt the need to help out the Irish. The Choctaw raised a total of $170 which would be the equivalent of $71,000 today.

I like the sentiment behind this. I don't know why it's taken so long.

Link


Here is a little background history for those who are interested.

The potato famine:

In 1846 and in following years a blight ruined 60% of Ireland's food crops. This created a famine in which about a million people died from starvation and infectious diseases.

Altogether, about a million people in Ireland are reliably estimated to have died of starvation and epidemic disease between 1846 and 1851, and some two million emigrated in a period of a little more than a decade (1845-55). Comparison with other modern and contemporary famines establishes beyond any doubt that the Irish famine of the late 1840s, which killed nearly one-eighth of the entire population, was proportionally much more destructive of human life than the vast majority of famines in modern times.

In most famines in the contemporary world, only a small fraction of the population of a given country or region is exposed to the dangers of death from starvation or infectious diseases, and then typically for only one or two seasons. But in the Irish famine of the late 1840s, successive blasts of potato blight - or to give it its proper name, the fungus Phytophthora infestans - robbed more than one-third of the population of their usual means of subsistence for four or five years in a row

Source

Enter the Choctaw Nation:

Sixteen years had passed since the Choctaw people had lost many of their own people from starvation, fatigue, and broken hearts during their forced removal from their homelands in what is now called The Trail of Tears. The Choctaws found out about the suffering that was going on in Ireland and wanted to help. They raised money and sent it to Ireland so that the Irish could buy food and other needed things.

A few years after this long, sad march, the Choctaws learned of people starving to death in Ireland. The Irish were dying because although there were other crops being grown in their country, all but the potato were marked for export by the British rulers. The Irish poor were not allowed any other sustenance than the potato, and from 1845-1849 this vegetable was diseased. Only sixteen years had passed since the Choctaws themselves had faced hunger and death on the first Trail of Tears, and a great empathy was felt when they heard such a similar story coming from across the ocean. Individuals made donations totaling $170 in 1847 to send to assist the Irish people. These noble Choctaw people, who had such meager resources, gave all they could on behalf of others in greater need.

Source
I think that it's incredible for a people that have had their own hardships and misery to reach out to others that they have never met that lived on another continent an ocean away. I hope that modern society can learn from this selflessness.

edit on 16-3-2015 by Skid Mark because: (no reason given)

a reply to: Skid Mark

You know the Israeli blockade on Gaza where they stop food and medicine getting to Gaza...


Well Britain did exactly the same to Ireland when they diverted United States aid supplies stealing what was there and selling it to the Irish...

Of course they couldn't really afford it because their farms had been poisoned and they had no revenue...




So the genocide turned into a land grab...




So next time you hear that the IRA (provisional) are terrorists...
Remember the above...

& ask what you'd have done to the genocidal occupier!



This acknowledgment from ROI should have come earlier really...
They should also celebrate the efforts of America during the famine.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

It sounds like business as usual. The beat goes on, and on, and on.

a reply to: Skid Mark

I'm avoiding the politics and just appreciating this beautiful act of kindness by the Choctaw.

Yes, the English treated the Irish shamefully and let the potato famine do its damage when they could have prevented much of the famine's toll on the Irish nation. Another skeleton hidden in the cupboard of nation against nation.

"So it goes..." (quoting Kurt Vonnegut from his Slaughterhouse Five novel).

a reply to: Skid Mark

Yes without a doubt.

Sorry to drift a little I know this thread is not intended to discuss the famine but rather this acknowledgment of Choctaw kindness during the famine.


I only brought up what I did because U.S at the time saw there act of kindness being disrupted by the British colonialists.


For all we know the Choctaw managed to scrape together more than we are told and it was skimmed off the top.



Nevertheless, it's a great sentiment.

For Nations from afar to support another Nation in need is a testiment to humanity.

a reply to: Skid Mark

Gratitude, even if it comes late, should always be exercised.
Good for Ireland! Way to go, Choctaw Nation!

a reply to: lonesomerimbaud

Yes, so it goes. I liked Slaughter House 5

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

It's okay. I brought up the history of the famine. I wouldn't doubt if some of the money was taken off the top. Corruption was as rampant then as it is now.

a reply to: aboutface

I agree. I'm happy that they showed recognition and gratitude at all. The act could have gone unacknowledged.

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Corruption was as rampant then as it is now.

First off all, good writen('quoted') piece....

But, personally, the corruption got worse over the last decade....

a reply to: TheJudge2009

Yes it has. As long as greed is involved, it's just going to get worse.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

This just made me think of what happened to supplies that were meant for the reservations. Many were taken and sold for personal gain and sub par supplies were sent on to the reservations. Often there wasn't enough to eat because of this, which is the main thing that lead up to the Cheyenne uprising which is called Cheyenne Autumn.

Hey, the Indians in Carolina and Georgia that WEREN'T routed during this period were also supportive of Irish emigrants who fled here during that time.

A lot of my ancestry arrived here in the mid 1840s due to this, and most of them settled temporarily in the lands of Eastern Band Cherokee and the former Creek Confederacy. It's one reason you get a lot of Irish-Cherokee or Irish-Creek intermingling in the low country and Appalachians.

Dublin native Damien Dempsey wrote a song about the Choctaw Nation's generosity.

originally posted by: Bedlam
Hey, the Indians in Carolina and Georgia that WEREN'T routed during this period were also supportive of Irish emigrants who fled here during that time.

A lot of my ancestry arrived here in the mid 1840s due to this, and most of them settled temporarily in the lands of Eastern Band Cherokee and the former Creek Confederacy. It's one reason you get a lot of Irish-Cherokee or Irish-Creek intermingling in the low country and Appalachians.

Yup, the Indians could sympathize with the Irish and the Scots. They knew the power of the Crown from the stories handed down to them.
As a result of this sympathy, there was a lot of intermarriage between the Scots-Irish and the tribes. I am a result of the Trail of Tears. My many-great grandmother and her mother became fell ill of typhoid on the trip and were taken in by a compassionate family. Grandma's mother died of the ravages of the fever and the white family adopted her rather than sending her to Oklahoma. They were Choctaw who were caught up in the round-up of Cherokees because they were visiting relatives in northern Georgia. The Choctaw had already agreed to removal and quite a few had already moved to OK before the Trail removal happened.
Memories of hunger would have been very strong in all those who had endured the march.
That memorial is indeed awesome. Thanks for the thread.

a reply to: Bedlam

Thanks. I didn't know that. I'm going to look it up. It sounds like it'll be a good read.

a reply to: seabhac-rua

That song is awesome. I love music. Thank you so much for sharing it. I can't star this enough.

a reply to: diggindirt

Thank you for sharing you're family's story. It's a beautiful thing when a people can feel and recognize another people's pain and reach out to help.

It is both heart-warming and sad that people who have suffered the worst are the most generous.
Those who have never known hard times are often the most cruel.

originally posted by: skunkape23
It is both heart-warming and sad that people who have suffered the worst are the most generous.
Those who have never known hard times are often the most cruel.

Yes it is. It's really sad and strange how the most down trodden are often the most generous.

I actually thought of you when I saw this story because you mentioned being part Choctaw and Irish.