Fermoy Forum

During the Great Famine, the Choctaw tribe of Mississippi donated to a fund that would provide relief for a people across the Atlantic who were suffering in ways they knew all too well. Today, in the midst of a global health crisis, a number of Irish return the gesture. 
In pre-colonial times, the 20,000 strong Choctaw tribe resided in southeastern Mississippi. With a scattering of 60-70 settlements alongside three rivers in this area, they were successful crop farmers who lived in small wood cabins with thatched roofs. 
Following colonisation and defeat in the French and Indian War (1754-63), they were forced to relinquish some land to the United States. However, when the cotton industry began to take off in the South during the early 19th century, the Choctaw were pressured to hand over 5,000,000 acres to white settlers; in the 1830’s the tribe were pushed further inland, settling in Oklahoma. 
It is in Skullyville, Oklahoma, that a mere decade or so after the loss of their ancestral home hundred of miles south, the Choctaw met in 1847 and donated to an Irish famine relief effort. 
The fractured tribe—who were only just beginning to rebuild themselves in an unfamiliar territory after over a century of war and oppression—delved into small pockets in a show of solidarity with a foreign, suffering people. In total they donated $170, the equivalent of $5000 today. 
170 years later, the Irish give back. When a Covid-19 relief fund set up by residents of the largest Indian reservation in the U.S, Navajo Nation, gained international traction last month, reports flooded in of Irish people returning an ancient favour. As Declan Sheehan, donor of $100, commented on the GoFundMe page: “In Ireland’s darkest hour, you shone a light of hope.” 
Thousands of Navajo citizens still do not have electricity, and approximately 40 percent of the population go without access to running water. These hardships, combined with a water shortage following a recent drought, has aggravated the Covid-19 health crisis in this territory. 
Vanessa Tulley, a member of the team in Navajo organising donations, gave special thanks to Irish donors on Monday: “We are so grateful for...acts of kindness from indigenous ancestors passed being reciprocated nearly 200 years later through blood memory and interconnectedness. Thank you, IRELAND, for showing solidarity and being here for us.” 

<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/ZIX5lhNv-fiuqYZB31Ubvd8tX4H_EQ1kjBKRuVhp6rL910gy0Mr488cRmFvnBuDMhKbxoU2kyHaAxf5mA1V5Fqaa5PWkNeX4SX-2xoyOEIieD11Y7gveQrqutwGKHeIHWjWjvWeK" alt="" style="float:none;height: ;width: "/>

‘Kindred Spirits’, by Cork-based sculptor Alex Pentek, was commissioned in 2013 by Midleton Town Council to memorialise the time in 1847 when the kind people of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma heard of the suffering of the starving Irish.

The sculpture containing nine, noble 20-foot eagle feathers reaching towards the sky, is arranged in a circular shape, representing a bowl filled with food presented to those suffering from hunger.

170-Year-Old Debt Repaid: Irish Reciprocate a Native American Kindness

DOWNLOAD AND XPLORE