A native American communities hit hard by COVID-19 has received a flood of donations from the Irish population. As COVID-19 has swept through the Navajo Nation, with at least 2,373 cases and 73 deaths of 3 they can have Irish donors have contributed to the nation GoFundMe campaign – a return of a favor historical of 1847. As a result, as the act of generosity has to take headlines around the world, is drawn to a perhaps surprising moment in the past, attention: During the potato famine in Ireland, the Choctaw nation sent $170 ($5,000 today) in front of the relief supplies to the people of ‘Ireland, despite the adversity. When the Navajo Nation GoFundMe campaign to the attention of the Irish came through social media, they have decided to return the historic act of good will. But because the Choctaw Nation, the few resources he had before in the 19th century help a country 4,298 miles away? From 1845-1850 the production of potatoes failed caused 25% of the Irish population to flee the country and the death of at least 1 million people. made to beg people suffering from hunger around the historic marches of the country homes of their host for food, which were then removed, and many died on the way home. Across the Atlantic, almost two decades before the Great Famine, Choctaw had people from their ancestral land in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida and forced President Andrew Jackson, making a 500-mile trip to Oklahoma forced, also known like the trail of tears. , It has been dead for more than half of Choctaw 21,000 people have been forced from their land because of malnutrition on track. It is said that the Choctaw Nation on the famine by Irish soldiers listened to monitor the Indian removal – and some experts believe that the Irish experience echoed the Choctaw people. Like the Irish, Native Americans they have suffered under British colonial rule, which resulted in famine, genocide and disease outbreak. The British tried to put the Irish on reservations, as they did with the Native Americans, and forced to leave both groups in their cultures and languages in the lurch. So they decided to help the means to send that was used to buy food, blankets and feed for livestock. “It ‘s like a symbiosis of what it means to be a people colonized and have experienced culture shock,” says Padraig Kirwan, Lecturer at Goldsmiths University and co-author (with LeAnne Howe) of the forthcoming book, pots famine: Choctaw Irish Gift Exchange 1847-present. Kirwan says that the gift is Choctaw “to understand a moment of empathy, what it means to have lost.” Choctaw The act of good will has never been historically Forgot insisted the Irish and close ties between the two groups. Together they have the loss and suffering both communities have to live through thought. In 1990 Choctaw officials traveled to Ireland to take part in memory of those who died during the famine. Two years later, 22 Irish officials have joined the Choctaw people as they pulled the Trail of Tears to remember those who lost their lives. The Irish and the memory of their historical connection American Indians-for the companies have kept their stories woven in living tissue. In 1995, the Irish president at the time, Mary Robinson, visited the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, where they have been made an honorary chief. called in 2017, a sculpture of nine Kindred Spirits eagle feathers was Bailick Park Midlton, County Cork, Ireland unveiled. The following year, the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced a scholarship program for young Choctaw, the relationship between the two communities seeking “a sacred bond … that our people are united together all the time . ” Now that COVID-19 spreads throughout the world, Native American and Irish support them again. “What I find amazing GoFundMe page that this concept of searching for them, even in the darkest moments residues still so important,” says Kirwan. “The fact that so much money went to the Navajo Nation, underlines this.” But the story of Irish and Native American solidarity is also complicated: not always translate the collective experience in sympathy. Some Irish people emigrated to the United States took part in the oppression of Native Americans. “If the call This often left out,” says Kirwan. “It will be swept under the carpet.” President Andrew Jackson, for example, which provided for the displacement of the Indians from the land of their ancestors, even after they fought for him, was the son of Irish immigrants. Patrick Edward Connor, an Irish born General Union during the Civil War, scheduled for Bear River Massacre of 1863 in which hundreds were killed by Native Americans. General Philip Sheridan ascribed, the son of Irish immigrants, attacks against Native Americans in Great Plains is guided said that “The only good Indians I saw were dead”, although he later denied the origin of the phrase. Yet when Choctaw include people about the famine by an Irish man in control of their oppression, it has decided to help. Kirwan says this speaks for the Choctaw commitment to “IMA”, “to give.” This means that now, 173 years later, the Irish return, which shows that the spirit of “IMA” can go a long way to go. Picture copyright by Chris Landsberger The Oklahoman / AP
Irish donors, a face of the Crown crisis Native Americans. Here is the historical reason
