Every Easter, I try to post a story about resurrection because when the news is dreary, we need positive, uplifting buoyancy. Here’s a remarkable one I’d never heard. The research left me teary: see for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ2vcCJ-UII, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhkxQEzSR7Q, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlapEAWWDQc, or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVaKXr87sQE
To summarize:
Between 1831 and 1833, around 20,000 Choctaw people were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma from their ancestral lands in present-day Mississippi and Alabama. Historians estimate that 4,000 died along the way, which has aptly been named the Trail of Tears. (Smithsonian Magazine)
Only 16 years later, still recovering from the trauma, they heard about the Irish Potato Famine. One commentator named it “a familiar heartache”—most of the food grown in Ireland was exported by the English under military guard as the starving Irish watched, their diet of potatoes wiped out by disease.
The Irish population in 1845 was 7 million—then 2 million either died in the famine or emigrated. The suffering struck a chord with people 4,000 miles away who had suffered terrible deprivation themselves and had little money. But the Choctaw of Skullyville, Oklahoma, donated $170, funds distributed by the Quakers, which would amount to over 5,000 in today’s dollars. The bond of shared oppression was intense.
In 2020, 173 years after the original donation, the Navajo and Hopi tribes were devastated by the pandemic. They had the highest rates of COVID-19 in the US, outside of New York and New Jersey. As one news commentator pointed out, the constant injunctions to wash hands were meaningless when 1/3 of the people had no running water. A native news anchor said “we’re almost invisible in the U.S.,” but the Irish came through—donating over $5 million for food, water and supplies. The donations from Irish people were accompanied by touching messages: “the favour is returned!” “You helped us in our darkest hour. Honoured to return the kindness. Ireland remembers, with thanks.” “You helped us when no one else did.”
Connections continue. In 1995, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Choctaw donation, the president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, visited Oklahoma to thank native people. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar also paid them a visit. In 2017 a sculpture titled “Kindred Spirits” was installed in Midleton, Ireland. It beautifully depicts an empty bowl, framed by a graceful circle of feathers.
The Choctaw-Ireland Scholarships are another unique partnership. The Republic of Ireland provides tuition and expenses for a Choctaw recipient to study at University College, Cork. More scholarships were later made possible by a matching donation through the Chahta Foundation to allow more native students to study in Ireland. So it continues: The stunning power of kindness… and memory. Resurrexit!
Kathy Coffey 