The Story of Choctaw Indians Who Sent Help to Ireland During The Famine

Photo: 'Kindred Spirits’ Sculpture in Midleton, Cork.

On his St Patrick's Day trip to the USA this year, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar  visited the Indian Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma to thank them for the aid they sent to Ireland during the catalystmic Irish Famine.

In 1847, the Indians of the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma, donated $170 to Ireland during the famine that killed approximately 2 million people and caused the Irish population to fall by 25%.

$170 may seem like small change by today’s numbers, but in 1847 this donation amounted to many thousands of euro and made a difference.

What makes this gift especially impressive is the fact that the Choctaw were themselves living in poverty and had been recently relocated from their own land in what became known as the 'Trail of Tears'.

But the suffering of the Irish moved the tribe, and so the Choctaw, who firmly believe in charity, dug deep into their pockets to help a foreign nation across the sea.

The Irish continue to remember the Choctaw to this day.

In 1992, Lord Mayor’s Mansion in Dublin unveiled a plaque reading, “Their humanity calls us to remember the millions of human beings throughout our world today who die of hunger and hunger-related illness in a world of plenty” to honor the tribe.

In 2015, a monument honoring the Choctaw Nation called 'Kindred Spirits’ was unveiled in Cork.
The monument features nine steel eagle feathers towering 20 feet into the air arranged in the shape of a bowl.

On his website, the sculptor of the monument, Alex Pentek, wrote about the symbolism of the bowl of feathers, saying:

“By creating an empty bowl symbolic of the Great Irish Famine formed from the seemingly fragile and rounded shaped eagle feathers used in the Choctaw ceremonial dress, it is my aim to communicate the tenderness and warmth of the Choctaw Nation who provided food to the hungry when they themselves were recovering from their own tragic recent past.”

The monument can be found in Bailic Park, Midleton, Cork.