During the years 1845-1849 a famine started to sweep through Ireland. The population at the time were reliant on the Potato for sustenance. The disease called the late blight which attacks the plant started to effect the agriculture of the potato.
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This started the great famine in Ireland. It had great effect on the population of Ireland.
In 1849 it was reported that the population of Ireland was 8.8 million. By the year 1851 it had fallen to a population of just 6.6 million.
Back in September 27, 1830 the Government of United States was implementing the Indian Removal Act.
The first to sign the Treaty to cede land was the Choctaw out of the five Civilized Tribes. The Choctaw occupied the land at present day Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Nearly 17,000 of the Choctaws made the march to their new lands just west of the Mississippi River in what would be present day Oklahoma. During this march between 2,500-6,000 of the Choctaw with perish.
Choctaw and Ireland
Nearly 16 years after the Trail of Tears and the removal of the Choctaw, the news of the Great Famine was happening in Ireland.
The Choctaw people knew what it felt like to go through what they were going through and just experienced the Trail of Tears.
They decided to help and together they raised $170 to send to Ireland which translates to about $5,000 and were the largest contributors to helping Ireland out.
The settlers saw it as the influence of Christianity towards the Choctaw people, saying it was turning them more into the image of them and not the heathen barbarism that they saw the Native American People as.
“What an agreeable reflection it must give to the Christian and the philanthropist to witness this evidence of civilization and Christian spirit existing among our red neighbours. They are repaying the Christian world a consideration for bringing them out from benighted ignorance and heathen barbarism. Not only by contributing a few dollars, but by affording evidence that the labours of the Christian missionary have not been in vain.”
Editorial in the Arkansas Intelligencer
Indigenous People have always been helpers and since the arrival of Europeans have helped them survive and thrive on this land. Helping and giving help has always been a way of life before Christianity came.
This gesture from the Choctaw would go on to not be forgotten.
A sculpture with 9 – 20 foot feathers made of stainless steel in a circle was made to honour the Choctaw. The sculpture was set up at Bailick Park in 2015 to create an everlasting monument to a great true story.
There was a ceremony for the sculpture with Chief and Council in attendance along with 20 other Choctaw Tribe Members.
There is a now a scholarship in place for Choctaw Members for a Full Tuition an $10,000 living expenses to attend University College Cork in Ireland.
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[…] Native Americans were forced to take up Treaties and put on Reservations and most of the time it was land allotted that had little to no […]