Photo: White Wolf Pack
A plaque acknowledging the contribution of the Choctaw people to the one million Irish people starving during Black ’47 is mounted in Dublin’s Mansion House and reads, “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.”
This is a story of compassion reaching across borders and cultures. Apparently, a Native American tribe, moved by the desperation of the Irish famine in the 19th century, donated money to help the hungry.
And Ireland did not forget.
According to the website White Wolf Pack, “In 2015, a statue was commissioned to be built in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland, to honor the kindness of the Choctaws. But the story begins in 1831, when the Choctaw people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Mississippi.
“A few years later, Choctaws learned of people starving in Ireland. Only sixteen years had passed since the Choctaws had faced hunger and death on the first Trail of Tears and a great empathy was felt when they heard such a similar tale coming from across the ocean. Individual Choctaws collected and donated $170 in 1847 to assist the Irish people.
“Jump ahead a century and a half. It took a year for artist Alex Pentek to create Kindred Spirits. With its nine eagle feathers reaching 20 feet into the air, the statue represents ‘this great moment of compassion, strength, and unity,’ said Pentek. …
“This is not the first time that the Choctaw nation has been honored in Ireland. In 1990, Choctaw leaders traveled to County Mayo to take part in a reenactment of the desperate walk undertaken by locals to their landlord in 1848. The gesture was returned in 1992, when Irish commemoration leaders took part in a 500 mile trek from Oklahoma to Mississippi. Former Irish President Mary Robinson has also been named an honorary Choctaw chief.”
More here and at Wikipedia, here.
I keep thinking that if ordinary folks like those Choctaws — and the Irish who remained grateful — would keep doing what they do in ever increasing numbers, the combined strength of multiple acts of empathy would erode the wrongdoing of the powerful.
What a lovely, and sad, friendship between peoples, and what a GLORIOUS sculpture!
We’ve seen other sculptures honoring the first Americans — you probably know the one outside the MFA of a brave on a horse with his arms open to the heavens — but they tend to be representational figures. I love the idea of feathers in a circle and the sense of an embracing solidarity.
I don’t love the one at the MFA–it’s a little too informed by stereotypes and a bit mawkish for my taste. But those feathers! Wow.