Photo of Kindred Spirits sculpture, Midleton, County Cork. Gavin Sheridan - Own work. Accessed 1/6/2025 Wikipedia.org
The nearly 200-year Choctaw Irish bond was celebrated in County Cork, Ireland in July 2017 with the dedication of "Kindred Spirits". The sculpture's nine steel feathers "represent the Choctaw Nation's strength, kindness, and humanity" and commemorate the nation's 1847 donation toward famine relief during Ireland's Great Hunger. (1)
The $170 donation was reported contemporaneously under the headline, "The Choctaws to Their White Brethren of Ireland":
...a meeting for the relief of the starving poor of Ireland was held at the Choctaw Agency on the 23d ult. Major Wm. Armstrong was called to the chair, and J.B. Luce was appointed Secretary. A circular of the "Memphis committee" [i.e., Memphis Irish Relief Committee] was read by Major Armstrong, after which the meeting contributed $710 [sic, $170]. All subscribed, agents, missionaries, traders, and Indians, a considerable portion of which fund was made up by the latter. The "poor Indian" sending his mite to the poor Irish! (2)
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New-York Commercial Advertiser, New York, New York, April 23, 1847. From Indigenous Life in America
The article, including the typographical error inflating the donation amount, was reprinted widely through early May but by mid-month, The Flag of Our Union correctly reported, "A meeting for the relief of the starving poor of Ireland was held at the Choctaw agency...and $170 subscribed, principally by the Indians." (3)
However, on May 21 the Alexandria Gazette's 'News of the Day' column included the line, "The Treasurer of the Boston Irish Relief Committee has received $150 from the Choctaw Indians" (4) and one wonders if this typo left the relief committee's treasurer with $20 worth of explaining to do.
As erroneous as the early reporting of the donation amount was, the verity of the appreciation for the donation was beyond reproach. In a Freeman's Journal article criticizing an argument calling for gratitude from the Irish for England's less than middling relief effort, the Choctaw were specifically thanked for their support.
Ireland owes no gratitude to England. If...England disgorged at once, by way of restitution, one hundred millions, she ought not then to speak of gratitude - but in the spirit of the penitent thief on the cross...Ireland's gratitude is due to foreign nations, to the American first and above all; to the Italians, the French, the Germans, the Turks, the Hindoos, the Choctaw Indians, the British Convicts, both at home and abroad. Ireland has not been oppressed and plundered by these – she had no claim on them – and yet they heard her cry of distress and came to her relief, when her own British rulers were as deaf as adders to the voice of her children's wailing. (5)
Many, if not all Choctaw, all too well understood this sentiment having experienced the consequences of the United States' removal policy; the forced migration remembered in part as The Trail of Tears.
Newspaper coverage of the ongoing tragedy as it unfolded is not difficult to find. It is, however, often difficult to read. Generally appearing under the headline "Indian Emigration", the articles presented the intended 'improvements' to the lives of those subjected to the removal policy or served as periodic progress reports on the 'success' of the policy.
The former is illustrated by a Buffalo Republican article reprinted in the Albany Argus on July 19, 1833:
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Albany Argus, Albany, New York, July 19, 1833. From Indigenous Life in America
Every one who has read the letter of Mr. Hannum in relation to the emigration of the Indian Tribes west of the Mississippi will be satisfied that the policy of the government towards the Indians has been of the most proper and humane character. It seems that Mr. Schermerhorn, the very capable commissioner appointed on the part of the government, to hold treaties and superintend emigration has lately concluded an important treaty with the Quapau tribe, and in all his intercourse with the savages, having given them most advantageous terms, has effectually conciliated their good feeling. The Indians who have emigrated are rapidly advancing in civilization, and the truth of the proposition of Gov. Cass is every day becoming more firmly established, viz: that the plan of emigration offers to this race the only hope of ultimate security and improvement. The removal to the west has already greatly improved the condition of the Indians. They have a delightful country. Mr. Hannum says:
"The waters of the Neosho and Illinois are very transparent, and afford great quantities of the best kind of fish. The country inhabited by the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, Osages, Senecas, Kaswaskias, Piankashows, Weas, Peorias, Shawnees, Kansas, and Delawares, with the country yet to be given to the Indians east of the Mississippi, is greater in extent, and comprise more land, than the States of New-York, New-Jersey, and all the Eastern States together." (6)
The latter type of "Indian Emigration" article is ubiquitous for decades after the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Farmers' Cabinet, in late 1841, reported:
The steamer Little Rock...arrived on Thursday...having on board, 207 Seminole Indians, sixty of whom were warriors, the remainder women and children, destined for their future homes west of Arkansas. Among them are the two noted hostile chiefs, Wild Cat and Hospitaki. The officers in charge of the party are Capt. Seawell and Lieut. Britton, of the 7th U.S. Infy., and assist Surgeon Walker. (7)
Inferring Wild Cat and Hospitaki were relocating against their wills based on the presence of a military escort is as reasonable as inferring from the following 1842 article the wife and family of Tigertail were also not emigrating by choice:
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The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, February 23, 1842. From Indigenous Life in America
Three hundred and nineteen of the Florida Indians arrived at New Orleans from Tampa Bay, on the 11th instant, in the ship Rosalind, on their way to Arkansas. The wife and family of Tigertail, who lately escaped from Tampa Bay, compose part of the above company of emigrants. (8)
And the forced removal had by no means ended by the time the famine relief was given:
...on the 4th inst. a party of Choctaw Indians – 112 in number – passed through...on their way to the Choctaw Agency, west of the State of Arkansas...A few days previously, another party – 180 in number – under the charge of Rev. T.C. Stewart, took the same destination. There are still remaining in Mississippi about 3000 of these Indians. (9)
Even after only a cursory comparison, it is not hard to imagine why the Choctaw and the Irish empathized as kindred spirits.
Speaking to their continued rapport in a 2020 interview, Choctaw Nation Chief Garry Batton said of the $170 donation, "It's taught in their history books. Every year, I receive postcards from their students over there thanking the Choctaw Nation for what they did back during the potato famine." (10)
The historic donation from Choctaw Nation was particularly remembered in Ireland, and reciprocated through a fund for Navajo and Hopi communities, during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Guardian reported:
The list of recent donors reads like an Irish phone book. Aisling Ní Chuimín, Shane Ó Leary, Sean Gibbons, Kevin Boyle, Kevin Keane, Clare Quinn, Eamonn McDonald, on and on down a GoFundMe page that by Friday had raised $3.15m of a $5m goal.
The individual amounts are not remarkable – $10, $20, $30, some exceeding $100 – but the story behind the donations stretches back two centuries and encompasses a singular act of generosity that forged a bond between Native Americans and Ireland. (11)
In recognition of this outpouring of donations toward pandemic relief, Choctaw Nation issued a statement, saying, in part:
We are gratified – and perhaps not at all surprised – to learn of the assistance our special friends, the Irish, are giving to the Navajo and Hopi nations. Our word for their selfless act is 'iyyikowa' – it means serving those in need. (12)
A vital resource for scholars of all levels, this distinctive digital news collection of Indigenous American life combines current sources with an archive spanning more than four centuries. Covering topics from the arrival of Europeans and westward expansion to 21st-century activism, the intuitive interface offers over 700 suggested searches, thoughtfully organized for easy access to essential content.
References
1. Irish Honor Choctaw Nation with 'Kindred Spirits' Sculpture, Associated Press State Wire: Oklahoma (OK), July 2, 2017, Kaelynn Knoernschild, The Oklahoman. 2. The Choctaws to Their White Brethren of Ireland, New-York Commercial Advertiser, New York, New York, April 23, 1847, p. 2. 3. The Flag of Our Union, Boston, Massachusetts, May 15, 1847, p. 3. 4. News Of the Day, Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria, Virginia, May 21, 1847, p. 2. 5. English Modesty Calling out for Irish Gratitude, Freeman's Journal, New York, New York, July 10, 1847, p. 4. 6. Indian Emigration, Albany Argus, Albany, New York, July 19, 1833, p. 2. 7. Indian Emigration, The Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, New Hampshire, December 10, 1841, p. 2. 8. Indian Emigration, The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, February 23, 1842, p. 1. 9. Indian Emigration, The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 12, 1849, p. 2. 10. The Remarkable Story of Why the People of Ireland Are Specifically Helping the Navajo Population in This Country as They Suffer through the COVID Pandemic, CBS Saturday Morning, June 13, 2020. 11. Irish Support for Native American Covid-19 Relief Highlights Historic Bond, The Guardian Web Edition, London, England, May 9, 2020. 12. Ibid.
