On March 23, 1847, a group of Choctaw leaders and others met in eastern Oklahoma to raise money for "the relief of the starving poor in Ireland." They collected $170, which was sent first to the Memphis Irish Relief Committee, then to the General Irish Relief Committee of the City of New York. This gift from an American Indian nation was recognized as extraordinary even at that time; the chairman of the New York committee mentioned it specifically in reports to the Central Relief Committee in Ireland.
This week, at the beginning of a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the United States, the Irish head of state visited Oklahoma to thank the Choctaw Nation and announce an Irish scholarship program for Choctaw youth. It is not the first time the Irish have remembered the Choctaws' extending their hand. In 1992 a group of Irish men and women walked the 600-mile Trail of Tears, raising $170,000 to relieve suffering in famine-stricken Somalia—$1,000 for every dollar donated by the Choctaw people in 1847. Last year a Choctaw delegation took part in the dedication of Kindred Spirits, a sculpture commissioned by the people of County Cork to commemorate the Choctaws' kindness. “These people were still recovering from their own injustice, and they put their hands in their pockets and they helped strangers,” County Councilman Joe McCarthy pointed out at the ceremony. “It’s rare to see such generosity. It had to be acknowledged.”
Here Judy Allen, historic projects officer for the Choctaw Nation, describes the Choctaws' original gift to the Irish and how it reflects enduring cultural values.