In this 150th year anniversary of the Great "Famine," it seems appropriate to look at the story and lore of a people who responded to the Irish in their time of great need.
The Choctaw Indian tribe once occupied the southeastern United States, primarily in central and southern Mississippi and southern Alabama. "Choctaw" the anglicized form of the tribal name "Chahta" came from the Creek Indian word "Cate" meaning red. Choctaws were known for their patience, skillful diplomacy and great strength in defensive warfare. Seldom did Choctaws engage in aggressive campaigns outside of their own country and they were unsurpassed in their agricultural abilities among the southeastern tribes.
Until the 1800's the Choctaw calendar was based on the phases of the moon and the two parts of their year were roughly separated by the vernal and autumnal equinox. Although they believed in an essentially good and an essentially evil spirit, they also believed in a number of lesser nature spirits. The Kowi anukasha, or "Little People," were playful, mischievous spirits who were responsible for unexplained noises in the forest as well asassisting tribal doctors and prophets with the preparation of herbal medicines. Much like the Celtic banshee, the Ishkitini, or owl, was a portent of impending death or misfortune. The Na-lusa-chito, or soul eater, was the cause of a depression which crept in and destroyed the human soul.
Choctaw legend tells of their ancient migration following a great chief who carried a sacred pole and led his tribe to the mound Nanih Waya in Mississippi. This enormous man-made mound became the sacred centre of Choctaw rite and ceremony. In later years the mound was the location of the Choctaw national council, last held there in 1828.
In 1819, the United States government began agitating for the removal of the Choctaw tribe from their rich Mississippi territory to settlement in the inhospitable lands of Oklahoma. By 1830, the final removal of the Choctaws had been "legally" arranged by treaty and beginning in 1831 the tribe was forcibly removed from their homeland.
From 1831 to 1834, the Choctaw, one of the largest tribes of the southeast, were forced to make the 500 mile journey from Mississippi to Oklahoma. The government removed the tribe in three groups in successive years, each group being forced to make the trek in the bitter months of winter.
The planning and management of the removal by the Bureau of Indian Affairs was a spectacular disaster. The Choctaw were ordered to leave their possessions and live stock behind and were given no tents, supplies or medical assistance.
Unfamiliar with the terrain, army guides leading the tribe to Oklahoma became lost. Temperatures were below freezing and many died of the white man's diseases of dysentery, diphtheria and typhoid. Arkansas farmers quadrupled food and supply prices to take advantage of the bedraggled band. The dead were burned by the side of the road as the ground, frozen solid, prohibited burial.
Of the estimated 40,000 Choctaws who left Mississippi and the surrounding areas, 14,000 died along what one Choctaw chief described as a "trail of tears and death." The Choctaw were the first of the five great southern tribes to be removed and the words "Trail of Tears" became synonymous with the brutal removal of the Indian from his lands throughout the United States.
In 1847, the Choctaw tribe learned of the hardship facing the Irish people. The memory of being driven from their lands into famine and pestilence echoed in their hearts and they gathered the then princely sum of $710 to send to the Irish, as well as whatever corn and food they could spare. Their solidarity with the Irish was recorded by the Baltimore Register on April 3, 1847 as "the poor Indian sending his mite to the poor Irish."
The Irish have not forgotten the gesture of the Choctaw. The tribe was honored by aproclamation of November 3, 1994 as "Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Day" by San Francisco mayor Frank Jordon "in appreciation of the Choctaw Nation's overwhelming generosity and kindness to the people of Ireland." The tribe will be further honored later this year with the unveiling of a plaque in Dublin.
In March of this year, Paddy Moloney of the traditional Irish music group The Chieftains was named an honorary chief of the Choctaw tribe at a concert at Southern Methodist University in Texas.
Just as the Irish diaspora has grown strong in the many lands where distant relatives landed, the Choctaw nation now numbers 90,000. The Nation provides community, social, medical and educational assistance to its members from the tribal complex in Oklahoma. The tribe sponsors an annual Walk along "the trail of tears" to honor their ancestors that experienced those brutal times. The Walk reminds us all, without blame, of the suffering of "famine" victims, both past and present.