Donations to native American tribes who have been badly hit by the coronavirus crisis are flooding in from Ireland as they repay a debt dating back to the 19th-century potato famine.
At least 41 people have fallen victim to Covid-19 in the Navajo nation, with the spike in cases partly attributed to a water crisis. An estimated 40 percent of the Navajo do not have running water at home, and a drought in the south-west has exacerbated the difficulties.
As the crisis intensified, the Navajo and Hopi families set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise cash to pay for bottled water.
Already more than $1.3 million has been raised with donations flooding in from Ireland. The generosity dates back to a gesture made in March 1847 when the Choctaw Tribe, which was gradually re-establishing itself in Oklahoma having been ousted from its ancestral lands in Mississippi, heard news of the Irish Potato Famine across the Atlantic.
Meeting in a building in Skullyville, Oklahoma, the Choctaw were asked to dig deep for people thousands of miles away they had never met. They did, and donations poured in.
Now, 173 years later, the gesture has been repaid with donors from Ireland opening their wallets to help.
"The Choctaw and Navajo First Nation people helped the Irish during the Great Famine, despite their own suffering," wrote Michael Corkery, who donated $200.
"When I learned about it, I never forgot it; they know all people are the same in the end, and showed such decency and humanity. It's history now, but we are still grateful. Thank you!"
The people of Ireland have never forgotten the kindness shown from the Choctaw Indians. The Irish, realizing that these Native American had delved deep into their own pockets for what little they had to share, have welcomed delegations from the Choctaw Nation and have visited the tribal lands in Oklahoma. In 1992, a plaque was unveiled at the Lord Mayor’s Mansion in Dublin, Ireland that 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.”
READ How the Choctaws Saved the Irish
At least 41 people have fallen victim to Covid-19 in the Navajo nation, with the spike in cases partly attributed to a water crisis. An estimated 40 percent of the Navajo do not have running water at home, and a drought in the south-west has exacerbated the difficulties.
As the crisis intensified, the Navajo and Hopi families set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise cash to pay for bottled water.
Already more than $1.3 million has been raised with donations flooding in from Ireland. The generosity dates back to a gesture made in March 1847 when the Choctaw Tribe, which was gradually re-establishing itself in Oklahoma having been ousted from its ancestral lands in Mississippi, heard news of the Irish Potato Famine across the Atlantic.
Meeting in a building in Skullyville, Oklahoma, the Choctaw were asked to dig deep for people thousands of miles away they had never met. They did, and donations poured in.
Now, 173 years later, the gesture has been repaid with donors from Ireland opening their wallets to help.
"The Choctaw and Navajo First Nation people helped the Irish during the Great Famine, despite their own suffering," wrote Michael Corkery, who donated $200.
"When I learned about it, I never forgot it; they know all people are the same in the end, and showed such decency and humanity. It's history now, but we are still grateful. Thank you!"
The people of Ireland have never forgotten the kindness shown from the Choctaw Indians. The Irish, realizing that these Native American had delved deep into their own pockets for what little they had to share, have welcomed delegations from the Choctaw Nation and have visited the tribal lands in Oklahoma. In 1992, a plaque was unveiled at the Lord Mayor’s Mansion in Dublin, Ireland that 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.”
READ How the Choctaws Saved the Irish
Great Famine Memorial in Ireland
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