Native American nations, Irish immigrants to the United States, and residents of Ireland have a history of often-supportive interactions dating back to the start of the Great Famine. Across multiple generations, people from both communities have drawn attention to their parallel histories of colonization by English-speaking countries. [1] [2] [3] Scholarship on, and press attention to, these interactions has highlighted both acts of solidarity and the participation of some Irish immigrants in the invasion and dispossession of Native Americans. [1] [4]
Early 20th century
In 1919, during the Irish war for independence, Irish president Eamon de Valera went to the US to raise support. He met with the Lac Court Oreille Band of the Ojibwe in Wisconsin. There, in front of the 3,000-member tribe, he was made an honorary chief of the Ojibwe. [5] Joe Kingfisher, the Tribal Chief, described his wishes to give de Valera, "'the prettiest blossom of the fairest flower on earth, for you come to us as a representative of one oppressed nation to another,'". The Irish and Ojibwe traded gifts, the Irish receiving a headdress, and the Ojibwe receiving multiple .38 caliber guns, which they still have today. [6]
Modern
- In 1990: Choctaw leaders visited County Mayo in Ireland, and participate in the first "Famine Walk". This is a reenactment of the walk in 1848 made by starving Irish to their landlords. [7]
- In 1992: 22 Irish leaders visited the Choctaw Nation to participate in the annual Trail of Tears memorial walk. [7]
- In 1992: Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715, installed a plaque in honor of the Choctaw aid. [7]
- In 1995: The Irish President, Mary Robinson, visited the Choctaw Nation to thank them for their donation. [7]
- In 2017: Kindred Spirits is a sculpture in Bailick Park, Midleton, County Cork, Ireland, which was unveiled in 2017 to acknowledge and thank the Choctaw Nation for their donation. The sculpture features nine 20-foot stainless steel eagle feathers. [6]
- In 2018: The Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, visited the Choctaw nation. [6]
- In 2019: Studies begin for the first recipient of the
Choctaw-Ireland Scholarship Program.
[7]
- Recipients get full tuition at University College Cork as well as 10,000 euros for living expenses. [7]
COVID-19 donations
- In 2020: Ireland donates to the Navajo and Hopi Nations during Covid in a program called "pay it forward". [7] A GoFundMe page was created to help the Hopi and Navajo tribes fight Covid. It raised over $4 Million dollars, tens of thousands coming from Irish donors. At the time, the Navajo and Hopi tribes had the highest rates of Covid outside of New York and New Jersey. [6] The communications director for the fundraiser, Cassandra Begay, attempted to spread awareness through Twitter. [8] Chief of the Choctaw Nation, Gary Batton, responded to these donations, saying "We have become kindred spirits with the Irish in the years since the Irish potato famine. We hope the Irish, Navajo and Hopi peoples develop lasting friendships, as we have." [8]
Social collaboration
- In September 2020, the Irish National Lacrosse team gave up their spot in the World Lacrosse Championship to the Iroquois Nationals - a joint team of players from the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Nations. The Iroquois National Team had not been invited to the tournament because organizers refused to recognize them as a Sovereign Nation. [9]
- Poets Doireann Ní Ghríofa from Ireland and LeAnne Howe from the Choctaw Nation collaborated in March 2021, presented by the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series. [10]
References
- ^ a b Morton, Graeme; Wilson, David A. (2013-05-01). Irish and Scottish Encounters with Indigenous Peoples: Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 978-0-7735-8881-3.
- ^ Davis, Mike (2002). ""White People are Only a Bad Dream…"". Dead cities, and other tales. New York: New Press. pp. 23–31. ISBN 978-1-56584-765-1.
- ^ Rennard, Kate (2021-09-22). "Becoming Indigenous: The Transnational Networks of the American Indian Movement, Irish Republicans, and Welsh Nationalists". Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAIS). 8 (2): 92–125. doi: 10.5749/natiindistudj.8.2.0092. ISSN 2332-1261. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
- ^ "How the Irish were complicit in Native American suffering". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
- ^ Donnan, Conor J. (2020). "Kindred Spirits and Sacred Bonds: Irish Catholics, Native Americans, and the Battle Against Anglo-Protestant Imperialism, 1840–1930". U.S. Catholic Historian. 38 (3): 1–23. doi: 10.1353/cht.2020.0017. ISSN 1947-8224. S2CID 226487710.
- ^ a b c d e "Kindred spirits: Irish-Native American solidarity". Penn Today. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Choctaw and Irish History". Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ a b O’Loughlin, Ed; Zaveri, Mihir (2020-05-05). "Irish Return an Old Favor, Helping Native Americans Battling the Virus". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
- ^ Walker, Dalton. "Friendship between Ireland, tribes lives on". ICT. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
- ^ "In Collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland: Doireann Ní Ghríofa with LeAnne Howe (2021) - Folgerpedia". folgerpedia.folger.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-19.