Kindred Spirits

May 6, 2020

It’s not often that I donate to a charity. But yesterday I was reminded of an act of goodwill and generosity in 1847 that is still reverberating down through the years to the present moment, a gesture that inspired me yesterday to give a small amount of money to the Navajo and Hopi people for their struggle against the coronavirus.

So what happened in 1847 that moves me to tears in 2020?

In 1847 the Irish were in the midst of The Great Hunger, a potato famine that caused a million Irish to starve to death or die of disease. Here in the U.S., word of the mass suffering reached the Choctaw people who themselves had recently endured the Trail of Tears forced migration from Mississippi and nearby lands to Oklahoma. A quarter of the Choctaws died on that terrible relocation journey, so they knew from personal experience how starvation felt.

When the Choctaws heard about the massive hunger and death of the Irish, that news touched them deeply. And so the Choctaws, themselves living in abject poverty, managed to scrape together $170 and sent it across the ocean to a people they had never met. That $170 (about $5,000 in today’s money) was distributed in Ireland by Quakers as part of their famine relief efforts.

The Irish never forgot the magnanimous spirit of the Choctaws.

In 1995 Irish President Mary Robinson visited the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma to thank them for their altruism. In 2017 a large outdoor sculpture commemorating the Choctaw benevolence was dedicated in County Cork, Ireland. The “Kindred Spirits” sculpture consists of nine stainless steel eagle feathers that reach 20 feet toward the sky. The giant feathers form a circle representing the gift of a bowl of food for the hungry.

Two years ago Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar also thanked the Choctaws in person in Oklahoma. He announced a scholarship program for Choctaw youth to study in Ireland, and called the relationship between the two communities “A sacred bond…which has joined our peoples together for all time. Your act of kindness has never been, and will never be, forgotten in Ireland.”

And now, in the last few days, word has reached Ireland that the Hopi and Navajo people have been especially hard hit by the coronavirus. So hundreds of Irish citizens have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Navajo and Hopi Families Covid 19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe fundraiser for food and medical supplies. One donor, Richard Keogh, wrote, “Native Americans were there for Ireland in our time of need.” Another donor, Pat Hayes, said “From Ireland, 170 years later, the favour is returned! To our Native American brothers and sisters in your moment of hardship.”

The coronavirus may be exceptionally contagious. But so are love and gratitude.