@actiondiscoveries: On March 23, 1847, members of the Choctaw Nation gathered in Skullyville, in what is now Oklahoma, to raise money for people suffering during Ireland's Great Potato Famine. They collected $170, equivalent to more than $5,000 today, and sent the contribution through Irish famine relief organisations. What made this gesture remarkable was the Choctaw people's own recent suffering. Between 1831 and 1833, thousands had been forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in Mississippi and relocated to Indian Territory under the US government's Indian Removal policy. The brutal journey became known as the Trail of Tears. Around 20,000 Choctaw people undertook the journey, and historians estimate that approximately 4,000 died from disease, exposure, hunger and exhaustion. The Irish were experiencing a similarly devastating catastrophe. Potato blight had destroyed successive harvests beginning in 1845. Because millions of poor Irish families depended heavily on potatoes for survival, crop failures led to mass starvation, disease and widespread emigration. More than one million people died during the famine. The Choctaw donation was especially meaningful because they recognised the suffering of another people who had experienced displacement, hunger and loss. Their contribution was not simply financial assistance; it reflected a sense of solidarity born from their own hardships. In 2007, Ireland commemorated this extraordinary connection with the Kindred Spirits sculpture in Midleton, County Cork, consisting of nine enormous stainless-steel eagle feathers arranged in a circle. #ireland #oklahoma #us #oklahoma #indian

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Monday 09 November 2026 21:23:17 GMT