Hatak Topulli Nan Imokpulo: Friends Through Adversity
By C. Austin
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.
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