Starvation in Skibbereen and Compassion of the Choctaw Nation
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The Choctaw People in 1847 were languishing in exile from their homelands in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Sixteen years previous the Choctaw People had been dispossessed of their land and induced onto a forced march of 500 miles to Oklahoma. Amid their own suffering and starvation the Choctaw People learned of the potato famine that had swept through Ireland, and resulted in over one million Irish People starving to death. Recognizing the plight of their fellow man, the Choctaw Nation, despite their own impoverishment, took up a donation drive that produced the single largest contribution to come from the America's to help alleviate Ireland's suffering.
On behalf of my father's family that emigrated to this land from Ireland in the early 1900's I extend my gratitude and thanks to the Choctaw Nation. I will not forget their compassion.
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