07 May 2020 - Donations flood in from Ireland to Native Americans amid Covid crisis in repayment of Famine aid
Coronavirus: Irish donate to hard-hit Native Americans to repay famine aid
Naomi O’Leary (The Irish Times, 05/05/2020)
A fundraiser to help Native Americans fight one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the United States has taken off in Ireland, with donations flooding in to pay tribute to aid from the Choctaw tribe during the famine.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in to the Navajo & Hopi Families Covid-19 Relief Fund since it began to go viral in Ireland, helping it burst through its target of $1.5 million (€1.3 million).
The list of donors to the GoFundMe page is dominated by Irish surnames, and many donors left comments to say they were giving in remembrance of Native American aid to Ireland during the Great Hunger.
The blood memory Ireland has never forgotten: How the Irish repaid US tribes for Famine generosity
Ralph Riegel (The Independent Ireland, 06/05/2020)
It is a blood memory that Ireland has never forgotten.
Some 173 years ago, an American Indian tribe were so moved by the suffering caused by the Great Famine that they ignored their own poverty to send donations across the Atlantic to Ireland in a bid to help a people they did not know and had no connection with.
The Choctaw Nation - still reeling from their own 'Trail of Tears' and struggling to adapt to the Oklahoma plains that were far from their rich ancestral homelands - donated a total of $170 (the equivalent of around €4,500 today).
Irish Send Money to Native American Community Hit By COVID-19, Returning Historic Favor
Mélissa Godin (TIME Magazine, 05/05/2020)
A Native American community severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak has received an outpour of donations from Irish people, who are returning a historic favor from 173 years ago.
In 1847, the Native American Choctaw nation sent $170 ($5000 today) of relief aid to the Irish people impacted by the great potato famine. Now, the Irish are reciprocating the act of goodwill by donating funds to the Navajo nation, which has been severely impacted by COVID-19, with at least 2373 cases and 73 death as of May 3.
10 steps to save Native Americans from Covid-19 catastrophe
Van Jones (CNN, 06/05/2020)
The pandemic ravaging some Native American communities has echoes that go back centuries -- to the measles and smallpox epidemics that first decimated the original Americans. This time, however, rapid action can avert a catastrophe.
The stakes are high. And the human stories are already heartbreaking. For example, Andrea Circle Bear never met her daughter. The day before she delivered her baby via cesarean section on April 1, doctors placed Circle Bear on a ventilator. Less than four weeks later, the young mother succumbed to Covid-19 and passed away.