Native American and Irish interactions

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Native American nations, Irish immigrants to the United States, and residents of Ireland have a history of often-supportive interactions dating back to the start of the Great Famine. Across multiple generations, people from both communities have drawn attention to their parallel histories of colonization by English-speaking countries. [1] [2] [3] Scholarship on, and press attention to, these interactions has highlighted both acts of solidarity and the participation of some Irish immigrants in the invasion and dispossession of Native Americans. [1] [4]

Contents

Early 20th century

In 1919, during the Irish war for independence, Irish president Eamon de Valera went to the US to raise support. He met with the Lac Court Oreille Band of the Ojibwe in Wisconsin. There, in front of the 3,000-member tribe, he was made an honorary chief of the Ojibwe. [5] Joe Kingfisher, the Tribal Chief, described his wishes to give de Valera, "'the prettiest blossom of the fairest flower on earth, for you come to us as a representative of one oppressed nation to another,'". The Irish and Ojibwe traded gifts, the Irish receiving a headdress, and the Ojibwe receiving multiple .38 caliber guns, which they still have today. [6]

Modern

Kindred Spirits in Cork Chocktaw Memorial.jpg
Kindred Spirits in Cork

COVID-19 donations

Social collaboration

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References

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  2. Davis, Mike (2002). ""White People are Only a Bad Dream…"". Dead cities, and other tales. New York: New Press. pp. 23–31. ISBN   978-1-56584-765-1.
  3. Rennard, Kate (2021-09-22). "Becoming Indigenous: The Transnational Networks of the American Indian Movement, Irish Republicans, and Welsh Nationalists". Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAIS). 8 (2): 92–125. doi:10.5749/natiindistudj.8.2.0092. ISSN   2332-1261 . Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  4. "How the Irish were complicit in Native American suffering". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  5. Donnan, Conor J. (2020). "Kindred Spirits and Sacred Bonds: Irish Catholics, Native Americans, and the Battle Against Anglo-Protestant Imperialism, 1840–1930". U.S. Catholic Historian. 38 (3): 1–23. doi:10.1353/cht.2020.0017. ISSN   1947-8224. S2CID   226487710.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kindred spirits: Irish-Native American solidarity". Penn Today. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Choctaw and Irish History". Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  8. 1 2 O’Loughlin, Ed; Zaveri, Mihir (2020-05-05). "Irish Return an Old Favor, Helping Native Americans Battling the Virus". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  9. Walker, Dalton. "Friendship between Ireland, tribes lives on". ICT. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  10. "In Collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland: Doireann Ní Ghríofa with LeAnne Howe (2021) - Folgerpedia". folgerpedia.folger.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-19.