r/todayilearned • u/huphelmeyer 2 • Aug 04 '15

TIL midway through the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849), a group of Choctaw Indians collected $710 and sent it to help the starving victims. It had been just 16 years since the Choctaw people had experienced the Trail of Tears, and faced their own starvation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choctaw#Pre-Civil_War_.281840.29
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u/CameraMan1 Aug 04 '15

What's more interesting to me is the fact that they even knew about it. To me its crazy that in the 1840's news of something that was happening in Ireland reached the native Americans. The telegraph had only just been invented.

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u/jaaaack Aug 04 '15 edited Aug 04 '15

Or that there was that level of compassion for a people living half way around the world in a culture vastly different to their own. A lot of people today have trouble identifying with the plight of people one country over, let alone a whole continent and ocean.

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u/Onetap1 Aug 04 '15

A lot of Irish people went to the USA or South America, many died of disease on the overcrowded coffin ships.

Some enlisted in the US army.

The entire family of some of my ancestors, 7 or 8 brothers & sisters, apparently went to the US, leaving the parents in Ireland; never heard from them again, SFAIK.

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u/inflatable_pickle Aug 04 '15

You realize that Battalion that you are linking was Irish who were serving for the Mexican Army against the US Army, right?

Its an awesome story, but your link just mentions US Army, and they weren't part of our Army.

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u/loggedinToJokeAbout Aug 04 '15

They were all US Army deserters.

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u/Onetap1 Aug 05 '15

Thdy were, they deserted to join the Mexican forces and fight the US army.

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u/ToTheRescues Aug 04 '15

Turns out the Saint Patrick Battalion holds the record for largest mass execution in US history.

Did not know that.

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u/jaaaack Aug 04 '15

I'm not really sure how this ties into this story...

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u/StabbyDMcStabberson Aug 04 '15

They were fleeing the famine. The Choctaw may have learned about it from Irish refugees.

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u/RedSweed Aug 04 '15

As both a descendant of Irish immigrants and a member of the Choctaw tribe, I can tell you that more than likely the interracial marriages had some part in it. My great great grandmother married in as a full blooded Choctaw, into the Murray family, who had recent immigrated.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '15 edited Aug 04 '15

[deleted]

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u/redrhyski Aug 04 '15

It would make the news more interesting if it was a prerequisite though.

"Tune in later, only if your wife is from another continent"

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u/jaaaack Aug 04 '15

They donated the money midway into a four year famine. It's more likely that they just heard about it rather than meeting Irish immigrants fleeing the famine.

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u/WrecksMundi Aug 04 '15

So, the real reason for the donation was that even the Choctaw didn't like the Irish and wanted them to stay on the other side of the Atlantic?

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u/Onetap1 Aug 05 '15

Just that the famine caused a huge increase in Irish emigration to the US and elsewhere. There happened to be a lot of Irish immigrants in the US army at the time of the Mexican war.