Standing in a 20 foot high circle in County Cork, Ireland, is a stainless steel sculpture by Alex Pentek, of nine huge eagle feathers arranged in a circle reminiscent of a bowl. It was erected in honor of the Oklahoma Choctaw Indian tribe.
The information for this story appeared in the September- October issue of Smithsonian Magazine.
The Choctaw tribe suffered the famous Trail of Tears beginning in 1831. They were displaced in the winter from the Mississippi valley to the Oklahoma territory, a trip of over 500 miles. It is estimated that a quarter of the 15000 people died on the trip.
In 1847 the Choctaw were struggling to survive in Oklahoma when Indian Agent William Armstrong met with the leaders of the tribe, some traders, and some missionaries, and read to them from a pamphlet about a white people, thousands of miles away in Ireland, who were suffering a potato famine, in which ultimately a million people died and two million emigrated to England, the U.S., and Canada. Some of the people listening in that room began to weep, and on that day a collection was started which grew to a still unknown amount, but probably between $174 and $710. The money was sent to New York where it was labeled “Contributed by the Children of the Forest. . . the Choctaw Nation.” It was used to buy grain and other foodstuffs for Ireland, and soon forgotten by the tribe, and by many of the Irish; but in 2018 the Irish Prime Minister visited Tuskahoma, the capital of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, to thank the tribe, and establish scholarships for tribe members who wished to study in Ireland. During Covid, funds were sent from Ireland to other tribes in the U.S. Who were especially hard hit.“We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God which has been shone in the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part, for they gave according to their means, and beyond their means, of their own free will.”(2 Corinthians 8:1-3)
The action of the Choctaw came from the simple recognition of a kinship with another people’s suffering, and a desire to help relieve that suffering. In the eyes of God that simplicity is greater than massive rescue programs: “This poor widow has put in (the Temple treasury) more than all the others. All these people gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” (Luke 21:3-4)
The Choctaw’s gift has come to be known in Ireland simply as “The Gift”; but the sculpture in County Cork is named “Kindred Spirits.” Love in Him,Prue
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