Native American communities have thanked the Irish people for the support after a ‘GoFundMe’ Page set up to aid Navajo and Hopi families in need due to the Covid-19 lockdown received a large amount of donations from Ireland.
Many in Ireland see the aid as repayment for help offered to Irish people during the Famine years.
During An Gorta Mór or the ‘Great Famine’ the Choctaw nation, who had endured the ‘Trail of Tears’ just a decade beforehand, during which they were driven from their native lands and starved en masse due to the conditions imposed on them saw the Irish in similar predicament and sought to help.
The nation, though desperately poor and struggling to survive raised $170 of relief aid to Ireland, which would be the equivalent of around $5,000 today. The monies were raised as part of an aid drive in the United States to help the Irish people as food stuffs in Ireland were still being exported from the country by the British authorities.
A young lawyer from Illinois named, Abraham Lincoln, helped in the raising of the funds.
The fund has almost reached its goal of raising $2 million and the organisers have thanked the Irish people for their support in a statement by team member Vanessa Tulley
“Several of our recent donations for our GoFundMe campaign have been inspired by the Great Hunger Famine in Ireland which started in 1845.
173 years later to today, the favour is returned through generous donations from the Irish people to the Navajo Nation during our time of crisis.
Thank you, Ireland, for showing solidarity and being here for us.”
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