Middleton, Ireland is adding a new feature to a town park: a circle of eagle feathers reaching 20 feet into the sky — a reminder of a donation the Choctaw Nation gave to the people of Ireland in the mid 1800s.
The metal sculpture consists of nine eagle feathers aligned in an imperfect circle. Each feather stands out with it’s own unique bends and creases. The feathers are made of steel and bound together with more than 20,000 welds.
The sculptor intentionally left a sense of fragility in the piece, according to NewsOK.
“This monument represents this time of great instability,” sculptor Alex Pentek told NewsOK. “But it also represents this great moment of compassion, strength and unity.”
Pentek spent more than a year sculpting what he’s named “Kindred Spirits.” A plaque is to be placed in the middle of the sculpture that details how in 1847 the Choctaw Nation, who was severely impoverished at the time, scraped together $170 to send to Ireland to help feed their starving. That amount is roughly equivalent to $5,000 today.
“The Irish Potato Famine started in the mid 1840’s,” John Maple, history professor at Oklahoma Christian, said. “Over a million people died due to a disease called potato blight that ruined potato farms all across Ireland. As potatoes were the main source of crops for most of Ireland, over a million people starved to death.”
Despite the Choctaw Nation’s own struggles, who were at the time facing the effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, this gift helped in easing the pain of others.
“The donation the Irish received from the Choctaw Nation is so significant because of the way they were also being treated at the time,” senior Kara Drewke said. “Both the Irish and Choctaw were being impoverished by their governments and so for these two people to become great allies and friends from across the world really is amazing.”
As many Irish people suffered because of the Great Potato Famine, many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation as they were forcibly removed from the eastern part of the United States and relocated to Indian Territory of Oklahoma.
“The Choctaw had seen a newspaper depicting how angry the Irish were at their government for letting them suffer and not coming to their aid at all,” Maple said. “Being impoverished themselves and dealing with an overarching government as they were at the time, the Choctaw empathized with the Irish and scraped together everything they could to send as aid, which was a big deal at the time because you couldn’t just send it by mail like we do today.”
Middleton is a small town of about 12,000, which is near the southeast coast of County Cork, Ireland. The town will host the unveiling in May and hopefully a number of Choctaw Natives will be in attendance as well.
“It’s a really beautiful story of two completely different and separated people coming together and sharing the same story, basically,” Drewke said. “The fact that this is still being celebrated so many years later is a great thing.”
The selflessness of the Choctaw Nation 168 years ago is still being taught in Irish schools today, however this isn’t the first time the Irish have honored the Choctaw Nation.
In 1990, many Choctaw leaders traveled to County Mayo to take part in a re-enactment of the protests of 1848. In 1992, Irish leaders took part in a trek from Oklahoma to Mississippi where they then honored former Irish President Mary Robinson by naming her an honorary Choctaw Chief.
Current Choctaw Chief Gary Batton said to NewsOK that he was invited to the unveiling in May and hopes to be able to go and be a part of another important aspect of Choctaw history, as well as to continue to say to the Irish, “Your story is our story.”
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