Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/irish-repay-a-170-year-old-fav.html
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Ireland is one classy culture. They are my favorite Europeans.
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Definitely brought a tear to my eye to learn this bit of history and current assistance the Irish are giving to the Native American peoples. I hope this news will bring additional attention to the plight they and other minorities are facing in the US.
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just when i lose faith in humanity, someone (or a group of them) goes and does something that totally restores it.
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You know, despite the rather rabid Catholicism, the insane British feudalism, and the alcoholism, there really are many, MANY, fine people of Irish heritage…
I’ve never met a single one.
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So wait…
The Choctaw (who still exist as a nation) over in Oklahoma sent money to the Irish.
To repay the debt, the Irish sent money to a Hopi/Dine group? Two completely separate peoples who are largely in AZ/NM?
Why not just give $ to the Choctaw? Maybe there’s some deal where the charity is going to share?
The intention is admirable, but it seems like sending money to Thailand to repay a favor that a Japanese group did…
(Sorry for being the turd in the punch bowl, but NA peoples are separate and distinct groups)
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I suspect the main reason is that most Irish people probably didn’t realise there was a distinction.
Or to quote one Irish bloke I read:
“What? I gave money to the lads in Mumbai!”
They’re trying to help people in need, that’s the important part.
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I think it’s worth noting that the Irish people already give assistance to the Choctaw nation- this story is just an effect of people being inspired by that story to be generous to other Native Americans in need.
To be fair,the wording of the headline is probably a bit off. This isn’t so much “repaying a favour” as people being reminded that solidarity is important.
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Ah, that makes a hell of a lot more sense.
More of a “pay it forward” to a similar (but not identical) group when the proverbial shoe is on the other foot. I’m sure the Choctaw support this effort at cross cultural solidarity.
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Uh oh. You’ve just pissed off a lot of Hopis.
I think there’s a lot of solidarity among NA bands. Maybe “similar” isn’t the correct word, but I think my meaning is clear.
1/2 of my heritage is from Japan. I wouldn’t be offended if someone described Koreans, or Chinese, as “similar”. Totally different cultures, but all Asian eh?
So, Choctaw isn’t the same as Hopi and Dine, but still NA eh?
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It’s actually the lumping of Puebloan Hopi and Athabaskan Diné that I think would be the problem. Hopi and Diné have an interesting history and ongoing tensions.
It was a group charity that was donated to eh? So the lumping wasn’t done by the Irish in this case. Seems like there’s been some cooperation as of late.
But yeah, interesting history to say the least. If your name for another group translates to “skull crushers”, the US govt. in it’s infinite wisdom tosses you onto a reservation that is a geographic island smack dab in the middle of the much larger nation’s territory, that’s not going to help things go smoothly.
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