The Long March

A Tale of Two Cultures

Fitzpatrick, Marie-Louise. The Long March: The Choctaw's Gift to Irish Famine Relief. Illustrated by the author. Choctaw editing and foreword by Gary WhiteDeer. Hillsboro, Oregon: Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., 1998.

This book tells two intertwining stories. Tom, an elder member of the Choctaw nation, recalls a time in 1847, when he was a 14-year old youth and all the members of his tribe were called together to hear the latest news of their people. Among the stories told at that gathering was the story of a great famine in a far-away land called Ireland. The young Tom, who was called Choona in his youth, was perplexed. What did a famine in an unknown land have to do with the Choctaw nation? 

Then his great-grandmother rose within the meeting to retell the story of "The Long March," when the Choctaw peoples were forcibly removed from their homelands in the southeastern United States and made to march to "Indian Territory," now part of the state of Oklahoma. For many, it was a death march. Choona had been only vaguely aware of that story from his tribe's distant and misty past. His great-grandmother thought it necessary for each generation to know that story and to see its connection to the stories of other displaced persons. As she saw it, "their story is our story."

The Choctaw nation collected $170, more than $6,000 in today's currency, and sent it to an Irish famine relief agency. 

Marie-Louise Fitzgerald, the writer and illustrator of this book, traveled from her native Ireland to Oklahoma to work with Gary WhiteDeer, a Choctaw, to research the story for this book. According to information on the book's jacket, the project was supported by CAIT, Celts and American Indians Together, a bi-national organization that raises money for World Famine Relief. CAIT is headquartered at Iona College in New Rochelle New York.  

Note: I tried to research CAIT on the Internet, but was unable to find any current information. 

http://www.worldcat.org/title/long-march-the-choctaws-gift-to-irish-famine-relief/oclc/812206335&referer=brief_results