Think Pink!

Choctaw Give Aid to the Irish, acrylic on masonite, 24"x36"

During the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, in a population of three million, one million people starved to death and one million people emigrated to the United States. The Choctaws, who had just faced forced removal from their Mississippi homelands to Indian Territory, responded to this tragedy even though their own resources at the time were very meager. In 1847 the Choctaw Tribe sent money, corn, and blankets to the Irish people. Mary Robinson, the President of the Republic of Ireland visited the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in 1992 to commemorate this gesture. In 1998, Chief Hollis Roberts made a goodwill trip to Ireland before a group Irish citizens walked the Choctaw Trail of Tears to raise funds and bring international attention to the famine and starvation in Somalia.