Famine Pots: The Choctaw-Irish Gift Exchange, 1847-Present

by LeAnne Howe (Editor), Padraig Kirwan (Editor)

Overview

The remarkable story of the money sent by the Choctaw to the Irish in 1847 is one that is often told and remembered by people in both nations. This gift was sent to the Irish from the Choctaw at the height of the potato famine in Ireland, just sixteen years after the Choctaw began their march on the Trail of Tears toward the areas west of the Mississippi River. Famine Pots honors that extraordinary gift and provides further context about and consideration of this powerful symbol of cross-cultural synergy through a collection of essays and poems that speak volumes of the empathy and connectivity between the two communities. As well as signaling patterns of movement and exchange, this study of the gift exchange invites reflection on processes of cultural formation within Choctaw and Irish society alike, and sheds light on longtime concerns surrounding spiritual and social identities. This volume aims to facilitate a fuller understanding of the historical complexities that surrounded migration and movement in the colonial world, which in turn will help lead to a more constructive consideration of the ways in which Irish and Native American Studies might be drawn together today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611863697
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Series:	American Indian Studies
Edition description:	1
Pages:	260
Sales rank:	551,224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

LEANNE HOWE, born and raised in Oklahoma, is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation. Howe is the Eidson Distinguished Professor in American Literature at the University of Georgia.


PADRAIG KIRWAN is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword: A Word from the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins xiii

Foreword: A Word from the Chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Gary Batton xvii

Introduction xix

Homeland LeAnne Howe 1

Recognition, Resilience, and Relief: The Meaning of Gift Padraig Kirwan 3

An Glaoch/Singing, Still Doireann Ní Ghríofa LeAnne Howe 39

Love Can Build a Bridge: The Choctaws' Gift to the Irish in 1847 Phillip Carroll Morgan 43

An Ocean of Benevolence Christine Kinealy 71

Ishki, Mother, Upon Leaving the Choctaw Homelands, 1831 LeAnne Howe 107

I Should Have Known Tim Tingle 109

Ima, Give: A Choctaw Tribalography LeAnne Howe 133

Setting Out from Home with Louis Owens: Mixedblood Messages Eamonn Wall 143

Nakfi, Brother, as He Helps Sister Load the Cart LeAnne Howe 161

An tAmhrán Ocrach Doireann Ní Ghríofa 163

Reconciliation Jacki Thompson Rand 165

Famine Irish Catholics, Their "Eloquent Indian" Priest, and the "Chinese Question" Peter D. O'Neill 179

Listen: Still, the Echo Doireann Ni Ghríofa 205

Postcards from Moundville Phillip Carroll Morgan 207

About the Contributors 209

Permissions 213

Index 215

Editorial Reviews

Famine Pots is a model of postcolonial cooperation. It is remarkable and inspiring that two nations, both of whom endured the ravages of empire, famine, and generations of discrimination, would find themselves in the other. These essays, poems, and stories deepen our understanding of what it means to be compassionate, what it means to remember, and what it means to give.”
—DEAN RADER, author of Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from Alcatraz to the NMAI and co-editor of Native Voices:Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations

From the Publisher