5/5 pete a. 7 months ago on Google โข 229 reviews
Very
moving
story
behind
the
Choctaw
monument,
a
sculpture
of
9
feathers
in
stainless
steel
..
a
story
of
hope
and
love
..
in
1847,
the
Choctaw
nation
of
native
Americans
sent
the
Irish
nation
$170,
which
is
about
$6,330
in
todays
money,
to
help
the
people
through
the
great
famine
'
The
Great
Hunger
'
as
it's
known.
These
Americans
had
themselves
been
through
terrible
hardships,
having
been
dispossed
from
their
sacred
lands
some
16
years
before,
which
had
resulted
in
many
infant
and
old
loosing
their
lives
on
the
'
Trail
of
Tears
'
.
The
following
is
lifted
from
the
Irish
Times
....
Skullyville,
Oklahoma
โ
Tuesday
23
March
1847
On
that
spring
day,
as
Major
William
Armstrong
surveyed
those
who
had
gathered
in
the
small
timber
agency
where
he
lived,
he
must
have
experienced
mixed
emotions.
For
one
thing,
the
meeting
had
been
summoned
to
raise
money
for
โthe
relief
of
the
starving
poor
of
Irelandโ,
the
birthplace
of
his
own
father.
For
another,
while
the
crowd
included
many
missionaries
and
traders,
much
of
the
$170
subscribed
at
dayโs
end
would
come
from
the
chiefs
of
the
Choctaw
Nation,
who
were
also
present.
Major
Armstrong
had
known
these
Choctaw
men
for
many
long
years,
having
served
as
the
US
government's
chief
agent
in
the
region
since
1832.
He
had
been
with
them
through
the
"Trail
of
Tears",
in
which
perhaps
as
many
as
four
thousand
Choctaw
men,
women
and
children
perished
when
they
were
bullied
out
of
their
ancestral
homelands
and
forced
to
cross
the
River
Mississippi.
The
majorโs
wife,
Nancy,
and
his
older
brother
Frank
had
been
as
keen
as
he
was
to
help
the
Choctaw,
but
both
died
in
the
wake
of
the
Trail
of
Tears.
And
when
the
52-year-old
Armstrong
himself
succumbed
in
the
summer
of
1847,
less
than
three
months
after
the
Skullyville
meeting
for
the
โwhite
brethren
of
Irelandโ,
the
chief
of
the
Choctaw
Nation,
Colonel
David
Folsom,
would
recall
him
as
โour
father
and
our
friendโ.