Comments What do the Irish and Native Americans have in common? Nothing makes a hard road seem easier than a good friend to walk it with you and the Native Americans have certainly acted as a solid companion to the Irish when things were at their toughest. Her family lived on the reservation since the mids and she has maintained her Irish identity as well as being immersed daily in Crowe culture. Speaking to Indian Country Today Media NetworkLynde felt that this put her in the perfect position to compare the two cultures and she noticed striking similarities in the experiences of the two peoples.
Native Americans and Irish share something in common: Acts of genocide upon Natives are well known to Native peoples in the Americas, but according to Katie Kane, the Irish were the first to suffer the mistreatment, genocide, starvation and other abuse during colonization.
Kane said the Irish, Africans and Natives in the Americas lived tribal, indigenous lifestyles that offended the British. From through the Great Famine of Ireland, caused by failed potato crops, resulted in at least 1 million indigenous Irish dead and another 2 million who fled Ireland for America—a full 25 percent of the Irish population.
Loretta Lynde, an Irish descendent whose family has lived on the Crow Reservation in Montana since the mids, said there were only a few other whites living there when her great-grandparents arrived, and when Lynde attended the tribal school on the Crow Reservation the Native population was still 6 to 1.
Lynde said her family always maintained their Irish identity and she travels to Ireland frequently, though she was always immersed in the Crow culture. Here it is, with information from other sources as well. Catholicism Both the Irish and Natives were first invaded by people whose religion was Catholicism.
British Occupation Both Natives and the Irish were occupied by the British—both were sent to boarding schools and forced to abandon their traditional language and culture. Both suffered genocide, starvation and diseases at the hands of the British.
No mercy whatever was shown to the natives, no act of treachery was considered dishonourable, no personal tortures and indignities were spared to the captives. The slaughter of Irishmen was looked upon as literally the slaughter of wild beasts.
Not only the men, but even the women and children who fell into the hands of the English were deliberately and systematically butchered. Year after year, over a great part of all Ireland, all means of human subsistence was destroyed, no quarter was given to prisoners who surrendered, and the whole population was skillfully and steadily starved to death.
Traditions Reemerging Both maintained their spiritual practices underground and both are seeing a resurgence of their practices and ways. You are seeing a lot more pow wows here, and for the Irish, they are going back to their old ways and even talking about the druids.
Matriarchal Both the Irish and Natives are matriarchal and recognize the important balance of men and women.
Both have had powerful female figures in their history and origin stories. Stereotyped Both were stereotyped and belittled, and were believed by the British to be less than human. They were considered to be racially other.
Nomadic Lifestyle Both lived a tribal and seasonally nomadic lifestyle, and the Irish clans were like the Native tribal bands. There are still areas in Ireland where families have lived for centuries, and maintain their clan names.
The British were colonizing both places and were trying to understand both peoples through each other. Oireachtas Gaeilge Cheanada Facebook page People display the flags of Ireland and Canada while posing with the sign for the Gaeltacht Cheanada, in Ontario, Canada Close to Nature Both lived according to the seasons, and celebrated solstices.
An Irish Central story says that in16 years after the Trail of Tears and in the midst of the famine, the Irish of Louisbourough, County Mayo, were told to report to the Poor Relief in hopes of receiving food. The officers were gone before the Irish arrived, so they walked 15 miles to the home of British who had seized their lands, in hopes of finding the officials there.
When the Irish arrived, they were turned away at the door, and told those in the house could not be disturbed during their lunch. Once turned away, many were found dead along the road, some with grass in their mouths, trying to sate their hunger in any way they could.
The kindness has not been ignored by the Irish, who are now creating a sculpture in honor of the Choctaw. In22 Irish officials joined the Choctaw for a remarch of the Trail of Tears. While in Oklahoma, they visited the graves of those who had originally sent funds, writes Kane in her yet unpublished research.The Irish name Naoise is prounonced NEE sha which reminds me of the Indian name Neha.
If I ever have a DD I will call her Neha, love that name. It appears that Irish pedlers, or traders, were the most successful in dealing with the Indian tribes. In Western Pennsylvania, "McKee's Place" and "Mahoney" were founded by two traders.
In , we find mention of an Irish trader, "named Tracey, killed in the massacre" at Michilimackinac. Both the latter began life as European [Irish] Infantry regiments in the service of the British east India company, and therefore serviced most of their life in and around the Indian continent.
There were also the 5th Irish Lancers and the 8th Kings Irish Hussars, plus a few others from time to time. While we did not observe any statistically significant differences between the Indian and Irish sample, the US sample showed a greater preference for paternalistic HRM practices than the Indian and Irish sample (p.
Both the Irish and American Indians endured disputes over land and attempted conquest fueled, in part, by religious and cultural intolerance. The more-often discussed Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and human rights violations committed by other nations around the world teach us that cultural domination is a repeating pattern in history.
That is to say, Irish culture cannot help but be aware of and be influen- ced by aspects of Indian culture; equally, Irish Indians12 contribute to and cul- tivate an emerging Irish Indian culture, or .