SNIPPET: Although 1-1/2 million Irish men, women and children were able to escape the potato famine in Ireland in the late 1840s and travel to America, countless others could not afford, or were simply too weak, to leave Ireland. Desperate pleas for assistance poured into the U.S., and concerned family and citizens struggled to raise whatever funds they could to send overseas. When a small group of Choctaw Indians learned of the plight of the starving Irish, they contributed a substantial portion of a $170 donation (worth an estimated $25,000 in present-day dollars) ultimately sent by a relief committee in Memphis, TN. The Choctaws were well aware of the suffering caused by starvation and disease -- in the early 1830s they had been forcibly removed by the U. S. Government from their native land in MS to the Indian Territory, and over a quarter of their people died en route. Writing from the Indian Territory in March 1847, Col. G. W. CLARKE describes to the editor of the "Arkansas Intelligencer" his firsthand account of the Choctaw's compassion: "Dear Sir - The cries of the famishing Ireland have been heard even to this remote corner of the 'great west,' and nobly and generously have they been responded to. On the evening of the 23d inst. a meeting was held at the office of the Superintendent, at which were present most of the neighboring people, and some strangers, who were here on business. On motion, Majr Wm. ARMSTRONG was appointment Chairman, and J. B. LUCE, Secretary. After the reading of a letter from the Irish Relief Committee of Memphis, the chairman adverted to the condition of Ireland, briefly and most feelingly. He spoke of 'Old Erin,' as men of Irish feeling and Irish blood alone can speak; he said 'it is not words she wanted, but substantial food.' A subscription list was then opened, and in a short time $170 were subscribed and paid. By reference to the list you will perceive the names of many full-blooded Choctaw Indians, who knew nothing more, cared for nothing more, than the fact that across ! the Big Water, there were thousands of human beings starving to death. Is not this a sublime spectacle? The Red man of the New, bestowing alms upon the people of the Old world! With them, it is literally complying with the golden rule of Christianity, of returning good for evil. The funds were immediately forwarded to the Committee at Memphis, Tenn. Can your city, famed as it is for its liberality, beat this (?)" Note - Citizens from AR did, in fact, send funds to Ireland, but the total amount is unknown.