In 1847, the Choctaw Nation sent $170 to Ireland to aid them during the great potato famine.

The sculpture pictured above can be found in County Cork, Ireland. It commemorates the generosity of the tribe, who at the time of the gift was very poor itself.

Now, thousands of Irish people are repaying that old kindness by donating to a Go-Fund-Me campaign for two Native American tribes suffering in the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Currently, the fund sits at a little over $2.7 million dollars. 

Gary Batton, chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, said in a statement that the tribe was “gratified — and perhaps not at all surprised — to learn of the assistance our special friends, the Irish, are giving to the Navajo and Hopi Nations.”

“I’d already known what the Choctaw did in the famine, so short a time after they’d been through the Trail of Tears,” Sean Callahan, an Apple administrator in Cork City who made a donation, said on Tuesday.

 “It always struck me for its kindness and generosity and I see that too in the Irish people. It seemed the right time to try and pay it back in kind,” he added.

Check out the Go-Fund-Me page to see all of the inspiring messages of solidarity from Irish citizens and descendants of famine survivors.