The Long March
 The Choctaw's Gift to Irish Famine Relief
 Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick,
 Illustrations by Gary WhiteDeer
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Beyond Words Pub, Hillsboro Oregon USA
  ISBN: 1582460655


In 1847 an impoverished group of Choctaw Indians in America collected from their meager resources the sum of $180 to send toward food relief of the Irish Potato Famine. This is the historical essence of The Long March, of how a dispossessed people reached out across a continent & an ocean to help another.

The Long March starts: “I am an old man now. They call me Tom, the name the missionaries gave me. Back then I was still known by my Choctaw name, Choona, the Skinny one. It is hard to remember being a child...just fragments...blurred faces...a smell...a room...but I remember that year so clearly...”

Gary WhiteDeer's black & white - pencil drawings, evoke a depth in time, in community where much is remembered yet one thing is not spoken about: The Long March. Among these Chocktaws every child knows of the Long March yet none know about it & the Elders get a faraway look in their eyes so the children learn not to ask about it.

As Choona remembers: there comes the call to the Skullyville agency meeting house with the news of a great famine in a country called Ireland. There the people ate potatoes which were rotting in the ground from a disease. People were leaving their homes in search of food; they were sick & dying, eating leaves off trees & grass from the ground.

The story seems especially meaningful to Choona as his family belongs to the Ahithabo Apat Okla, the Potato Eating People.

After Choona's uncle tells the story of those starving folk so far away he says to his people: “We too are being asked to help them.” No one speaks & Moshi repeats it. Again there is silence as people remember & then a respected warrior speaks forcefully: “These people are Nahullo, Europeans,” he says, “...they have come to our land & taken it from us...caused our people to die...the bones of our people lie scattered along the trail of the Long March...Why should we help them?”

It was as if Mishima Abi spoke for them all, Choona remembers, until Great-Grandmother cleared her throat. Talihoyo had the attention of the whole council; even the children crept forward from the shadows to hear.

“Long ago,” she began, “when the world was young, the ground split open and the Choctaw people walked out of the earth into the living land...” & so the story of remembering continued as Choona listened at last to the story of the Long March until Great-Grandmother said: “...I am old, without teeth. I am half-blind, but when I close my eyes the faces of the dead come to me through the blackness. We have walked the trail of tears. The Irish people walk it now...”

What happens when Choona & his family get home & begin talking about gathering what little money the tribe has & sending it to Ireland; of what Choona & his Great-Grandmother talk about & how Choona deals with his rage & sorrow, make for a strong & lyrical story.

This book isn't so much about how many dollars this tribe managed to scrape together, it is much, much more about remembering & putting out a helping hand to those who now must walk the trail you once was forced upon. It is also about telling your children of your trails of tears that they may know why their parents are they way they are.

The Long March is rich in American history & memory. The marvelous drawings create a magically real place. This is a must for anyone who loves looking at other ways to live in community; other ways of teaching the spirit to grow & learning about courage, wisdom & respecting the memories.

Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick is the author & illustrator of An Chanail & The Sleeping Giant & has received many awards including the Reading Association of Ireland Children's Book Award; Consumer Choice magazine's Book of the Year Award; the Irish Books Awards Book Design Medal. She lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Gary WhiteDeer is an award-winning artists, historic preservationist & cultural presenter who has been featured in TBS's The Native Americans & National Geographic's When Inland Starved. He is President of Keepers of the Treasure & Executive Director of Celts & American Indians Together (CAIT). He lives in Ada, Oklahoma.

For information on CAIT Inc which raises funds for world famine relief contact: CAIT, c/o Iona College, Choctaw Suite, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle NY 10801. 914-637-8481.
(05/27/01)

Rebecca