8 THE APACHE
Northwest. And it is consistent with historical accounts of Ameri-
can Indians’ generosity. For example, in 1847 Cherokee and Choc-
taw, who had recently survived their forced march on a “Trail of
Tears” from their homelands in the American South to present-day
Oklahoma, sent aid to Irish families a er reading of the potato
famine, which created a similar forced migration of Irish. A Cher-
okee newspaper editorial, quoted in Christine Kinealy’s e Great
Irish Famine: Impact, Ideology, and Rebellion, explained that the
Cherokee “will be richly repaid by the consciousness of having
done a good act, by the moral e ect it will produce abroad.” Dur-
ing and a er World War II, nine Pueblo communities in New Mex-
ico o ered to donate food to the hungry in Europe, a er Pueblo
army veterans told stories of su ering they had witnessed while
serving in the United States armed forces overseas. Considering
themselves a part of the wider world, Native people have reached
beyond their borders, despite their own material poverty, to help
create a peaceful world community.
American Indian nations have demonstrated such generosity
within the United States, especially in recent years. A er the terror-
ist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Lakota Sioux in South Da-
kota o ered police o cers and emergency medical personnel to
New York City to help with relief e orts; Indian nations across the
country sent millions of dollars to help the victims of the attacks.
As an editorial in the Native American Times newspaper explained
on September 12, 2001, “American Indians love this country like no
other. . . . Today, we are all New Yorkers.”
Indeed, Native Americans have sacri ced their lives in defend-
ing the United States from its enemies in order to maintain their
right to be both American and Indian. As the volumes in this series
tell us, Native Americans patriotically served as soldiers (including
as “code talkers”) during World War I and World War II, as well as
during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and, a er 9/11, the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq. Native soldiers, men and women, do so
today by the tens of thousands because they believe in America, an