As my summer was wrapping up, I came across a book that felt like the perfect coda to my travels. Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa by Leslie Stall Widener, illustrated by Johnson Yazzie (Charlesbridge, 32 pages) tells the story of the bond between the Choctaw Nation and the people of Ireland. During the Irish Potato Famine, the Choctaw Nation heard about the Irish people’s plight. Knowing what it was like to lose your home and to not have enough to eat, the Choctaw people collected $170 (about $5,000 in today’s dollars) and sent it to Ireland to help provide help to the Irish people. Almost 200 years later, when the Irish learned how the Navajo and Hopi people had been devastated by Covid-19, 26,000 of them donated to a relief fund, many of them citing the Choctaw contribution to Ireland back in 1847.

Sometimes a group of people can seem like just a name in a history book, but this story reminds me how learning about another culture helps us to recognize our common humanity. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had this summer to travel to places where, even though I might have been there before, I learned to see them in new ways. I got to witness resilient groups preserving their cultures despite formidable odds that have been stacked against them for centuries.

If you want to learn more about indigenous people and history in your area, you can start with Powwows.com to search for powwows and other Native American events in the U.S. and Canada. Google “Native American museums near me” to find places to visit and to take your kids. Read some of the books from my Indigenous Americans book list that include stories of Native people all over North America. And please let me know if these posts wind up inspiring you to do your own travels!