IRISH – NATIVE AMERICAN PARALLELS
VALIDATED IN NOVEL

PARALLEL	IRISH	NATIVE AMERICAN
1. Constant foreign invasions	Gauls, Milesians, Galacians , Norsemen, Normans, English Saxons	Spanish, French, English, Dutch
2. Land stolen by Imperial Europeans	Vikings took over coastal areas for ports.  Normans bargained for it.  English rewarded soldiers and investors with Irish land.	Expatriates and explorers from Europe “discovered” the new world and took it by force or treachery.  Called it “Manifest Destiny”
3. Defeat by superior weaponry	Norman knights in armor. Tudor navy.  Parliamentarian siege guns	Guns, cannons, swords, later repeating rifles
4. Invaders brought disease	Dysentery, flu	Typhoid, measles, alcoholism
5. Slavery	Sold to West Indies sugar plantations	Same (Pequods) Caribes enslaved in Jamestown.
6. Native language forbidden	Forced to speak the language of the invaders	Same
7.Family names Anglicized	Eg. Gráinne Ní Mháille to Grace O’Malley	Metacomet to Phillip
8. Place names changes	e.g. Cloneen to Manor Hamilton, Learga to Blacklion	Arbitrarily named land based on where invaders came from, New York, Jersey, Hampshire, or named it after royalty, Maryland, Virginia
9. Lacked unity	Old clan rivalries impeded ability to fend off invaders	Ancient differences between tribes blocked any unity to stand together
10. Assimilated invaders into culture	Norseman and Normans slowly became “new” Irish.	The opposite, native peoples were ‘civilized’, but never assimilated, except by intermarrying.
11. Duality beliefs	Druidic influence about separation of physical and spiritual lives.	Shamanic influence about dream state and physical state
12. Sanctity of trees / wood	Oaks held ancestors ghosts and rowan had mystical protective powers.  Walking sticks and shillelaghs and St. Patrick’s staff.  Druid practice of raising staff to speak at gatherings	Coup stick of northern plains, and talking sticks to maintain order at meetings.  Red stick for protection
13. Bread without yeast	Irish soda bread	Wood ashes used by woodland tribes in bread making
14. Social gatherings	Ceildhs	Pow-wow
15. Hospitality	Expected and delivered. Never turn away a traveler, particularly from your clan	Similar within tribe or neighboring tribes / clans     potlatch traditions
16.Spiritual leaders	Celtic druids and later Catholic priests interpret and explain experiences as messages from god	Shaman / medicine man/woman as messenger of spirit
17. Conversation and oratory	Celtic / Irish national pastime	Important part of socializing and communicating oral history
PARALLEL	IRISH	NATIVE AMERICAN
8. Myths and stories	Oral process from generation to next about heroes and saints, fairies and banshees	Stories help to ‘shorten the night’. Oral process of tales of ghosts and spirit animals
19. Music	Embedded in culture a higher, singing is sophistication to storytelling.  Harps and whistles, bodhrans and fiddles. An outlet for joy or rage Celebrate life and mourn death, keening	Drums, flutes, rattles and chanting part of spirituality and celebration and awareness elevation and motivation to hunt, fight. Funeral chants telling stories of departed.
20.Value individuals	Recognized talent, courage, and status. All social levels had a currency value according to Brehan law.  Had rules of engagement	Would sing songs of brave warriors.  Valued individuals but not arrogance or fanaticism.
21. Guerilla war tactics	Rapparees or Tóraighs and later IRA and UDL	Evident in most areas of U.S.  Particularly with Comanches
22. Respect for enemy	If he fought bravely he was recognized in story and song	Higher honor to touch an armed enemy with coup stick than to kill him.  Courageous enemy might be spared after battle.
23. Invaders forced religion on ‘conquered’	Catholics persecuted by Protestant Anglicans and Puritans	Spanish, French, Catholic missionaries.  English, and Dutch protestants, all worked to convert natives
24. Invaders forced law systems	English law over Brehan law, an excuse for persecution	European law over tribal values and traditions. Reason behind failure of every so called ‘treaty’
25. Invaders forced ideas of land ownership	Royal grants and payment to ‘adventurers’ over familial or clan ownership	Total foreign concept about ‘owning’ land.
26. Ceded land to survive	Better to give up land than to die trying to keep it.	Overwhelmed by technology and growing white population, little by little they gave in.
27. Destroying food source as a military tactic.	Crops burned or stolen and exported	Crops burned, prairie plowed, and buffalo exterminated
28. Trees destroyed	Harvest Irish oaks for the British navy	Cleared Eastern forests for cultivation, and construction materials
29. Hierarchy ignorance	Invaders negotiating and getting agreement from lower leaders who had no right to speak for all of the people.	Nations would not recognize agreements made by sub-tribe leaders. E.g.  Ogallala could not speak for all Lakota Sioux
PARALLEL	IRISH	NATIVE AMERICAN
30. Broken promises	Regime changes would negate promises of former royalty	Details of some treaties not understood by tribes who did not speak the language of the written treaty.  They relied on the ‘spoken’ promise which the whites did not
31. Sacrifices	Old Druidic practice (assumed)	Northern Plains tribes sun dance
32. Mound builders	e.g. Tara, New Grange	All over the southeast U.S.
33.  Mystical beings	Leprechauns, fairies, Sidhe (fallen angels, harbinger of doom)	Shape changers, little people of the Iroquois
34. Derogatory names	Red legs, Mick, Papist	Savage, red skin
35. Mistrust of ‘mixed bloods’	Irish and Old English Catholics/Norman Catholics/Scottish Presbyterians/Norse pagans	“Half Breeds” Natives and Anglo-white or Natives and Mexican “Comanchroes”
36. Super heroes to save the culture	Cu Chullain, Brian Boru, Gráinne Ní Mháille	King Phillip, Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, Quannah Parker, Geronimo, Ghost Dancers
37. Terrorism	Massacre at Drogheda, Wexford	Massacre at Sand Creek, Wounded Knee
38. Forced to move west, toward the setting sun, the darkness, the unknown and impending doom	‘To Hell or Connaught’ per O. Cromwell  Slaves to West Indies	Trail of Tears.  Andrew Jackson committed to pushing all Eastern Tribes to “Indian Territory” now Oklahoma.
39.  Dehumanizing	Killing a Celt (Irish Catholic)  was not a crime	Similar even to the extent of paying a bounty on native scalps from men women and children.
40. Laws to specifically suppress	Irish couldn’t vote or hold office, own property, become a priest, or own a horse worth more than
41. Celebrate planting and  harvest	Beltane and Lughnasadh festivals	Corn dance, rain dance, dance for a successful hunt
42. Strong family ties but families separated	Captives and kidnapped shipped into slavery or bondage	Children taken and sent to school to “De-Indian them” Punished for speaking native language, required to wear white man clothes
43. Spiritual connection to ancestors	Cairns and burial mounds were holy places	Same
44. Reverence and respect for elders.	Wisdom based on experience led decision making	Elders would hold council to hear problems and suggest (or mandate solutions
PARALLEL	IRISH	NATIVE AMERICAN
45. Folk medicine	Sage-femme as mid-wife, druidic knowledge of herbal medicine	Folk knowledge of using the environment for health
46. Courtship	Intervener, usually the parents of the couple would negotiate the courtship and the dowry	Parents, chief and shaman would be involved to consider the advantage, disadvantage of relationship and the bride price
47. Status	The potential groom evaluated on parent’s wealth and status in the clan.  Land and successful harvests were the currency.	Same, with horses and successful hunts and battles as the currency
48. Signal fires	Along the mountaintops in Ireland to give orders to armies	Natchez tribes kept informed of DeSoto’s movements
49. Sanctity of trees	Matty’s rowan walking stick	Tribal talking sticks, coup stick
50. Little people	Fairies , Leprechauns, etc	Teachers of the medicine men