USA (MNN) — It’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and while some focus on turkey dinner and football lineups, others remember the first Thanksgiving. Native Americans played a critical role in Thanksgiving history, and one Gospel worker says there’s a surprising connection between Jesus and Native peoples.
November is Native American Heritage Month, and you may not realize that Native Americans were the first mission field in North America. However, “as far as missions are concerned, we’re doing better all over the world than right here with the First People of our land,” Ron Hutchcraft of Hutchcraft Ministries says.
“After 400 years of missions, only four percent are estimated to have a relationship with Christ.”
(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)
Native communities don’t connect with Jesus
Many Native people see Jesus as “the white man’s God,” especially when so much loss – land, language, culture, and lives – was carried out in the name of Christianity. Yet Jesus is deeply relevant to the Native experience. “Jesus was not a blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy like we see in some paintings. He was a tribal man,” Hutchcraft says.
“If you asked Him, He’d say, ‘I’m from the tribe of Judah.’ Our Native Americans would say, ‘I’m Apache, I’m Sioux, I’m Cherokee, I’m Choctaw,’ or ‘I’m Seneca.”
Along with tribal heritage, “He lived on land occupied by others – the Romans. He was from a place that people thought, ‘Nothing good comes from there.’ Some people may say that about Native communities,” Hutchcraft says.
“Jesus was also a victim of gross injustice, as many Native Americans have been.”
A rising movement
These connections are transforming Native young people through Hutchcraft Ministries’ On Eagles’ Wings outreach. More about that here.
Summer of Hope 2025
(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)
“I have had the privilege of watching Native young people who are not only survivors, but more than conquerors, as they have told their hope story on that reservation basketball court. They have shown a boldness that would shame many of us,” Hutchcraft says.
“With a deep spirituality that the Creator has built into them, an understanding of suffering and injustice and abuse, and with the warrior spirit – when all of that comes under the Lordship of Christ, fasten your seat belt. They are a force,” he adds.
“They are hope with skin on.”
Hutchcraft Ministries’ Warrior Leadership Summit and On Eagles’ Wings Leadership Center focus on discipling Native young people to become pastors, missionaries, and youth leaders for their own communities. Here’s how you can help.
Header image depicts a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, c.1912-1915, titled The First Thanksgiving, 1621. (Wikimedia Commons)
