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)

The Center sits on 75 acres in North Western Arkansas and provides a nine-month ‘gap’ year program, exclusively for Native young people. The experience equips these young people for a future that makes a difference as a messenger of Hope to Native people.

Tracking the journey to the unveiling of the center is a path that took 30 years to trek. Leadership at Hutchcraft Ministries, the parent ministry of On Eagles’ Wings, noticed a pattern among the Native Youth participating in the OEW movement.

OEW’s mission is to disciple and equip committed Native leaders to be lifetime Jesus-followers, prepared with the skills and strategies needed to be messengers of hope to Indigenous and worldwide communities. The mission was being carried out, but frequently, these young leaders didn’t feel equipped for the next stage of life: adulthood.

The backgrounds of many Native youth didn’t include life skills. Many Native youth working in the On Eagles’ Wings ministry could share their Hope stories but were inexperienced in other avenues of ministry, evangelism, and discipleship. Many didn’t know how to budget their money; others felt unready for college.

They needed a launch pad. Statistics on the reservations for Native young people are grim. Substance abuse, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and suicide all exist at epidemic rates. It’s so desperate among the First Nation Youth that they are ‘young people with no dreams’, says Ron Hutchcraft, founder of Hutchcraft Ministries. The challenges they face to survive to adulthood are unlike any other people group in North America. They are deep-rooted and endemic.

On Eagles Wings Leadership Center
(Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries)

Add to that the lack of resources among First Nation communities, and not only do people feel isolated and ignored, they feel voiceless. OEW restores that voice as each team member found HOPE through a personal relationship with Jesus. They then share that hope with others as they visit reservations and share their life experiences and new identities in Christ with others.

The student body at the OEW Leadership Center is developing community with others who share their likeness, stories, and background. They are taught how to ‘life’ with others who share their history. The Center is filled with rustic elements that are subtle reminders of that, from the giant stone fireplace in a gathering place to the 50s-styled coffee shop, Suzie Q, named after Hutchcraft’s wife, it’s more than an aesthetic.

Every room has a function in the holistic approach. There’s a studio for the creative arts: music, beading, painting. Students often work on their life maps, artistic reminders of their past, present, and future selves. There’s a gym and regular workout schedules to keep their bodies as healthy as their hearts and minds. Each class helps them build rhythms of life that can be replicated elsewhere…and that’s how hope spreads.

Ron Hutchcraft defines hope this way: “Hope is a defiant confidence beyond what is seen that redemptive change is on the way.” From despair to discipleship, hope has a name, and its name is Jesus.

Header and story images courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries/On Eagles’ Wings.

“Every summer, we know there’s going to be some intense spiritual warfare,” Brad Hutchcraft says. Hutchcraft oversees On Eagles’ Wings, a division of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.

“The enemy does not like what is going on.”

On Eagles’ Wings’ Summer of Hope outreach follows a five-day, Jesus-focused retreat for Native American young people called Warrior Leadership Summit. See how God moved during Warrior Leadership Summit 2022.

As soon as the summit ends, “we take a team of 30 to 50 Native young people to tell others about the hope of Jesus,” Hutchcraft says.

“These are young leaders from all across the country who hop on a bus together, travel thousands of miles [in] a few short weeks, visit multiple Native communities, all with one goal: to share this hope.”

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

Summer of Hope 2022

The Summer of Hope team plans to visit between seven and ten reservations in the U.S. and Canada during July. MNN is withholding location names and details for security purposes.

“We only bring the team where a local church or parachurch organization has invited us in. We want to make sure there’s consistent, effective follow-up,” Hutchcraft says.

The Holy Spirit moves as Native American Christians tell their “hope stories.” See examples from last year here and here.

“These are some of the bravest Christians I know. These are young people who stand on basketball courts in the middle of hundreds of local Native people and say, ‘we have been the suicide attempts,’” Hutchcraft says.

“‘We’ve been the abuse victims, gang members, drug dealers, but we have found hope, and His name is Jesus. He is not the white man’s God.’”

Ask the Lord to move powerfully in Native American and First Nation communities. Watch for updates from the team here.

“Pray for us these next few weeks,” Hutchcraft requests.

“These are life-changing weeks for hundreds of Native young people.”

Header and story images courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings.

Several Native young men and women gathered at the On Eagles’ Wings winter retreat from December 28 to January 2 for worship and fellowship. Brad Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, the parent ministry of On Eagles’ Wings says, “For them to come together and be able to be strengthened together…at this retreat, it’s huge because it sets them on a course for the rest of the year.”

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

Everyone there was previously with the On Eagles’ Wings summer missions team where they traveled to Native communities and shared the Gospel. Hutchcraft estimates about 80 percent of the summer team returned for the winter retreat.

“After spending the whole summer basically just going, going, going — loading the bus and doing these events and all the team meetings and everything — they just get to come together and be together. It’s kind of a mini family reunion.”

These Native warriors have amazing hope stories of how Jesus changed their lives. Hutchcraft says it was a blessing to look around the room at the winter retreat and see evidence of God’s goodness.

“In that room…was a warrior that had come out of multiple suicide attempts and is now in Bible school and a leader for his people. He just posted recently that 2019 was probably the greatest year of joy for him and just a healthy life that he is living now,” Hutchcraft says.

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

“We look around and there’s a young man who honestly used to hope for the death of his abusive father and had suicidal thoughts himself. But now he spends his days working in full-time Native youth ministry sharing how forgiveness can be found in and through Jesus.

“One of the young ladies who came, she headed from here directly to Moody Bible Institute where she is starting her first semester there. That is a huge change in plans in just the last few months for her, but she is so excited to be able to be there because they represent hope for their people.”

One of the retreat’s highlights is ringing in the New Year. Hutchcraft says at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, “We are on our knees, we’re in worship, [and] we’re taking communion together. What a beautiful way to kick off the New Year with these warriors — reminding them of who Jesus is and who they are in Him and setting the tone for what we pray will be an amazing year ahead for them.”

By now, the young men and women are on to their next endeavors, whether that’s back in their home communities, back on college campuses, or somewhere else entirely. As our Native Christian brothers and sisters go into the year, please pray for and with them — that they would be bold witnesses for Jesus and that the Lord would stir a spiritual revival in Native communities.

You can also equip a Native leader by donating to On Eagles’ Wings here! To follow On Eagles’ Wings for updates on social media, click here!

Header photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.