Source: Mission Network News, November 29, 2016
The United States just celebrated Thanksgiving, almost four centuries after that first meal was shared. In the backdrop are the ones we shared it with—the first Americans.
Ron Hutchcraft Ministries is one Christian ministry working to bring hope to Native American Tribes. We spoke with Ron Hutchcraft, who recently wrote about The Thanksgiving Guests We Forgot. Hutchcraft says, “It’s like we invited them to dinner and forgot them for 400 years.”
“Today, Native Americans are in a monumental battle to survive, and it’s not even on our radar. And ‘Exhibit A’ would be that here is one people group in the country whose suicide rate is at minimum three times, and, depending on the part of the country, ten times greater than the rest of the people in America.”
In addition, Hutchcraft says, they struggle with sexual crimes and abuse, as well as drug and alcohol addictions. There is a common theme of despair and hopelessness. According to Native American Aid, the 22 percent of Native Americans living on reservations face conditions comparable to the third world.
» Editor’s note: Recently, representatives of “First Nations” from all over North America gathered for a special ceremony on the Mall in Washington D.C. to forgive the U.S. Government for broken treaties. A pastor from upstate New York (my neck of the woods) made a powerful public declaration as part of this event, which one Christian leader described as “one of the most noble acts of true Christian charity that I have ever heard of by any people group.”
As you prepare for Christmas you might like to read about or listen to the first contextualized song written for the Hurons in the 17th century.