Honoring Indigenous Heroes - in Blue Jeans and Baseball Caps
October 12, 2026
Ron Hutchcraft
I loved getting to know Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse (Lakota Sioux). And Geronimo and Cochise (of course). Chief Joseph (Nez Perce) and Osceola (Seminole) and Sequoyah (Cherokee) were memorable, too.
Sure, I was just a boy, but Native American heroes like that are still part of me. I read every biography of a great Indigenous leader I could get.
I have other Native heroes whose names you would not recognize. They are young. They are from many tribes. They are warriors. And they are overcomers.
An extensive 1990s study of reservation young people – possibly the largest of its kind – identified them as America’s “most devastated adolescents.”
My young warrior friends have lived the trauma behind that devastation. Many of their stories break my heart. They have been to the funerals of too many young friends. In some cases, it could have been them.
But not any longer. They are no longer defined by what they’ve lost. By the brokenness they knew all too well.
On this day in America, when many celebrate the first people of this land, I want to honor these Native young men and women who are defined by their cause.
Hope.
They are resilient warriors for their people, models and messengers of the hope that has transformed their lives.
They embody a Scripture that I chose for my own life verse:
“We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
The “Him” is a brown-skinned man from a tribe. A people whose land had been occupied by others. A man who suffered gross injustice. And who died a violent death. On a cross.
My young heroes, from Indigenous nations across this continent, have chosen to open their broken hearts to Jesus. Who, as a resurrected Savior, can heal what no one else can heal. Who breaks chains no one else can break.
I have seen my heroes on reservations across this country, boldly sharing their story of hope with their peers. Fighting for their generation and their people. Modeling hope by living lives free of addiction and self-harm. Lives of service and selflessness.
These Indigenous young people have a courage and purpose that stands out, part of why they are heroes of mine.
They have overcome so much. They are making such a difference.
The battles are different today than they were in the stories of the great chiefs. But lives are still at stake.
And there are mighty warriors still. Spiritual warriors. My heroes. “More than conquerors.”
