He spoke 13 languages[citation needed] and spent most of his life working with the Native Americans of Southern Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.
[3] In 1858, Hatch was among the missionaries sent to work with the Native Americans along the Muddy River in Nevada.
[5] In 1866, during Utah's Black Hawk War Hatch led a group that visited the Shebits and Kiabab bands of Indians.
Hatch was later among those who served as a missionary among the Navajo, basing his efforts out of Ramah, New Mexico.
[9] Blaine Yorgason has written To Soar with the Eagle (1993) a novel based on the story of Ira Hatch and Maraboot.