EXPO WEST
Through out the week our team has been getting ready to take off to Expo West! Expo West has proven to be the largest food show we attend through out the year and has been a great experience for us. We are sharing the booth with 6 other Native food companies and are bringing six traditional dancers with us to the show.. This is going to be awesome! @ the Anaheim Convention Center March March 6th -8th . The Dancers are performing @ 11 AM 1 PM 3PM and 5PM and check out the new Tanka Bar @ Booth # 5507.
TANKA BAR NOW DISTRIBUTED BY TREE OF LIFE!
Tree Of Life is one of the largest distributers of natural food in the entire country. This opens us up to being in hundreds and hundreds of new store locations! So many times before we would call stores and they wouldn’t order unless we had a large distributer, and now we have one! We are excited about our new business partnership.
TANKA BAR, A PURE ZING ECO-DISCOVERY
Pure Zing is one of the most discriminating product review sites on the ‘Net today. To be included for review you need to be all-natural, taste great and be truly nutritious and pure. For these guys it’s more than an idea, Pure is a way of life. We are honored to be mentioned a top product for their 2009 Eco-Discoveries. The 2009 Eco-Disoveries Report highlights the best products that are great for you and friendly to Mother Earth. Also, they did a great job putting the story of Tanka Bar in a historical.
HAWAIIAN BIRTH RITUALS?
One of our Twitter friends was asking if we knew anyone with knowledge of Native Hawaiian birth rituals. Considering the closest I have been to the island is watching “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” I figured I wasn’t the one to ask but can ask all of you. It’s for the website www.SavvyDoula.com . Please send info/stories to:
darlene@savvydoula.com I am certain she would greatly appreciate it!
See you all when we hit the Tarmac in Cali!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
2-10-09
Howdy all!
Busy as all get up here in Tanka Bar HQ. Monday, we had to close the office down early due to a huge and strange storm that dumped on us sleet, slush, rain and snow! Cars were sliding off the road and it was ugly outside!
NEW PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN MARCH
On our other burners, we are re-designing our website and sending out press releases for our new products coming out in March. And let me tell you, this is new product launch is going to be HUGE! Getting ready for Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA, March 6-8, and we are bringing a small group of traditional dancers with us.
God willing and the creek don’t rise, after we make a massive smashing success at Expo West, we are going to go across the street to Disney Land. Party it up with Mickey Mouse.
If you are in the Anaheim area, let me know. We would love to meet up with you during the show.
TEAM TANKA ALMOST READY
We are also finalizing Team Tanka, which has been beta-tested and we are getting ready to invite you all onto TEAM TANKA! I just need to finish writing the support materials that will help market and sell the Tanka Bar on this crazy environment called the InterWebs. I know a lot of you are chomping @ the bit to start promoting like mad!
And that does not begin to sum it all up!
THUNDER VALLEY AND TANKA HAVE TEAMED UP
We have teamed up with Thunder Valley CDC to create an intense partnership, creating more jobs and opportunities for our local community and youth. We are hiring for three positions working online with our Tanka Bar marketing team and three MORE positions working with Thunder Valley staff at the E-Tanka Café’.
E-TANKA CAFÉ IN THE PLANNING STAGES
Oh, and we are creating an E-Tanka Café! lol! We will sell healthy food products and great coffee! It is going to be relaxing and cool atmosphere to come hang out, check your email, or just visit with your friends. All of this in our little town of Kyle, South Dakota.
TANKA BAR WILL BE IN LONDON IN MID-MARCH
Finally, we are taking the Tanka Bar to Jolly Ole’ London, England. We’re going to be at the International Food and Drink show, March 15-18. If any of you are in the London area, let me know. We could plan to meet at the show.
And I think that’s going to cover our plans for the next four weeks.
Whew!
Busy as all get up here in Tanka Bar HQ. Monday, we had to close the office down early due to a huge and strange storm that dumped on us sleet, slush, rain and snow! Cars were sliding off the road and it was ugly outside!
NEW PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN MARCH
On our other burners, we are re-designing our website and sending out press releases for our new products coming out in March. And let me tell you, this is new product launch is going to be HUGE! Getting ready for Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA, March 6-8, and we are bringing a small group of traditional dancers with us.
God willing and the creek don’t rise, after we make a massive smashing success at Expo West, we are going to go across the street to Disney Land. Party it up with Mickey Mouse.
If you are in the Anaheim area, let me know. We would love to meet up with you during the show.
TEAM TANKA ALMOST READY
We are also finalizing Team Tanka, which has been beta-tested and we are getting ready to invite you all onto TEAM TANKA! I just need to finish writing the support materials that will help market and sell the Tanka Bar on this crazy environment called the InterWebs. I know a lot of you are chomping @ the bit to start promoting like mad!
And that does not begin to sum it all up!
THUNDER VALLEY AND TANKA HAVE TEAMED UP
We have teamed up with Thunder Valley CDC to create an intense partnership, creating more jobs and opportunities for our local community and youth. We are hiring for three positions working online with our Tanka Bar marketing team and three MORE positions working with Thunder Valley staff at the E-Tanka Café’.
E-TANKA CAFÉ IN THE PLANNING STAGES
Oh, and we are creating an E-Tanka Café! lol! We will sell healthy food products and great coffee! It is going to be relaxing and cool atmosphere to come hang out, check your email, or just visit with your friends. All of this in our little town of Kyle, South Dakota.
TANKA BAR WILL BE IN LONDON IN MID-MARCH
Finally, we are taking the Tanka Bar to Jolly Ole’ London, England. We’re going to be at the International Food and Drink show, March 15-18. If any of you are in the London area, let me know. We could plan to meet at the show.
And I think that’s going to cover our plans for the next four weeks.
Whew!
12-16-08
Tanka Bar wants you to donate to Lakota Funds
at NO EXTRA COST TO YOU!
For every box you buy, $5 goes to help other Native entrepreneurs
Hello, MySpace friends! The last mad dash of gift-giving and gift-buying is upon us. While you are making your list and, hopefully, checking it once or twice, remember us here at Tanka Bar. Tanka Bars make a great stocking stuffer and a Tanka Bar is really healthy for you. And now, when you buy Tanka Bars, a portion of your purchase can also benefit others! How many stocking stuffers can you say that about?
There are a lot of charities that have been asking for your attention lately and many people have been tightening their belts this year. I want to let you know about an organization that has benefited Native American Naturals Foods and the people of the Lakota Nation directly:
Lakota Funds
Lakota Funds is often the first and, even more likely, the only financial lender willing to invest in our local Native entrepreneurs. Without Lakota Funds, many of our Native American-owned businesses would never get started and fewer would survive.
Did you know that when Lakota Funds was founded in 1986, there were only two Native American businesses on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and now there are hundreds? Even today, Lakota Funds is the only commercial lender located on the reservation. Lakota Funds has inspired an entrepreneurial movement where more and more of our people can see owning their own business as a real possibility. Many of our people are working hard to transform our historically impoverished community into a sustainable economy that gives our children and grandchildren opportunities instead of poverty.
For more information about how Tanka Bar has been helped by Lakota Funds, see our CEO’s letter at the bottom of this blog.
What you can do
Right now, when you purchase a Box of Tanka Bars with our special coupon code, $5 will be donated to Lakota Funds. This is a Win-Win for everyone! You get your awesome Tanka Bars at NO EXTRA COST TO YOU, we get to make money selling them to you, and Lakota Funds earns five bucks each time a purchase is made with the coupon! It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up. This is our way of supporting people who helped us get where we are today.
How to use your Coupon
Just purchase one or more boxes of Tanka Bars and, when you check out, enter the coupon code LAKFUND08 and, just like that, $5 of your purchase will be donated to helping build a stronger economy for the Lakota People.
P.S.
Even if you’re not in a position to help out right now, please repost this information far and wide. We want this to be a big boost for Lakota Funds. Wopila.
Letter from Tanka Bar CEO Karlene Hunter
at NO EXTRA COST TO YOU!
For every box you buy, $5 goes to help other Native entrepreneurs
Hello, MySpace friends! The last mad dash of gift-giving and gift-buying is upon us. While you are making your list and, hopefully, checking it once or twice, remember us here at Tanka Bar. Tanka Bars make a great stocking stuffer and a Tanka Bar is really healthy for you. And now, when you buy Tanka Bars, a portion of your purchase can also benefit others! How many stocking stuffers can you say that about?
There are a lot of charities that have been asking for your attention lately and many people have been tightening their belts this year. I want to let you know about an organization that has benefited Native American Naturals Foods and the people of the Lakota Nation directly:
Lakota Funds
Lakota Funds is often the first and, even more likely, the only financial lender willing to invest in our local Native entrepreneurs. Without Lakota Funds, many of our Native American-owned businesses would never get started and fewer would survive.
Did you know that when Lakota Funds was founded in 1986, there were only two Native American businesses on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and now there are hundreds? Even today, Lakota Funds is the only commercial lender located on the reservation. Lakota Funds has inspired an entrepreneurial movement where more and more of our people can see owning their own business as a real possibility. Many of our people are working hard to transform our historically impoverished community into a sustainable economy that gives our children and grandchildren opportunities instead of poverty.
For more information about how Tanka Bar has been helped by Lakota Funds, see our CEO’s letter at the bottom of this blog.
What you can do
Right now, when you purchase a Box of Tanka Bars with our special coupon code, $5 will be donated to Lakota Funds. This is a Win-Win for everyone! You get your awesome Tanka Bars at NO EXTRA COST TO YOU, we get to make money selling them to you, and Lakota Funds earns five bucks each time a purchase is made with the coupon! It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up. This is our way of supporting people who helped us get where we are today.
How to use your Coupon
Just purchase one or more boxes of Tanka Bars and, when you check out, enter the coupon code LAKFUND08 and, just like that, $5 of your purchase will be donated to helping build a stronger economy for the Lakota People.
P.S.
Even if you’re not in a position to help out right now, please repost this information far and wide. We want this to be a big boost for Lakota Funds. Wopila.
Letter from Tanka Bar CEO Karlene Hunter
12-8-08
MUSINGS ON THE MELTDOWN:
How Tanka Bar Plans to Thrive During Economic Turmoil
Hello to all of our MySpace friends and, if this is your first time reading our
blog, Welcome! We like to present our latest adventures and ideas to you all and we love it when people leave comments for us.
Thanksgiving was week before last with Black Friday and its online brother, Cyber Monday, following. If you have never gotten up early to go to the mall for Black Friday, it's worth going just to get wrapped up in the buying madness. In the next month, more money will be spent than at any time of the year on retail purchases. People are taking out loans to buy presents for their kids, while the guys on Wall Street are hoping we spend enough to give the economy a shot in the arm.
Effects on Pine Ridge Reservation
Here, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the results of the Economic Meltdown are very subtle. Most of us don't have investment portfolios or retirement funds. Some people joke that Dow Jones is just a football team on a really bad losing streak. Because of fewer people buying things, fewer things are shipped and less fuel is used to ship them. This gives a surplus of fuel on the market and this is why gas is cheaper now. This is what they tell me at least. But beyond cheap gasoline, it's hard to see how this affects us here.
For a gas station or small shopping center on the reservation, it's a bit different. Their customers are built into the community where their store is, and the isolation gives the store a certain leverage over its customers. You can shop here or drive 30 to 100 miles somewhere else. But for Tanka Bar, we don't have that luxury, And by our nature, we are competing against ourselves and against the world. We sell to whoever has money and is ready to buy from almost anywhere.
To get a good feel for this weird crisis, I turn to public radio: the
Marketplace and This American Life. Marketplace brings the huge
concepts into sharp focus in a way that is pretty easy to understand. This
American Life has produced two shows: The Global Pool of Money and Another Show about the Economy. These radio programs go over in bone-crunching detail how, at every step, from potential homeowners borrowing more than they could afford ,to the bankers overeager to sell their loans off, to the regulators who turned a blind eye, there was a breakdown of responsibility. Greed took over and it was a wild ride while it lasted. It had to end sometime.
What is Tanka Bar doing?
Now that I think I have a feel about how this economic crises happened, the more important question is what do we do now? As a young start-up company just celebrating our first year of having Tanka Bar on the shelf, we are in a tenuous position. Our plan is threefold and exciting. Being a small and versatile company, we can do things that would take larger companies months if not years to accomplish. Being the little guy has its perks sometimes.
First, we are creating partnerships with some of the major players in the
natural food industry. So far, we have only one product and we more or less sell to people outside of their ordinary way of buying things. Most retail locations buy only what they need from distributors so as not to take up too much room for storage. We are now going to go through those Major Distributors to get into more places. More locations, more customers, more All Tanka All The Time!
Second, we have some new products coming out. We have been putting our heads together and trying to find what would be the next big thing for us. We have been researching new recipes and the prototypes have been delicious! We have had our Tanka Bar mad scientists, meat artisans, and small army of Tanka taste testers working 'round the clock to bring you the next level of what Tanka can be. So what are these new-fangled products of Tanka greatness? Well, I can't say just yet. lol! Sorry, but this is still under wraps right now, but I will tell you that you are going to love 'em!
Third, we have been kicking around the idea of how to get you in the game. That's right. We want you to be part of the Tanka Experience. We want you to help promote our brand and sell our product online. And we want you to make some cash doing it. This new experiment in expanding our team is called Team Tanka. We envision Team Tanka like a 21st century version of Girl Scout cookies, without the unhealthy snacks, funny lookin' uniforms or door knocking. Ok, maybe it's not that similar. We will be unveiling the details of Team Tanka next month and the best part is that anyone who wants to be a part of it is welcome.
We’re not waiting on the economy
Through our partnerships, new distributors and Team Tanka, we are creating more tools to help you get Tanka Bars where you want them. Before, it was a hard sell one store at a time, but now the process will be more streamlined with more people working with us toward our goal.
The upshot of all this is that we, here at Tanka Bar, are not waiting for today’s economy to determine our future. The time for a national Native American brand has come, and we’re not going to give up on our dream to share our history, our culture and our food with the world. Thank you again for all of your patience and support. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Wopila.
How Tanka Bar Plans to Thrive During Economic Turmoil
Hello to all of our MySpace friends and, if this is your first time reading our
blog, Welcome! We like to present our latest adventures and ideas to you all and we love it when people leave comments for us.
Thanksgiving was week before last with Black Friday and its online brother, Cyber Monday, following. If you have never gotten up early to go to the mall for Black Friday, it's worth going just to get wrapped up in the buying madness. In the next month, more money will be spent than at any time of the year on retail purchases. People are taking out loans to buy presents for their kids, while the guys on Wall Street are hoping we spend enough to give the economy a shot in the arm.
Effects on Pine Ridge Reservation
Here, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the results of the Economic Meltdown are very subtle. Most of us don't have investment portfolios or retirement funds. Some people joke that Dow Jones is just a football team on a really bad losing streak. Because of fewer people buying things, fewer things are shipped and less fuel is used to ship them. This gives a surplus of fuel on the market and this is why gas is cheaper now. This is what they tell me at least. But beyond cheap gasoline, it's hard to see how this affects us here.
For a gas station or small shopping center on the reservation, it's a bit different. Their customers are built into the community where their store is, and the isolation gives the store a certain leverage over its customers. You can shop here or drive 30 to 100 miles somewhere else. But for Tanka Bar, we don't have that luxury, And by our nature, we are competing against ourselves and against the world. We sell to whoever has money and is ready to buy from almost anywhere.
To get a good feel for this weird crisis, I turn to public radio: the
Marketplace and This American Life. Marketplace brings the huge
concepts into sharp focus in a way that is pretty easy to understand. This
American Life has produced two shows: The Global Pool of Money and Another Show about the Economy. These radio programs go over in bone-crunching detail how, at every step, from potential homeowners borrowing more than they could afford ,to the bankers overeager to sell their loans off, to the regulators who turned a blind eye, there was a breakdown of responsibility. Greed took over and it was a wild ride while it lasted. It had to end sometime.
What is Tanka Bar doing?
Now that I think I have a feel about how this economic crises happened, the more important question is what do we do now? As a young start-up company just celebrating our first year of having Tanka Bar on the shelf, we are in a tenuous position. Our plan is threefold and exciting. Being a small and versatile company, we can do things that would take larger companies months if not years to accomplish. Being the little guy has its perks sometimes.
First, we are creating partnerships with some of the major players in the
natural food industry. So far, we have only one product and we more or less sell to people outside of their ordinary way of buying things. Most retail locations buy only what they need from distributors so as not to take up too much room for storage. We are now going to go through those Major Distributors to get into more places. More locations, more customers, more All Tanka All The Time!
Second, we have some new products coming out. We have been putting our heads together and trying to find what would be the next big thing for us. We have been researching new recipes and the prototypes have been delicious! We have had our Tanka Bar mad scientists, meat artisans, and small army of Tanka taste testers working 'round the clock to bring you the next level of what Tanka can be. So what are these new-fangled products of Tanka greatness? Well, I can't say just yet. lol! Sorry, but this is still under wraps right now, but I will tell you that you are going to love 'em!
Third, we have been kicking around the idea of how to get you in the game. That's right. We want you to be part of the Tanka Experience. We want you to help promote our brand and sell our product online. And we want you to make some cash doing it. This new experiment in expanding our team is called Team Tanka. We envision Team Tanka like a 21st century version of Girl Scout cookies, without the unhealthy snacks, funny lookin' uniforms or door knocking. Ok, maybe it's not that similar. We will be unveiling the details of Team Tanka next month and the best part is that anyone who wants to be a part of it is welcome.
We’re not waiting on the economy
Through our partnerships, new distributors and Team Tanka, we are creating more tools to help you get Tanka Bars where you want them. Before, it was a hard sell one store at a time, but now the process will be more streamlined with more people working with us toward our goal.
The upshot of all this is that we, here at Tanka Bar, are not waiting for today’s economy to determine our future. The time for a national Native American brand has come, and we’re not going to give up on our dream to share our history, our culture and our food with the world. Thank you again for all of your patience and support. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Wopila.
11-13-08
Day 1:
The Flight
Rapid City Regional Airport to Denver International to San Francisco. Our plane arrived an hour late, which left me 40 minutes to check into the international flight to Osaka and race back through security all the way to my gate, the entire length of the airport away. Heart pumping, sweat pouring, feet running, arms swinging, this was a flat out sprint to the finish line and the only reward would be my tiny Economy Class seat on the Boeing 747. I nearly knocked over an elderly German couple who were leisurely strolling to their gate, dodged to the left, threw an apology at them over my shoulder and continued my mad dash to the gate. I was the last person to arrive on the plane and they immediately shut the door behind me after I entered. I made it!
On the way to my seat, I pass one of my travel companions, Nathan Notah, director of the American Indian Ag Council, who was making calls back to the office telling them I missed the plane. Ha! Ha! Nice way to start off a long flight.
I settle into my seat and oscillate between sleeping and watching the in-flight movies for our 11+ hour journey. I slowly start observing the Japanese travelers. They are the reason Tanka Bar is making this long trip overseas. I wonder what makes them tick and what foods they like? Would they like the Tanka Bar? Many of the Japanese people we have met at the food shows we have attended have really enjoyed the Tanka Bar. Would they be so kind in the mainland? I notice that many are wearing face masks, the type you'd see nurses or surgeons wear. I assumed there would be no in-flight heart transplants, so what gives? Another questions to ask when I land.
An hour into the flight, I notice we are still in sight of land to the right of our plane. We take a northern route to save on time. We are flying so far to the west it actually cuts down on the distance to avoid flying around the fat middle part of the earth. So we actually fly westward in an arc pattern to get to the east.
They serve us two meals free of charge and this shocks me. I was honestly expecting a handful of peanuts and warm soda served over ice, not even a whole can to ourselves. We watch Wall-E as they bring around the Duty Free cart carrying high-dollar items for sale tax- and tariff-free. If you haven't seen Wall-E yet, see it. An adorable movie.
A huge jet comes what feels dangerously close to us. I can make out the windows but not quite the faces of their passengers. I look down at freighters hauling shipping containers. Still in sight of land.
I sleep for the rest of the way and ,when we deplane, we are greeted with the deep, warm of air of a foreign climate, not quite in the same swing of the seasons as back home. The Customs officers were professional and polite, a trait I would soon learn is very common in Japan.
Culture Shock
My first culture shock comes in the bathroom, where I know what I need to, but the facilities are not what I'm accustomed to. Imagine an American restroom, surgically clean, and then eaten and digested by cybernetic beats, reformed into a post-modern aesthetic. When you stick your hands into an automatic hand drier ,your fingers and palms are lit of up by UV rays, which are sanitizing them. Not on the rez anymore.
I meet our whole team face to face for the first time this trip. There is Nathan Notah, representing the American Indian Ag Council, our benefactors on this trade mission; Jim McCool of Red Lake Nation Foods; and Joe Jaramillo. We eat at McDonald’s like every patriotic American does while visiting a foreign country and head to the hotel. Local time is 8 p.m. tomorrow and we are dead, beat, tired. I crash nice and hard and don't wake until past dawn.
Tourist for a Day
We have the entire day of ahead of us and we want to do the whole tourist bus route deal. Kyoto is a city of over 2,000 shrines and temples and was specifically spared some of the most horrendous bombing of WW2 in order to preserve these beautiful and historic cultural sites. We meet with our translation team and our man on the ground, Mike Moretti. They are dressed in business suits and have polished shoes and I have on blue jeans and sneakers. I feel a little out of place. Mike hands us our business cards that have been translated into Japanese. I quickly learn that the business card is a big part of the business culture here. When first meeting, you shake hands and exchange business cards, and it is not just a trade of contact information but an understanding of one’s station and rank. My card says Assistant Director of Marketing, and theirs would say Head of Sales, I would bow lower to show my respect. Just like that movie Shogun they showed us in 8th grade civics class!
Armed with our business cards and freshly exchanged Yen, we set off in search of Nijo Castle, the palace fortress of the first Shogun of Japan. It is a huge, sprawling complex with an exterior and interior moat. It is solidly placed in the center of Kyoto, which itself is placed in the bowl of a deep valley ringed by vast mountains. Looking at the castle, it does not look like an easy place to attack a Lord, but it doesn't strike me as an easy place to defend. (Yes, I'm a tactics nerd and a history buff.) We are not permitted to take pictures of the inside of the residence. I am not sure why the prohibition, but I follow the rules as stated. The 400-year-old floor boards whistle as we walk on them. Not creak out of age, but whistle. I remember watching this on the History Channel. The floors were designed to make noise so no one could approach the Shogun unannounced. It is an amazing feat that it works after all these years.
We see the Shogun's living quarters, his guardhouse, his imperial court, and his ministers offices. The tax and collection office is as large as all of the others combined. The outside is immense and huge. We have no guide, and so we wander the paths all over the compound. The Japanese tourist seem every bit as fascinated and nerdy as us. They take pictures of everything and move with a quick, almost nervous, energy.
As we exit the compound, I buy some silk, incense and spice. I figure if you are going to the Far East on a trade mission, might as well kick it old school, Marco Polo style. And I bet he would come back with some Hello Kitty merchandise if they had it back then, too.
On our cab ride back, I try to tip the driver only to be refused not just twice, but thrice. It seems that the gratuity is already built into the fee for whatever good or service that is offered and that tipping is not just redundant, but slightly rude. Live and learn, I guess.
The Flight
Rapid City Regional Airport to Denver International to San Francisco. Our plane arrived an hour late, which left me 40 minutes to check into the international flight to Osaka and race back through security all the way to my gate, the entire length of the airport away. Heart pumping, sweat pouring, feet running, arms swinging, this was a flat out sprint to the finish line and the only reward would be my tiny Economy Class seat on the Boeing 747. I nearly knocked over an elderly German couple who were leisurely strolling to their gate, dodged to the left, threw an apology at them over my shoulder and continued my mad dash to the gate. I was the last person to arrive on the plane and they immediately shut the door behind me after I entered. I made it!
On the way to my seat, I pass one of my travel companions, Nathan Notah, director of the American Indian Ag Council, who was making calls back to the office telling them I missed the plane. Ha! Ha! Nice way to start off a long flight.
I settle into my seat and oscillate between sleeping and watching the in-flight movies for our 11+ hour journey. I slowly start observing the Japanese travelers. They are the reason Tanka Bar is making this long trip overseas. I wonder what makes them tick and what foods they like? Would they like the Tanka Bar? Many of the Japanese people we have met at the food shows we have attended have really enjoyed the Tanka Bar. Would they be so kind in the mainland? I notice that many are wearing face masks, the type you'd see nurses or surgeons wear. I assumed there would be no in-flight heart transplants, so what gives? Another questions to ask when I land.
An hour into the flight, I notice we are still in sight of land to the right of our plane. We take a northern route to save on time. We are flying so far to the west it actually cuts down on the distance to avoid flying around the fat middle part of the earth. So we actually fly westward in an arc pattern to get to the east.
They serve us two meals free of charge and this shocks me. I was honestly expecting a handful of peanuts and warm soda served over ice, not even a whole can to ourselves. We watch Wall-E as they bring around the Duty Free cart carrying high-dollar items for sale tax- and tariff-free. If you haven't seen Wall-E yet, see it. An adorable movie.
A huge jet comes what feels dangerously close to us. I can make out the windows but not quite the faces of their passengers. I look down at freighters hauling shipping containers. Still in sight of land.
I sleep for the rest of the way and ,when we deplane, we are greeted with the deep, warm of air of a foreign climate, not quite in the same swing of the seasons as back home. The Customs officers were professional and polite, a trait I would soon learn is very common in Japan.
Culture Shock
My first culture shock comes in the bathroom, where I know what I need to, but the facilities are not what I'm accustomed to. Imagine an American restroom, surgically clean, and then eaten and digested by cybernetic beats, reformed into a post-modern aesthetic. When you stick your hands into an automatic hand drier ,your fingers and palms are lit of up by UV rays, which are sanitizing them. Not on the rez anymore.
I meet our whole team face to face for the first time this trip. There is Nathan Notah, representing the American Indian Ag Council, our benefactors on this trade mission; Jim McCool of Red Lake Nation Foods; and Joe Jaramillo. We eat at McDonald’s like every patriotic American does while visiting a foreign country and head to the hotel. Local time is 8 p.m. tomorrow and we are dead, beat, tired. I crash nice and hard and don't wake until past dawn.
Tourist for a Day
We have the entire day of ahead of us and we want to do the whole tourist bus route deal. Kyoto is a city of over 2,000 shrines and temples and was specifically spared some of the most horrendous bombing of WW2 in order to preserve these beautiful and historic cultural sites. We meet with our translation team and our man on the ground, Mike Moretti. They are dressed in business suits and have polished shoes and I have on blue jeans and sneakers. I feel a little out of place. Mike hands us our business cards that have been translated into Japanese. I quickly learn that the business card is a big part of the business culture here. When first meeting, you shake hands and exchange business cards, and it is not just a trade of contact information but an understanding of one’s station and rank. My card says Assistant Director of Marketing, and theirs would say Head of Sales, I would bow lower to show my respect. Just like that movie Shogun they showed us in 8th grade civics class!
Armed with our business cards and freshly exchanged Yen, we set off in search of Nijo Castle, the palace fortress of the first Shogun of Japan. It is a huge, sprawling complex with an exterior and interior moat. It is solidly placed in the center of Kyoto, which itself is placed in the bowl of a deep valley ringed by vast mountains. Looking at the castle, it does not look like an easy place to attack a Lord, but it doesn't strike me as an easy place to defend. (Yes, I'm a tactics nerd and a history buff.) We are not permitted to take pictures of the inside of the residence. I am not sure why the prohibition, but I follow the rules as stated. The 400-year-old floor boards whistle as we walk on them. Not creak out of age, but whistle. I remember watching this on the History Channel. The floors were designed to make noise so no one could approach the Shogun unannounced. It is an amazing feat that it works after all these years.
We see the Shogun's living quarters, his guardhouse, his imperial court, and his ministers offices. The tax and collection office is as large as all of the others combined. The outside is immense and huge. We have no guide, and so we wander the paths all over the compound. The Japanese tourist seem every bit as fascinated and nerdy as us. They take pictures of everything and move with a quick, almost nervous, energy.
As we exit the compound, I buy some silk, incense and spice. I figure if you are going to the Far East on a trade mission, might as well kick it old school, Marco Polo style. And I bet he would come back with some Hello Kitty merchandise if they had it back then, too.
On our cab ride back, I try to tip the driver only to be refused not just twice, but thrice. It seems that the gratuity is already built into the fee for whatever good or service that is offered and that tipping is not just redundant, but slightly rude. Live and learn, I guess.
9-11-08
TANKA BAR TEAM HEADING TO CALIFORNIA NEXT WEEK FOR 3 UPCOMING EVENTS
Tanka Bar is taking California by storm at three upcoming events. If you’re in the neighborhood, plan to stop by and look us up. Who knows? There’ll probably be a sample in it for you.
SOBOBA Powwow
Sept. 19-21, 2008
People of the West
Payomkawichum Intertribal Powwow
The Arena at Soboba Casino
23333 Soboba Road
San Jacinto, CA 92583
866-4-SOBOBA
NIHB: National Indian Health Board Consumer Conference
Sept. 22-25, 2008
Pechanga Resort and Casino
45000 Pechanga Parkway
Temecula, CA 92592
951-693-1819
MORONGO Powwow
Sept. 26-28, 2008
18th Annual Thunder and Lightning Powwow
The Path of our Ancestors
Morongo Casino Resort & Spa grounds
49500 Seminole Drive
Cabazon, CA 92230
800-252-4499, ext. 23800
Tanka Bar is taking California by storm at three upcoming events. If you’re in the neighborhood, plan to stop by and look us up. Who knows? There’ll probably be a sample in it for you.
SOBOBA Powwow
Sept. 19-21, 2008
People of the West
Payomkawichum Intertribal Powwow
The Arena at Soboba Casino
23333 Soboba Road
San Jacinto, CA 92583
866-4-SOBOBA
NIHB: National Indian Health Board Consumer Conference
Sept. 22-25, 2008
Pechanga Resort and Casino
45000 Pechanga Parkway
Temecula, CA 92592
951-693-1819
MORONGO Powwow
Sept. 26-28, 2008
18th Annual Thunder and Lightning Powwow
The Path of our Ancestors
Morongo Casino Resort & Spa grounds
49500 Seminole Drive
Cabazon, CA 92230
800-252-4499, ext. 23800
5-6-08
Gathering of Nations
Gathering of Nations was a big success for Tanka Bar almost in spite of ourselves. Our friends and fans carried us when we were burnt out. Overall, we learned a lot and connected with some awesome people and were reminded that we want to conduct ourselves in the best way possible.
Day 1
Gathering was a trip! We were riding very low on the springs in our packed vehicle throughout the whole road trip. We even picked up a photographer in Denver, David Bernie. He works with our friends over at Native American Rights Fund and volunteered to help out Tanka Bar for the weekend. His main occupation may be more artistic, but by the time the weekend was over, he was a journeyman laborer with expertise in vehicle packing and box transportation.
After we hit town, we unloaded our bags and luggage into our hotel room and suddenly felt like drug dealers for moving so many cases of “product” in such a clandestine manner. A quick rest up and we stopped by Rez Dogs’ booth on Central and University. They were fighting with the wind the whole time they were setting up. By the way, be sure to check out “New Urban Transportation” for all your scooter and motorcycle needs in Albuquerque. Keith over at Rez Dogs wanted to make sure we gave those guys props for letting him set up shop in their parking lot for Gathering for the past several years and for overall having been really good to a native businessman.
We caught wind of a free concert being held by Keva, the oldest Native student organization in New Mexico. Calico, a quartet of native artists, was doing a set fresh off their performance at Red Ink Magazine's Premiere. The venue was poorly lit with a real small turnout, but the music and the energy was awesome! Rose B. Simpson, the lead singer, started with a spoken word piece that grabbed the audience by the guts. She later introduced the rest of the band, a group of Lakota cousins affectionately called, “The Two Bulls.” I can't remember their individual names, but the music was a solid foundation for their singer to lay her voice over. There were only three people dancing, but somehow the show was still pretty jumping. I picked up a Frankenstein patch from the merchandise table to support the band and we were out the door.
I heard through our MySpace friend, Indigenous Flygirl, that GMB was promoting a show downtown at the Sauce that was tagged as the kick off to Gathering of Nations. On the way to the show, I randomly gave out a Tanka Bar to some folks walking by.
“Is this the Tanka Bar? I have been waiting to try this!”
“Sure is ma'am. Where did you hear about us from?”
“Lakota Harden is always talking about you guys in the Bay. Do you know her?”
“Heck yes! Koty has had our back from the beginning!”
If you read this, Koty, wopila tanka tunwin.
The show started slow, but before long, the crowd rolled in and filled up the small club nicely. Big Chief Indian Ink was tattooing live at the event, and I was considering getting the Tanka Bar logo on my arm, but I think I will hold off till I have some more impressive guns. Bunky Echo-Hawk was slated to do a live painting and introduced us to hip hop artist Redcloud, who did an awesome set! Not to be shown up, Quese IMC was real strong on the mike and incorporated Tanka Bar into his flow. How cool is that? Big shout to Quese for reppin’ us. It is inspiring to see our native artists not just emulate mainstream hip hop but to make it our own, with their own styles, messages, and images we can connect to. We are proud of all the artists who really showed up that night to represent their craft, their nation and all native people.
One of the recurring themes of the night is that we kept running into people we had only met through MySpace. That was really cool and helped us see that this little page reaches a lot of folks from all over! I even got to meet Gary Farmer outside the club, but I didn't have a Tanka Bar on hand for him! I am still kicking myself over that. The night was fun, but the morning was coming quickly and I knew that it would bring a lot of challenges for us.
Day 2
After packing up our T-shirts, banners, brochures, tattoos and Tanka Bars, we were armed to the teeth with promotional gear and set our sights on the Pit itself. On the way to the pow wow, we stopped by Rez Dog's booth to put up our signs and drop off some T-shirts. Just as we were about ready to leave, a group of folks stopped by to buy some Tanka Bars. They saw the Tanka Bar sign and were ready to buy! They were a trio of Lakotas from Aberdeen, S.D., and we had officially made our first sale of the weekend! We took this as a positive sign of things to come.
We parked about a half mile from the Pit and wandered over to the main entrance. The line to get in was massive but swift-moving after you wound your way through the maze-like cattle chute to get a wristband. One of the things we were not really ready for was the sheer size of the event! We knew in our heads that, yes, this is the largest pow wow in the country, but there is a big difference from having that knowledge and seeing it for yourself. This place is not for the claustrophobic! It takes a long time to walk anywhere just from the massive size of the crowds inside of the venue.
We wound our way to Creative Native's booth that was setup in front of a pizza stand that no one was using. It is easy to be impressed by the sheer number of different artists and drum groups whose music they carry. Before long, we had one of our banners standing up and people were exchanging hard currency for buffalo and cranberry goodness. The Tanka Bar had arrived at Gathering of Nations!
We slowly waded through the crowds to the vendor tents and met up with our vendor folks who were ready to purchase Tanka Bars for their booths. The merchants at Gathering had everything from animal wood cutouts for a dollar, to buffalo robe winter coats ranging in the thousands. From the most ornate hand-crafted jewelry to the most large-scale produced toys from mainland China, to spiritual enlightenment over at the World Baha’i Church. I was much more into the turquoise trinkets, though. I had an easier time understanding the trinkets than a different perspective on religion, but the folks at their booth were respectful and handed out free crowns.
We were busy making sales and, after ever new vendor we signed, we had to make the long trek back to the vehicle for their Tanka Bars. My feet were not happy with me by evening time.
Toward meal break, we met up with some friends we know from back home and they helped us handout flyers and tattoos. Toni, Melissa, Allison, Eric, Chance, and David formed the core of the most fearless street team I have seen at any powwow. Right off the bat, Melissa handed out a Tanka Bar flyer to an old grandma walking by with her granddaughter.
“How dare you hand out flyers for a bar to children! This is a sober pow wow! Take it elsewhere!”
“But you don't understa-.”
But by then, she was already gone. Haha. That would have driven a lesser team over the edge, but our crew stuck together and kept on pumping out energy for Tanka Bar. I remember the sun shining so bright and warm, but the wind being so cool and crisp. It was like being bathed in light and chilled at the same time. It was a beautiful day.
One of the sad things about Gathering of Nations is that we had almost no time to actually enjoy the pow wow, see the dancers, listen to the drums or even visit with friends we haven't seen in a long time. I listened to two songs the entire pow wow. We kept on our feet and did our best to keep moving. All our friends who helped us are the ones who deserve the credit for making us a big hit down there.
I remember the day being a long one and we didn't call it quits till long after sundown. Some of our team went out to hit up more of the nightlife and, from what I hear, Tanka Bar had its name all over town. In a good way, that's what they tell me at least. Haha. After a good cigar and a long swim in the pool, I was comatose till sunrise.
Day 3
During the final day of Gathering, we knew the pressure was on and we felt like we were not selling enough. Ideally, we wanted everyone who had a booth to sell Tanka Bars and everyone at the pow wow to have one in their hands. If we couldn't do that, we hoped that we could at least get people a Tanka Bar flyer and have our team flash our logo in their eyes once or twice.
The announcer Rubin gave Tanka Bar a shout out in front of the whole pow wow and that made us happy and drove people to the vendors selling the Tanka Bar.
I am just going to come out and say it: You have to see Gathering. There is at least one person from every tribe in America there and I am sure a lot of Canada as well. You can't throw a stone without hitting some really good-looking people. Believe me, I tried and ended up almost clipping some native models. Even the old grandmas put on their best duds to really show off. Seeing this many natives in one place just makes you think where we can take Indian Country together.
Over at Stage 49, we saw some cool acts when we had a minute to stand still. Ethnic Degeneration was rockin’ the Tanka Bar shirt on stage in front of the audience. These guys kick ass! Thank you for supporting us guys!
We met up with so many people that we have only known through MySpace. One of our very first friends and fanatical supporters, SugaMamma, was helping down at the Native Skate Booth. She was helping us promote back before we had anything to sell! We had a chance for the Baker Twins out of Canada to try the Tanka Bar and they loved it! We had models help us promote from Runway Beauties, Native Model Studio, and Native Talent Network. There was one trio of gorgeous natives that stick out in my mind. I don't know if they were from a native model outfit or were freelance. I can't remember their Dine' names, but I know one of the sisters by her MySpace tag, Sunshine. She and her friends graced our camera with their faces. It was kind of funny seeing them all share one Tanka Bar.
“Yes, three native models can survive for days just with one Tanka Bar!”
"When I need to stay runway fit and have energy on the go, I eat a Tanka Bar!”
We teased the girls a bit, but they were good sports about it. Shout out to you, Sunshine, Dee and the rest of your bear crew. Thank you for supporting us!
Quese and Happy Frejo were giving us much publicity every time we touched base. These two have a lot of talent and a big heart for the people. Check out our GON photo album to see their mugshots.
Bunky Echo-Hawk got tagged to paint up a car for Keith Secola's music video and, if you look in the car, there is a big, bright Tanka Bar shirt.
Toward nightfall, Flyingman's Lemonade Stand let us hand out samples of the Tanka Bar right at their booth. We found out that lemonade washes down a delicious Tanka Bar quite nicely! I have to give a special mention to Natanti, Adoesha, Brandi Jade, Stephani Jerome and all their crews for handing out flyers and directing folks toward their samples. Our energy was on coasting mode toward the end there, but these women kept people coming to the booth to taste the Tanka Bar.
The taste has always been the biggest sell about the Tanka Bar! Once you taste it for the first time, your eyebrows pop up for a second and the most common thing we hear is, “Wow.”
By the time we wrapped up at the pow wow, the wind was blowing hard and the air was chilly. It was past 10 p.m., but the hardcore pow wow people wouldn't be slowing down till nearly 4 in the morning. Gathering of Nations only comes once a year and you have to make the most of it.
Day 4
After a long and restless night worrying about whether or not we did our jobs well enough, we trucked on over to Rez Dog's booth to settle up with them. Our promotional T-shirts, with loud and bright colors didn't fare too well against the more urban and hip threads that people had a chance to choose from over at their booth. However, the Tanka Bar did sell well and Rez Dog is taking it on the road with them.
We burned some sage in the car to start a new day and headed over to the All Nations Skate Jam. This was a really cool event. I ate mutton soup with extra salt and threw in a Tanka Bar for flavor. The skate park was just packed with skaters, zipping by without any concern, and you could till these kids were totally in their element. If you nearly got crashed into that was your fault for being in their way.
The event was sponsored by Vans, Wounded Knee SkateBoards, Native Skates and Nakota Designs and was a huge success. They got exactly the right group of people to show up, and the people sponsoring the event couldn't have been more supportive. Steve Van Dorn, the founder of Vans, spent hours in the hot sun making waffles for everyone. Who does that? I had a chance for him and old-school skater Tony Alba of Dogtown fame autograph a Tanka Bar sign for us. We're holding onto that one. Just as they were signing, the batteries for my camera died! Never use cheap batteries and always have extra in your bag. Lesson learned.
We did a whirlwind tour of the skate park handing out flyers and samples of the Tanka Bar. I remember one young skater ate a Tanka Bar and said, “Oh man, that's sick!” Haha. From the smile on his face, I take it he liked it. This was billed as the Native Skate Jam but you got a chance to see kids from every background out there, doing tricks and it didn't matter the color of your skin. And for a lot of them, it didn't even matter how much skill you had. Just that you wanted to be there and loved what you were doing.
On the promotional end of things, we made a big splash at the Skate Jam. It was a more intimate setting than Gathering of Nations and you had enough room to breathe and feel the sun on your skin. There was a cool fashion show with many beautiful native models and Jackie Bird was narrating and giving commenting on the clothes. Our friend, Adoesha, made a dress out of a Tanka Bar shirt and showed it off as fashionable attire. The fashion show was a cool and slightly odd addition to the skate jam.
I had a chance to give Keith Secola a Tanka Bar and to thank him for introducing me to the writings of Italian poet Rumi when I was a teenager. This man is still riding in his Indian Car and keeping it real.
Gathering of Nations was a big success for Tanka Bar almost in spite of ourselves. Our friends and fans carried us when we were burnt out. Overall, we learned a lot and connected with some awesome people and were reminded that we want to conduct ourselves in the best way possible.
Day 1
Gathering was a trip! We were riding very low on the springs in our packed vehicle throughout the whole road trip. We even picked up a photographer in Denver, David Bernie. He works with our friends over at Native American Rights Fund and volunteered to help out Tanka Bar for the weekend. His main occupation may be more artistic, but by the time the weekend was over, he was a journeyman laborer with expertise in vehicle packing and box transportation.
After we hit town, we unloaded our bags and luggage into our hotel room and suddenly felt like drug dealers for moving so many cases of “product” in such a clandestine manner. A quick rest up and we stopped by Rez Dogs’ booth on Central and University. They were fighting with the wind the whole time they were setting up. By the way, be sure to check out “New Urban Transportation” for all your scooter and motorcycle needs in Albuquerque. Keith over at Rez Dogs wanted to make sure we gave those guys props for letting him set up shop in their parking lot for Gathering for the past several years and for overall having been really good to a native businessman.
We caught wind of a free concert being held by Keva, the oldest Native student organization in New Mexico. Calico, a quartet of native artists, was doing a set fresh off their performance at Red Ink Magazine's Premiere. The venue was poorly lit with a real small turnout, but the music and the energy was awesome! Rose B. Simpson, the lead singer, started with a spoken word piece that grabbed the audience by the guts. She later introduced the rest of the band, a group of Lakota cousins affectionately called, “The Two Bulls.” I can't remember their individual names, but the music was a solid foundation for their singer to lay her voice over. There were only three people dancing, but somehow the show was still pretty jumping. I picked up a Frankenstein patch from the merchandise table to support the band and we were out the door.
I heard through our MySpace friend, Indigenous Flygirl, that GMB was promoting a show downtown at the Sauce that was tagged as the kick off to Gathering of Nations. On the way to the show, I randomly gave out a Tanka Bar to some folks walking by.
“Is this the Tanka Bar? I have been waiting to try this!”
“Sure is ma'am. Where did you hear about us from?”
“Lakota Harden is always talking about you guys in the Bay. Do you know her?”
“Heck yes! Koty has had our back from the beginning!”
If you read this, Koty, wopila tanka tunwin.
The show started slow, but before long, the crowd rolled in and filled up the small club nicely. Big Chief Indian Ink was tattooing live at the event, and I was considering getting the Tanka Bar logo on my arm, but I think I will hold off till I have some more impressive guns. Bunky Echo-Hawk was slated to do a live painting and introduced us to hip hop artist Redcloud, who did an awesome set! Not to be shown up, Quese IMC was real strong on the mike and incorporated Tanka Bar into his flow. How cool is that? Big shout to Quese for reppin’ us. It is inspiring to see our native artists not just emulate mainstream hip hop but to make it our own, with their own styles, messages, and images we can connect to. We are proud of all the artists who really showed up that night to represent their craft, their nation and all native people.
One of the recurring themes of the night is that we kept running into people we had only met through MySpace. That was really cool and helped us see that this little page reaches a lot of folks from all over! I even got to meet Gary Farmer outside the club, but I didn't have a Tanka Bar on hand for him! I am still kicking myself over that. The night was fun, but the morning was coming quickly and I knew that it would bring a lot of challenges for us.
Day 2
After packing up our T-shirts, banners, brochures, tattoos and Tanka Bars, we were armed to the teeth with promotional gear and set our sights on the Pit itself. On the way to the pow wow, we stopped by Rez Dog's booth to put up our signs and drop off some T-shirts. Just as we were about ready to leave, a group of folks stopped by to buy some Tanka Bars. They saw the Tanka Bar sign and were ready to buy! They were a trio of Lakotas from Aberdeen, S.D., and we had officially made our first sale of the weekend! We took this as a positive sign of things to come.
We parked about a half mile from the Pit and wandered over to the main entrance. The line to get in was massive but swift-moving after you wound your way through the maze-like cattle chute to get a wristband. One of the things we were not really ready for was the sheer size of the event! We knew in our heads that, yes, this is the largest pow wow in the country, but there is a big difference from having that knowledge and seeing it for yourself. This place is not for the claustrophobic! It takes a long time to walk anywhere just from the massive size of the crowds inside of the venue.
We wound our way to Creative Native's booth that was setup in front of a pizza stand that no one was using. It is easy to be impressed by the sheer number of different artists and drum groups whose music they carry. Before long, we had one of our banners standing up and people were exchanging hard currency for buffalo and cranberry goodness. The Tanka Bar had arrived at Gathering of Nations!
We slowly waded through the crowds to the vendor tents and met up with our vendor folks who were ready to purchase Tanka Bars for their booths. The merchants at Gathering had everything from animal wood cutouts for a dollar, to buffalo robe winter coats ranging in the thousands. From the most ornate hand-crafted jewelry to the most large-scale produced toys from mainland China, to spiritual enlightenment over at the World Baha’i Church. I was much more into the turquoise trinkets, though. I had an easier time understanding the trinkets than a different perspective on religion, but the folks at their booth were respectful and handed out free crowns.
We were busy making sales and, after ever new vendor we signed, we had to make the long trek back to the vehicle for their Tanka Bars. My feet were not happy with me by evening time.
Toward meal break, we met up with some friends we know from back home and they helped us handout flyers and tattoos. Toni, Melissa, Allison, Eric, Chance, and David formed the core of the most fearless street team I have seen at any powwow. Right off the bat, Melissa handed out a Tanka Bar flyer to an old grandma walking by with her granddaughter.
“How dare you hand out flyers for a bar to children! This is a sober pow wow! Take it elsewhere!”
“But you don't understa-.”
But by then, she was already gone. Haha. That would have driven a lesser team over the edge, but our crew stuck together and kept on pumping out energy for Tanka Bar. I remember the sun shining so bright and warm, but the wind being so cool and crisp. It was like being bathed in light and chilled at the same time. It was a beautiful day.
One of the sad things about Gathering of Nations is that we had almost no time to actually enjoy the pow wow, see the dancers, listen to the drums or even visit with friends we haven't seen in a long time. I listened to two songs the entire pow wow. We kept on our feet and did our best to keep moving. All our friends who helped us are the ones who deserve the credit for making us a big hit down there.
I remember the day being a long one and we didn't call it quits till long after sundown. Some of our team went out to hit up more of the nightlife and, from what I hear, Tanka Bar had its name all over town. In a good way, that's what they tell me at least. Haha. After a good cigar and a long swim in the pool, I was comatose till sunrise.
Day 3
During the final day of Gathering, we knew the pressure was on and we felt like we were not selling enough. Ideally, we wanted everyone who had a booth to sell Tanka Bars and everyone at the pow wow to have one in their hands. If we couldn't do that, we hoped that we could at least get people a Tanka Bar flyer and have our team flash our logo in their eyes once or twice.
The announcer Rubin gave Tanka Bar a shout out in front of the whole pow wow and that made us happy and drove people to the vendors selling the Tanka Bar.
I am just going to come out and say it: You have to see Gathering. There is at least one person from every tribe in America there and I am sure a lot of Canada as well. You can't throw a stone without hitting some really good-looking people. Believe me, I tried and ended up almost clipping some native models. Even the old grandmas put on their best duds to really show off. Seeing this many natives in one place just makes you think where we can take Indian Country together.
Over at Stage 49, we saw some cool acts when we had a minute to stand still. Ethnic Degeneration was rockin’ the Tanka Bar shirt on stage in front of the audience. These guys kick ass! Thank you for supporting us guys!
We met up with so many people that we have only known through MySpace. One of our very first friends and fanatical supporters, SugaMamma, was helping down at the Native Skate Booth. She was helping us promote back before we had anything to sell! We had a chance for the Baker Twins out of Canada to try the Tanka Bar and they loved it! We had models help us promote from Runway Beauties, Native Model Studio, and Native Talent Network. There was one trio of gorgeous natives that stick out in my mind. I don't know if they were from a native model outfit or were freelance. I can't remember their Dine' names, but I know one of the sisters by her MySpace tag, Sunshine. She and her friends graced our camera with their faces. It was kind of funny seeing them all share one Tanka Bar.
“Yes, three native models can survive for days just with one Tanka Bar!”
"When I need to stay runway fit and have energy on the go, I eat a Tanka Bar!”
We teased the girls a bit, but they were good sports about it. Shout out to you, Sunshine, Dee and the rest of your bear crew. Thank you for supporting us!
Quese and Happy Frejo were giving us much publicity every time we touched base. These two have a lot of talent and a big heart for the people. Check out our GON photo album to see their mugshots.
Bunky Echo-Hawk got tagged to paint up a car for Keith Secola's music video and, if you look in the car, there is a big, bright Tanka Bar shirt.
Toward nightfall, Flyingman's Lemonade Stand let us hand out samples of the Tanka Bar right at their booth. We found out that lemonade washes down a delicious Tanka Bar quite nicely! I have to give a special mention to Natanti, Adoesha, Brandi Jade, Stephani Jerome and all their crews for handing out flyers and directing folks toward their samples. Our energy was on coasting mode toward the end there, but these women kept people coming to the booth to taste the Tanka Bar.
The taste has always been the biggest sell about the Tanka Bar! Once you taste it for the first time, your eyebrows pop up for a second and the most common thing we hear is, “Wow.”
By the time we wrapped up at the pow wow, the wind was blowing hard and the air was chilly. It was past 10 p.m., but the hardcore pow wow people wouldn't be slowing down till nearly 4 in the morning. Gathering of Nations only comes once a year and you have to make the most of it.
Day 4
After a long and restless night worrying about whether or not we did our jobs well enough, we trucked on over to Rez Dog's booth to settle up with them. Our promotional T-shirts, with loud and bright colors didn't fare too well against the more urban and hip threads that people had a chance to choose from over at their booth. However, the Tanka Bar did sell well and Rez Dog is taking it on the road with them.
We burned some sage in the car to start a new day and headed over to the All Nations Skate Jam. This was a really cool event. I ate mutton soup with extra salt and threw in a Tanka Bar for flavor. The skate park was just packed with skaters, zipping by without any concern, and you could till these kids were totally in their element. If you nearly got crashed into that was your fault for being in their way.
The event was sponsored by Vans, Wounded Knee SkateBoards, Native Skates and Nakota Designs and was a huge success. They got exactly the right group of people to show up, and the people sponsoring the event couldn't have been more supportive. Steve Van Dorn, the founder of Vans, spent hours in the hot sun making waffles for everyone. Who does that? I had a chance for him and old-school skater Tony Alba of Dogtown fame autograph a Tanka Bar sign for us. We're holding onto that one. Just as they were signing, the batteries for my camera died! Never use cheap batteries and always have extra in your bag. Lesson learned.
We did a whirlwind tour of the skate park handing out flyers and samples of the Tanka Bar. I remember one young skater ate a Tanka Bar and said, “Oh man, that's sick!” Haha. From the smile on his face, I take it he liked it. This was billed as the Native Skate Jam but you got a chance to see kids from every background out there, doing tricks and it didn't matter the color of your skin. And for a lot of them, it didn't even matter how much skill you had. Just that you wanted to be there and loved what you were doing.
On the promotional end of things, we made a big splash at the Skate Jam. It was a more intimate setting than Gathering of Nations and you had enough room to breathe and feel the sun on your skin. There was a cool fashion show with many beautiful native models and Jackie Bird was narrating and giving commenting on the clothes. Our friend, Adoesha, made a dress out of a Tanka Bar shirt and showed it off as fashionable attire. The fashion show was a cool and slightly odd addition to the skate jam.
I had a chance to give Keith Secola a Tanka Bar and to thank him for introducing me to the writings of Italian poet Rumi when I was a teenager. This man is still riding in his Indian Car and keeping it real.
3-29-08 and 4-16-08
4-16-08
This article ran in the Spring 2008 edition of Repast, the quarterly publication of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor
By Karlene Hunter
Karlene Hunter is CEO and co-founder of Native American Natural Foods, a Native-owned company based on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Hunter serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Native American Rights Fund; the National Indian Business Association; and the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Hunter, who holds an MBA from Oglala Lakota College, has received numerous awards, including the 2007 SBA Minority Business Person of the Year for South Dakota.
The ceremony was almost complete. My granddaughter and grandson had been so solemn and patient standing in the hot sun in the beautiful traditional clothing that their mother, my daughter Stephanie, had labored over so carefully. Now, they were starting to shift a little.
But there were a few final rituals before Fallen and Jake would be free to run and play with the other children. The guests lined up and servers passed by with bowls filled with wasna. Each guest took a little and ate it quickly. A few more songs and prayers, and the ceremony was over. And yet again, we Oglala Lakota had celebrated another important event with the help of our sister nation, the Buffalo.
Wasna, a pounded mix of dried buffalo meat and berries, has long been a mainstay in our culture. No one knows the name of the first Lakota to make wasna, but the basics of preparing the dish have been passed down, generation to generation. Warriors and hunters would pack wasna into a buffalo horn, which they could take on the trail for weeks at a time.
More than two years ago when my business partner, Mark Tilsen, and I decided to create the Tanka Bar, an energy bar based on this most natural of recipes, we didn’t fully grasp the challenge of turning a traditional food into a consumer product without additives or preservatives.
Armed with questions, we sought out the experts on wasna in our community on the Pine Ridge Reservation. What we discovered was a recipe with simple ingredients but an exacting process.
According to Kay Red Hail, an elder known as Auntie Kay, a title of respect, the secret to wasna is that it preserves itself.
“The first time I remember tasting wasna, I was 3 or 4,” she said. “My grandma told me it is special food. That you have to eat it. It is not just something to throw away.
“When I was older -- 5 or 6 -- my other grandma said it was considered sacred because it was used for naming and our sacred ceremonies. That’s why when a medicine man goes to sacred sites, they bring wasna as an offering.”
Auntie Kay said the best wasna comes from choke cherries beaten with a special stone, which gives them a special flavor, and made into dried patties. The patties are then mixed with bapa, or dried buffalo, and a small amount of buffalo kidney fat.
“The only place I know of to get the stones you need to make wasna is in the Wind River (Wyoming),” she said. “We went with the Arapahoes and they showed me which stones were the best. Granite stones were the best. They don't chip and after being in the water so long, they smooth out. You try and find the roundest ones. You find one that is rounded on one side and flat on the other and find another stone that will fit with that one."
To prepare the meat, Auntie Kay warned that the one thing you don't do is wet the meat that you want to dry. “It causes mold or it won't dry like it’s supposed to,” she said. “You get a big piece of meat and cut it open, like you’re unrolling it in layers.
“My mother would hang her bapa out on the clothesline to dry, then proceed to fight the crows. She would run out there with her mop. We actually laughed at her doing that.”
Once the bapa is thoroughly dry, it’s mixed with the cherry patties and a little buffalo kidney fat. She said that to make a couple of pounds of wasna, you add about a tablespoon of kidney fat and some cherry juice. “You have to develop an eye for it depending on the texture of the bapa,” she said. “Some bapa is really dry so you have to add more fat.”
Auntie Kay said using buffalo fat was essential to the recipe because using beef fat makes the mixture gel up and can lead to spoiling. “If you were to make wasna in modern days now with cow fat, there is no way any warriors would take it with them for two or three weeks. It would be pretty ripe by then.”
The fact that buffalo is so intrinsic to wasna is an illustration of its importance to my oyate, my people. The history of the Buffalo Nation and the Lakota Nation is so intertwined as to almost be indistinguishable. According to my good friend, Richard B. Williams, president of the American Indian College Fund and an expert in Native history, this shared journey is essential to who the Lakota are today.
In his article, “History of the Relationship of the Buffalo and the Indian,” Williams, an Oglala Lakota, said the Indian’s economic dependence on the buffalo had a very important part in developing the interactive and cooperative economic relationships. He said the buffalo is a giving animal:
‘It gave its life so Indians could live. The buffalo's generosity provided Indians with food and shelter. Indian people modeled the buffalo’s generosity, and it became fundamental to the economy of the American Indian.’
“In a lot of ways, the Indian people’s stock market was the buffalo,” Williams said, as he discussed his research and this symbiotic relationship between animal and human. “If today, buffalo was our stock market, we could eat our investments, wear our investments and we could even live in our investments.”
In spite of the odds that the buffalo and Native Americans have faced since the late 1800s, Williams’ article cites Lakota leader Black Elk, who predicted that the Sacred Hoop would be mended again. As part of that process, Black Elk said the buffalo would return. Williams writes:
‘Indian people believed in this vision. They waited for many generations for this miracle to happen. It was a vision of the buffalo suddenly appearing out of the lakes and reinhabiting the northern and southern plains. The buffalo reappearing in mountains; coming from the Sacred Blue Lake to help the Pueblo People; renewing the life of the Comanche on the southern Plains; gracing the quiet woodlands of the east. This was the dream and, in this dream, there is a reality. The buffalo are coming back. And it is something of a miracle, Indian people of all tribes organizing to make this dream become a reality.’
Williams said if we knew where to look today, we could probably go out on a plain and find a food cache. “It would probably be good to eat,” he said. “They would dry meat, fruits, and vegetables and pack them in a way to preserve them. Then they would dig a hole in the ground and cover them up. Then they would go back later when they needed food and dig up the cache. They thought about the future.”
The future is where we were looking when we founded Native American Natural Foods. Diabetes and obesity are at epic levels among my people, and our leadership and health professionals are working hard to reverse those trends. Our decision to create a buffalo-based product was no accident. Buffalo are raised on open grassland, and there are no low-level antibiotics, no hormones, no drug residues, and no preservatives in buffalo. It also has less fat and cholesterol than chicken, according to the USDA.
Our use of cranberries, also used in early versions of wasna, instead of choke cherries, which are not readily available in large quantities, adds even more benefits. A study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry says that cranberries contain more antioxidant phenols than 19 commonly eaten fruits, as well as ellagic acid, a cancer-fighting phytochemical. Cranberries and choke cherries are both indigenous to North America and both have acids that help to naturally preserve buffalo meat.
Guided by our elders’ advice and omitting the kidney fat of the original wasna recipe, Tanka Bars are 100 percent natural, only 70 calories, with no trans fat and no added sugar or nitrites. Achieving the formula wasn’t easy. It took us nearly two years to develop a recipe that was faithful to the traditional dish, was shelf stable, and that tasted good. Because of the sweet flavor of the cranberries, the children on our reservation call it “Buffalo candy.”
Introduced in October 2007, Tanka Bars are available at more than 1,000 locations in the South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming region. They are also available at 1-800-416-7212 or at TankaBar.com.
“I’m shocked when I look around our communities,” Williams said. “We’re outside our cultural norm. When we were eating buffalo and berries, we were strong people. We had the spirit of the plants and animals we were eating and we were stronger for it.
“Those are the kinds of things that are coming back today. The Tanka Bar is important. It is bridging a hundred years of a lost way by recapturing some of our traditions. I think that’s important. When you look at Indian people, the things we did 150 years ago still have value for us today.”
Note: Mark K. Tilsen, Jr., assisted in the research for this article.
Exclusive news for our Myspace friends!
This news will be in the newspapers and on television by Monday morning, but you heard it here first: Tanka Bar is finally rolling out to stores! Nearly 1,000 stores, in fact. This is the news you have been asking for! Our team has been waiting for this moment for months, and we are all ecstatic!
The most frequent inquiry we get is, “Where can I buy Tanka Bars?” It is a fair question considering we have spent all this time talking about it but did not have stores carrying them. Now we do! Look for Tanka Bar in nearly 1,000 locations in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. If you’re not in one of those areas, don’t worry. We will be announcing locations in other parts of the country in the coming weeks.
For now, we have made deals with M&B Enterprises, Dakota Distributing Co., and Chadron Wholesale, Inc, that will put the Tanka Bar in Walgreens, Common Cents, MG Oil’s gas stations (BP, Amoco, Conoco), Albertson’s, Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, Big Bat’s, KOA Campgrounds, Wall Drug, ALCO stores, Sunshine Food Stores, Family Thrift stores, Sun Mart Foods, Econofoods and hopefully a store near you!
As a lot of you know, we have only sold Tanka Bars over the phone and we have been struggling to keep up with the demand. I want to share with you a quote from our CEO in the release that went out to the press: “This is a major step forward for us,” said Karlene Hunter. “People have been clamoring for us to make Tanka Bars more accessible. To accomplish this, we had to get the product approved by the USDA and we had to add a new manufacturing facility to increase our capacity.”
The people have asked us to put the Tanka Bar in more stores and we are doing our best to listen to our customers (and Myspace friends.)
“The orders started rolling in before our launch date and they haven’t let up. M&B’s Mike Bowman has been talking to us since the beginning,” said Mark A. Tilsen, Sr., president of Native American Natural Foods. “But the addition of our second plant in Idaho gives us the ability to produce millions of Tanka Bars a year.”
We are not trying to make a billion dollars here (yet), but we do want everyone to have a chance to make the Tanka Bar part of their lives. It's good-tasting food, good for you, and has a beautiful vision of the future. What more could you want from a natural energy bar?
We are starting with a roll out in our local area. But to all our friends who do not live on the Great Plains, we have good news for you, too. Our company’s leaders are looking beyond just our region for Tanka Bar’s future. “We have inquiries from several national chains that we have not even begun to address,” Hunter said.
But distribution of Tanka Bars on a national scale may not be far off. We debuted the Tanka Bar at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. [Blog link}, to more than 52,000 natural foods industry brokers, distributors and retailers. We are still inspired by the huge amount of energy and support people gave us from the show.
“The reaction from the Natural Foods industry was overwhelming,” Tilsen said. “We’re talking to more than 200 interested distribution partners from that one show alone. The difference between today and last October is that now, we’re ready.”
I want you all to know that you are the first to hear this news and we do value each and every Myspace friend we have. Just a day ago, we finally broke 2,000 friends. Our goal is not just to have the most friends out there, but to communicate and connect to you all. Our hope is that you like the Tanka Bar enough to help spread the word about us and some of the ideas we try to represent. We are building our company from the grass roots and all of you reading this are part of it. We thank you from our heart. We have gone this far, let's see how see how far we can go together. Pilamayelo.
This article ran in the Spring 2008 edition of Repast, the quarterly publication of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor
By Karlene Hunter
Karlene Hunter is CEO and co-founder of Native American Natural Foods, a Native-owned company based on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Hunter serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Native American Rights Fund; the National Indian Business Association; and the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Hunter, who holds an MBA from Oglala Lakota College, has received numerous awards, including the 2007 SBA Minority Business Person of the Year for South Dakota.
The ceremony was almost complete. My granddaughter and grandson had been so solemn and patient standing in the hot sun in the beautiful traditional clothing that their mother, my daughter Stephanie, had labored over so carefully. Now, they were starting to shift a little.
But there were a few final rituals before Fallen and Jake would be free to run and play with the other children. The guests lined up and servers passed by with bowls filled with wasna. Each guest took a little and ate it quickly. A few more songs and prayers, and the ceremony was over. And yet again, we Oglala Lakota had celebrated another important event with the help of our sister nation, the Buffalo.
Wasna, a pounded mix of dried buffalo meat and berries, has long been a mainstay in our culture. No one knows the name of the first Lakota to make wasna, but the basics of preparing the dish have been passed down, generation to generation. Warriors and hunters would pack wasna into a buffalo horn, which they could take on the trail for weeks at a time.
More than two years ago when my business partner, Mark Tilsen, and I decided to create the Tanka Bar, an energy bar based on this most natural of recipes, we didn’t fully grasp the challenge of turning a traditional food into a consumer product without additives or preservatives.
Armed with questions, we sought out the experts on wasna in our community on the Pine Ridge Reservation. What we discovered was a recipe with simple ingredients but an exacting process.
According to Kay Red Hail, an elder known as Auntie Kay, a title of respect, the secret to wasna is that it preserves itself.
“The first time I remember tasting wasna, I was 3 or 4,” she said. “My grandma told me it is special food. That you have to eat it. It is not just something to throw away.
“When I was older -- 5 or 6 -- my other grandma said it was considered sacred because it was used for naming and our sacred ceremonies. That’s why when a medicine man goes to sacred sites, they bring wasna as an offering.”
Auntie Kay said the best wasna comes from choke cherries beaten with a special stone, which gives them a special flavor, and made into dried patties. The patties are then mixed with bapa, or dried buffalo, and a small amount of buffalo kidney fat.
“The only place I know of to get the stones you need to make wasna is in the Wind River (Wyoming),” she said. “We went with the Arapahoes and they showed me which stones were the best. Granite stones were the best. They don't chip and after being in the water so long, they smooth out. You try and find the roundest ones. You find one that is rounded on one side and flat on the other and find another stone that will fit with that one."
To prepare the meat, Auntie Kay warned that the one thing you don't do is wet the meat that you want to dry. “It causes mold or it won't dry like it’s supposed to,” she said. “You get a big piece of meat and cut it open, like you’re unrolling it in layers.
“My mother would hang her bapa out on the clothesline to dry, then proceed to fight the crows. She would run out there with her mop. We actually laughed at her doing that.”
Once the bapa is thoroughly dry, it’s mixed with the cherry patties and a little buffalo kidney fat. She said that to make a couple of pounds of wasna, you add about a tablespoon of kidney fat and some cherry juice. “You have to develop an eye for it depending on the texture of the bapa,” she said. “Some bapa is really dry so you have to add more fat.”
Auntie Kay said using buffalo fat was essential to the recipe because using beef fat makes the mixture gel up and can lead to spoiling. “If you were to make wasna in modern days now with cow fat, there is no way any warriors would take it with them for two or three weeks. It would be pretty ripe by then.”
The fact that buffalo is so intrinsic to wasna is an illustration of its importance to my oyate, my people. The history of the Buffalo Nation and the Lakota Nation is so intertwined as to almost be indistinguishable. According to my good friend, Richard B. Williams, president of the American Indian College Fund and an expert in Native history, this shared journey is essential to who the Lakota are today.
In his article, “History of the Relationship of the Buffalo and the Indian,” Williams, an Oglala Lakota, said the Indian’s economic dependence on the buffalo had a very important part in developing the interactive and cooperative economic relationships. He said the buffalo is a giving animal:
‘It gave its life so Indians could live. The buffalo's generosity provided Indians with food and shelter. Indian people modeled the buffalo’s generosity, and it became fundamental to the economy of the American Indian.’
“In a lot of ways, the Indian people’s stock market was the buffalo,” Williams said, as he discussed his research and this symbiotic relationship between animal and human. “If today, buffalo was our stock market, we could eat our investments, wear our investments and we could even live in our investments.”
In spite of the odds that the buffalo and Native Americans have faced since the late 1800s, Williams’ article cites Lakota leader Black Elk, who predicted that the Sacred Hoop would be mended again. As part of that process, Black Elk said the buffalo would return. Williams writes:
‘Indian people believed in this vision. They waited for many generations for this miracle to happen. It was a vision of the buffalo suddenly appearing out of the lakes and reinhabiting the northern and southern plains. The buffalo reappearing in mountains; coming from the Sacred Blue Lake to help the Pueblo People; renewing the life of the Comanche on the southern Plains; gracing the quiet woodlands of the east. This was the dream and, in this dream, there is a reality. The buffalo are coming back. And it is something of a miracle, Indian people of all tribes organizing to make this dream become a reality.’
Williams said if we knew where to look today, we could probably go out on a plain and find a food cache. “It would probably be good to eat,” he said. “They would dry meat, fruits, and vegetables and pack them in a way to preserve them. Then they would dig a hole in the ground and cover them up. Then they would go back later when they needed food and dig up the cache. They thought about the future.”
The future is where we were looking when we founded Native American Natural Foods. Diabetes and obesity are at epic levels among my people, and our leadership and health professionals are working hard to reverse those trends. Our decision to create a buffalo-based product was no accident. Buffalo are raised on open grassland, and there are no low-level antibiotics, no hormones, no drug residues, and no preservatives in buffalo. It also has less fat and cholesterol than chicken, according to the USDA.
Our use of cranberries, also used in early versions of wasna, instead of choke cherries, which are not readily available in large quantities, adds even more benefits. A study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry says that cranberries contain more antioxidant phenols than 19 commonly eaten fruits, as well as ellagic acid, a cancer-fighting phytochemical. Cranberries and choke cherries are both indigenous to North America and both have acids that help to naturally preserve buffalo meat.
Guided by our elders’ advice and omitting the kidney fat of the original wasna recipe, Tanka Bars are 100 percent natural, only 70 calories, with no trans fat and no added sugar or nitrites. Achieving the formula wasn’t easy. It took us nearly two years to develop a recipe that was faithful to the traditional dish, was shelf stable, and that tasted good. Because of the sweet flavor of the cranberries, the children on our reservation call it “Buffalo candy.”
Introduced in October 2007, Tanka Bars are available at more than 1,000 locations in the South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming region. They are also available at 1-800-416-7212 or at TankaBar.com.
“I’m shocked when I look around our communities,” Williams said. “We’re outside our cultural norm. When we were eating buffalo and berries, we were strong people. We had the spirit of the plants and animals we were eating and we were stronger for it.
“Those are the kinds of things that are coming back today. The Tanka Bar is important. It is bridging a hundred years of a lost way by recapturing some of our traditions. I think that’s important. When you look at Indian people, the things we did 150 years ago still have value for us today.”
Note: Mark K. Tilsen, Jr., assisted in the research for this article.
Exclusive news for our Myspace friends!
This news will be in the newspapers and on television by Monday morning, but you heard it here first: Tanka Bar is finally rolling out to stores! Nearly 1,000 stores, in fact. This is the news you have been asking for! Our team has been waiting for this moment for months, and we are all ecstatic!
The most frequent inquiry we get is, “Where can I buy Tanka Bars?” It is a fair question considering we have spent all this time talking about it but did not have stores carrying them. Now we do! Look for Tanka Bar in nearly 1,000 locations in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. If you’re not in one of those areas, don’t worry. We will be announcing locations in other parts of the country in the coming weeks.
For now, we have made deals with M&B Enterprises, Dakota Distributing Co., and Chadron Wholesale, Inc, that will put the Tanka Bar in Walgreens, Common Cents, MG Oil’s gas stations (BP, Amoco, Conoco), Albertson’s, Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, Big Bat’s, KOA Campgrounds, Wall Drug, ALCO stores, Sunshine Food Stores, Family Thrift stores, Sun Mart Foods, Econofoods and hopefully a store near you!
As a lot of you know, we have only sold Tanka Bars over the phone and we have been struggling to keep up with the demand. I want to share with you a quote from our CEO in the release that went out to the press: “This is a major step forward for us,” said Karlene Hunter. “People have been clamoring for us to make Tanka Bars more accessible. To accomplish this, we had to get the product approved by the USDA and we had to add a new manufacturing facility to increase our capacity.”
The people have asked us to put the Tanka Bar in more stores and we are doing our best to listen to our customers (and Myspace friends.)
“The orders started rolling in before our launch date and they haven’t let up. M&B’s Mike Bowman has been talking to us since the beginning,” said Mark A. Tilsen, Sr., president of Native American Natural Foods. “But the addition of our second plant in Idaho gives us the ability to produce millions of Tanka Bars a year.”
We are not trying to make a billion dollars here (yet), but we do want everyone to have a chance to make the Tanka Bar part of their lives. It's good-tasting food, good for you, and has a beautiful vision of the future. What more could you want from a natural energy bar?
We are starting with a roll out in our local area. But to all our friends who do not live on the Great Plains, we have good news for you, too. Our company’s leaders are looking beyond just our region for Tanka Bar’s future. “We have inquiries from several national chains that we have not even begun to address,” Hunter said.
But distribution of Tanka Bars on a national scale may not be far off. We debuted the Tanka Bar at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. [Blog link}, to more than 52,000 natural foods industry brokers, distributors and retailers. We are still inspired by the huge amount of energy and support people gave us from the show.
“The reaction from the Natural Foods industry was overwhelming,” Tilsen said. “We’re talking to more than 200 interested distribution partners from that one show alone. The difference between today and last October is that now, we’re ready.”
I want you all to know that you are the first to hear this news and we do value each and every Myspace friend we have. Just a day ago, we finally broke 2,000 friends. Our goal is not just to have the most friends out there, but to communicate and connect to you all. Our hope is that you like the Tanka Bar enough to help spread the word about us and some of the ideas we try to represent. We are building our company from the grass roots and all of you reading this are part of it. We thank you from our heart. We have gone this far, let's see how see how far we can go together. Pilamayelo.
3-18-08
Beyond Buffalicious: Great News from the Tanka Bar!
We have just returned from Anaheim, CA, at the Natural Products Expo West! It is one of the largest natural food trade shows in the country! This is a mammoth convention, spanning over five city blocks, all indoors. There are towering booths stretching more than 30 feet in the air and all of the big names in the natural food industry were present. We were down in the basement pavilion, part of a showcase of Native American products with our booth generously provided by our hosts, the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
The response has been amazing! Here we are, this new upstart company from Kyle, SD, and we are the talk of the town! We stood toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the industry and held our ground. We have great-tasting healthy food and presented ourselves in the best way possible. We tell people our story and they get it! The Tanka Bar is once again a huge smash hit.
This is our first national food show that we have attended and I was a little apprehensive. I shouldn't have worried though. We asked people to write down their reactions to tasting the Tanka Bar for the first time for our blog here at MySpace. Just listen to some of their responses:
“Beyond Buffalicious! Superior product.” – Wendy
“Amazing flavor! I was not expecting that!” – Salvatore Gagliano, professional chef
“Wow! Holy crap! This is the best so far at the show.” – Amanda Bailey, SLO, CA
“Best thing I’ve tasted in the whole show.” – Angie Doren
“Cranberry + buffalo … who would of thought it would be so delicious!” – Amanda Begley, North Hollywood
What is the Tanka Bar?
This question has been asked so many times that the answer has been ingrained into our minds. Our reply is as follows: “The Tanka Bar is a 1 ounce, all-natural energy bar based on our people’s traditional recipe of Wasna or Pemmican. It is made with prairie-raised buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries. Only 70 calories, 7 grams of carbohydrates and 7 grams of protein. There are only six ingredients: buffalo, cranberries, water, onion powder, garlic and a dash of salt. We slow-smoke the buffalo for over 9 hours to get that savory sweet flavor.”
Now imagine saying that a few thousand times a day for three days straight. It becomes part of the way we talk and, not to be fake or anything, but much of the questions are the same.
“We have taken the traditional recipe for wasna, which was made with sun-dried buffalo meat and choke cherries, and switched it with slow-smoked buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries. We wanted something our own kids would eat and the choke cherries are a little bitter for most folks these days.
“More protein than an energy bar, more energy than a protein bar, the only way to classify it is as real food!”
Here’s a few more reactions from first-time tasters:
“Mmmmmmhhh! Whoooaah! Killer! It’s soooo great! Congratulations on your first new indigenous product! Good luck! Aloha E Na Mahalo!” – Pramana, Hanama’ulu, Kaua’i Island
“That’s great! So unexpected. I don’t even like jerky. But this rocks!” – Anonymous
“Damn good!” – Tom Hajagos, Living Green
“The time has come again to have the best! Simple and elegant!” – Ryan Reverditto, executive chef
“Meat and cranberries… who knew it could taste this good? And be balanced! Rock on guys!!!” – Jeffrey, Los Angeles, CA
The funny thing about vegetarians
The funny thing about vegetarians is that some are not opposed to eating meat. There was a German dietitian who insisted that it was wrong to eat meat but helped himself to more than four samples of the Tanka Bar. One of the floor managers of the venue, named Dove, told us that the Tanka Bar was the first meat she had ever eaten in her life and she loved it!
There was one vegetarian who ate the Tanka Bar not knowing it was meat and spit it out, even after that he said it had a great flavor. He came back the next day saying how sick it had gotten him.
“For real?” I said. I was getting ready to feel remorseful.
“No, not really,” he replied.
If he was going to eat meat again, he said it would be the Tanka Bar. We kept telling them that buffalo eat grass, so it's kinda like eating vegetables, but the buffalo already takes care of that for you.. We even told them that buffalo is a non-amenable species and is technically not meat under USDA guidelines – which is absolutely true! Sigh. Sometimes there is no helping people.
More reactions:
“Geez Louise! Damn!” – Ben Ward, Nevada City, CA
“I love the combination of buffalo and cranberries. So moist and wonderful texture!” – Mary Martin, Vancouver, WA
“Lifts your spirits!” – Anonymous
“Mmmm - jerky times 10!” – Shannon Szymkowiak
“I was wary it would be jerky like, but it was lovely, tasty and delish!” – Courtney
Things overheard
Whenever you have such a massive amount of people together, there are always folks with interesting stories and odd things to say:
“Did you know my great-grandmother was Cherokee (or Apache, or Choctaw, or…)?” This made me want to say, “Yes, I did! Did you know that one of my ancestors could have been Polish? We're practically cousins!”
There was one man who apologized for the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass).
We said, “Why? We won that one!”
“Who do you market the Tanka Bar to?”
“Right now, we are focusing mostly on people who eat food, but we hope to refine our demographic soon.”
More reactions:
“AWESOME AND LOW SUGARS.” – Don Meyer
“Perfect Bar!” – Mike Richlin
“A meal in a bar. Delish! A real protein bar. Wonderful!” – Celia
“Great-tasting innovative product!” – Doug, Signature SSM
“This is the best product I have seen all day! I love it.” – Anonymous
Disclaimer: Tanka Bar does not contain crack.
We had many people tell us that the Tanka Bar is addictive. I even had to cut one man off:
“Sir, I think you’ve had enough. Now call yourself a cab and go home.”
People wanted to stay and visit about the Tanka Bar long after the show was over. The facility would shut off the lights and security asked us to leave, and still they wanted to stay and eat more Tanka Bars. We would have people who would come by time and time again to eat more Tanka Bars. Not only were people loving them, but they were telling everyone about them! We had some people who became instant fans and it was as if we were recruiting for a cult. They would keep bring more and more people down to the booth.
The first day, people were talking about this great-tasting new product. The second, they would come looking for the bar with buffalo and cranberries. At the end of the third day, they knew the Tanka Bar by name!
At the end of the show, fellow exhibitors were trading cases of drinks and chocolates with us for Tanka Bars. Our neighbors at the Intertribal Agriculture Council booth always had their fill of Tanka Bars, and we kept the booth jumping with high energy. It sounds cheesy, but eating the Tanka Bar kept us from being hungry and helped give us the energy we needed to do our jobs at the show.
All in all, Expo West was an amazing and tiring show to be part of. We introduced ourselves to the food industry and they said we can stand with the best of them.
Ask for the Tanka Bar to be in a store near you! And if you have some time, check out the rest of our comments (and a special thanks to everyone who took the time to write down a reaction):
“Clean, strong flavor.” – Carol Flato
“Really, really good. Nice + moist!” – Chrissie Hathor
“Surprised ... but I really liked it!” – O. Hartman
“YUM.” – Tom Tunge
“Noice!” – Ben Ott
“Awesome!” – Kevin Lahue
“Extraordinary!” – Mark Astin
“Great flavor, easy protein.” – Shannon Pyle
“Yummy! Not too salty!” – Jon Peterson
“Excellent.” – Clair Ann Moris
“Fantastically delicious.” – Jeremiah
“Absolutely fabulous.” – Deann
“Very Interesting! Great unique taste.” – Rachel
“Fabulous! Make more$$.” – Joelle
“A health feast! Phenomenal!” – Tom
“Excellent! Pride of Indian Nations.” – Ashley Hornsby
“Delicieux!” – Fillipe de la Perause
“Loved it! Buffalo – my meat of choice.” – Joyce Kincaid
“Great taste.” – Gordon Cohen
“It's the perfect mix of sweetness + meatiness.” – Darrel Jursa
“Delicious!” – Rosemary Barnes
“It is fantastic.” – Samir
“One of the best bars with fruit/cranberries in it. Loved it!” – Mike
“Great taste and chewy/juicy.” – Anonymous
“Best jerky I’ve ever tasted.” – Anonymous
“One of the best things I tasted today at Expo West.” – Ross Goodine, Prairie Dawn Natural Body Products Ltd., Edmonton, AB
“I love the flavor of the Tanka Bar! Excellent choice of food chemistry! Get it, you’ll love it.” – Sujon Darte, Los Angeles, CA
“Delicious traditional food!” – Kristin, San Francisco, CA
“Awesome and delicious… Tastes like beef jerky, but healthy.” – Scott DeSilva
Honolulu, HI, Mulradi Corp.
“Great show! Wonderful bars.” – Bonnie, Denton, TX
“Unique and delicious.” – Bryan and Kristin
“Awesome!” – Anonymous, Nevada City, CA
“Excellent! Sweet, flavorful!” – Eric Stromberg, Davis, CA
“Awesome taste and great texture! A+++!!” – Dan, Fullerton, CA
“Nice – love how unique this is.” – Rachel, San Francisco, CA
“The best beef jerky I’ve ever had.” – Dr. Roy Dittman, OMD
“This Tanka Bar is truly amazing stuff.” – Anonymous
We have just returned from Anaheim, CA, at the Natural Products Expo West! It is one of the largest natural food trade shows in the country! This is a mammoth convention, spanning over five city blocks, all indoors. There are towering booths stretching more than 30 feet in the air and all of the big names in the natural food industry were present. We were down in the basement pavilion, part of a showcase of Native American products with our booth generously provided by our hosts, the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
The response has been amazing! Here we are, this new upstart company from Kyle, SD, and we are the talk of the town! We stood toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the industry and held our ground. We have great-tasting healthy food and presented ourselves in the best way possible. We tell people our story and they get it! The Tanka Bar is once again a huge smash hit.
This is our first national food show that we have attended and I was a little apprehensive. I shouldn't have worried though. We asked people to write down their reactions to tasting the Tanka Bar for the first time for our blog here at MySpace. Just listen to some of their responses:
“Beyond Buffalicious! Superior product.” – Wendy
“Amazing flavor! I was not expecting that!” – Salvatore Gagliano, professional chef
“Wow! Holy crap! This is the best so far at the show.” – Amanda Bailey, SLO, CA
“Best thing I’ve tasted in the whole show.” – Angie Doren
“Cranberry + buffalo … who would of thought it would be so delicious!” – Amanda Begley, North Hollywood
What is the Tanka Bar?
This question has been asked so many times that the answer has been ingrained into our minds. Our reply is as follows: “The Tanka Bar is a 1 ounce, all-natural energy bar based on our people’s traditional recipe of Wasna or Pemmican. It is made with prairie-raised buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries. Only 70 calories, 7 grams of carbohydrates and 7 grams of protein. There are only six ingredients: buffalo, cranberries, water, onion powder, garlic and a dash of salt. We slow-smoke the buffalo for over 9 hours to get that savory sweet flavor.”
Now imagine saying that a few thousand times a day for three days straight. It becomes part of the way we talk and, not to be fake or anything, but much of the questions are the same.
“We have taken the traditional recipe for wasna, which was made with sun-dried buffalo meat and choke cherries, and switched it with slow-smoked buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries. We wanted something our own kids would eat and the choke cherries are a little bitter for most folks these days.
“More protein than an energy bar, more energy than a protein bar, the only way to classify it is as real food!”
Here’s a few more reactions from first-time tasters:
“Mmmmmmhhh! Whoooaah! Killer! It’s soooo great! Congratulations on your first new indigenous product! Good luck! Aloha E Na Mahalo!” – Pramana, Hanama’ulu, Kaua’i Island
“That’s great! So unexpected. I don’t even like jerky. But this rocks!” – Anonymous
“Damn good!” – Tom Hajagos, Living Green
“The time has come again to have the best! Simple and elegant!” – Ryan Reverditto, executive chef
“Meat and cranberries… who knew it could taste this good? And be balanced! Rock on guys!!!” – Jeffrey, Los Angeles, CA
The funny thing about vegetarians
The funny thing about vegetarians is that some are not opposed to eating meat. There was a German dietitian who insisted that it was wrong to eat meat but helped himself to more than four samples of the Tanka Bar. One of the floor managers of the venue, named Dove, told us that the Tanka Bar was the first meat she had ever eaten in her life and she loved it!
There was one vegetarian who ate the Tanka Bar not knowing it was meat and spit it out, even after that he said it had a great flavor. He came back the next day saying how sick it had gotten him.
“For real?” I said. I was getting ready to feel remorseful.
“No, not really,” he replied.
If he was going to eat meat again, he said it would be the Tanka Bar. We kept telling them that buffalo eat grass, so it's kinda like eating vegetables, but the buffalo already takes care of that for you.. We even told them that buffalo is a non-amenable species and is technically not meat under USDA guidelines – which is absolutely true! Sigh. Sometimes there is no helping people.
More reactions:
“Geez Louise! Damn!” – Ben Ward, Nevada City, CA
“I love the combination of buffalo and cranberries. So moist and wonderful texture!” – Mary Martin, Vancouver, WA
“Lifts your spirits!” – Anonymous
“Mmmm - jerky times 10!” – Shannon Szymkowiak
“I was wary it would be jerky like, but it was lovely, tasty and delish!” – Courtney
Things overheard
Whenever you have such a massive amount of people together, there are always folks with interesting stories and odd things to say:
“Did you know my great-grandmother was Cherokee (or Apache, or Choctaw, or…)?” This made me want to say, “Yes, I did! Did you know that one of my ancestors could have been Polish? We're practically cousins!”
There was one man who apologized for the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass).
We said, “Why? We won that one!”
“Who do you market the Tanka Bar to?”
“Right now, we are focusing mostly on people who eat food, but we hope to refine our demographic soon.”
More reactions:
“AWESOME AND LOW SUGARS.” – Don Meyer
“Perfect Bar!” – Mike Richlin
“A meal in a bar. Delish! A real protein bar. Wonderful!” – Celia
“Great-tasting innovative product!” – Doug, Signature SSM
“This is the best product I have seen all day! I love it.” – Anonymous
Disclaimer: Tanka Bar does not contain crack.
We had many people tell us that the Tanka Bar is addictive. I even had to cut one man off:
“Sir, I think you’ve had enough. Now call yourself a cab and go home.”
People wanted to stay and visit about the Tanka Bar long after the show was over. The facility would shut off the lights and security asked us to leave, and still they wanted to stay and eat more Tanka Bars. We would have people who would come by time and time again to eat more Tanka Bars. Not only were people loving them, but they were telling everyone about them! We had some people who became instant fans and it was as if we were recruiting for a cult. They would keep bring more and more people down to the booth.
The first day, people were talking about this great-tasting new product. The second, they would come looking for the bar with buffalo and cranberries. At the end of the third day, they knew the Tanka Bar by name!
At the end of the show, fellow exhibitors were trading cases of drinks and chocolates with us for Tanka Bars. Our neighbors at the Intertribal Agriculture Council booth always had their fill of Tanka Bars, and we kept the booth jumping with high energy. It sounds cheesy, but eating the Tanka Bar kept us from being hungry and helped give us the energy we needed to do our jobs at the show.
All in all, Expo West was an amazing and tiring show to be part of. We introduced ourselves to the food industry and they said we can stand with the best of them.
Ask for the Tanka Bar to be in a store near you! And if you have some time, check out the rest of our comments (and a special thanks to everyone who took the time to write down a reaction):
“Clean, strong flavor.” – Carol Flato
“Really, really good. Nice + moist!” – Chrissie Hathor
“Surprised ... but I really liked it!” – O. Hartman
“YUM.” – Tom Tunge
“Noice!” – Ben Ott
“Awesome!” – Kevin Lahue
“Extraordinary!” – Mark Astin
“Great flavor, easy protein.” – Shannon Pyle
“Yummy! Not too salty!” – Jon Peterson
“Excellent.” – Clair Ann Moris
“Fantastically delicious.” – Jeremiah
“Absolutely fabulous.” – Deann
“Very Interesting! Great unique taste.” – Rachel
“Fabulous! Make more$$.” – Joelle
“A health feast! Phenomenal!” – Tom
“Excellent! Pride of Indian Nations.” – Ashley Hornsby
“Delicieux!” – Fillipe de la Perause
“Loved it! Buffalo – my meat of choice.” – Joyce Kincaid
“Great taste.” – Gordon Cohen
“It's the perfect mix of sweetness + meatiness.” – Darrel Jursa
“Delicious!” – Rosemary Barnes
“It is fantastic.” – Samir
“One of the best bars with fruit/cranberries in it. Loved it!” – Mike
“Great taste and chewy/juicy.” – Anonymous
“Best jerky I’ve ever tasted.” – Anonymous
“One of the best things I tasted today at Expo West.” – Ross Goodine, Prairie Dawn Natural Body Products Ltd., Edmonton, AB
“I love the flavor of the Tanka Bar! Excellent choice of food chemistry! Get it, you’ll love it.” – Sujon Darte, Los Angeles, CA
“Delicious traditional food!” – Kristin, San Francisco, CA
“Awesome and delicious… Tastes like beef jerky, but healthy.” – Scott DeSilva
Honolulu, HI, Mulradi Corp.
“Great show! Wonderful bars.” – Bonnie, Denton, TX
“Unique and delicious.” – Bryan and Kristin
“Awesome!” – Anonymous, Nevada City, CA
“Excellent! Sweet, flavorful!” – Eric Stromberg, Davis, CA
“Awesome taste and great texture! A+++!!” – Dan, Fullerton, CA
“Nice – love how unique this is.” – Rachel, San Francisco, CA
“The best beef jerky I’ve ever had.” – Dr. Roy Dittman, OMD
“This Tanka Bar is truly amazing stuff.” – Anonymous
12-17-07
Floyd Westerman was the people’s artist.
A reporter asked me what the passing of Floyd Westerman meant.
The question took me off guard, so I mumbled something about him being a Native American Woody Guthrie because he was an artist of the people.
But after I hung up the phone, I thought to myself that that was a completely inadequate tribute for a man of such great stature.
I think we need to celebrate and honor the life of such a great man whose music helped unite and motivate the modern Indian Movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s. So much has been said about his successful career as a musician, actor, and world diplomat, it’s more than I can list. You can Google him and find the list of awards and tributes from around the world.
Floyd was an artist whose songs of the ‘60s are almost prophetical when you look at the issues facing Indian country or read today’s headlines. His album, “Custer Died for Your Sins,” is filled with songs about events that were yet to pass.
The song “B.I.A.,” with his powerful lyrics, “I am not your Indian anymore,” was written more than six years before the Indian Self-Determination Act was signed and more than three decades before the BIA was declared an incompetent trustee by Judge Royce Lamberth in the Cobell class action lawsuit.
His song, “Missionary,” was written nine years before the Indian Freedom of Religion Act was passed giving Indian people freedom of religion for the first time. That same year, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) gave Indian tribes jurisdiction over Indian children for the first time. Floyd had been singing “Here Come The Anthros” more than 20 years before the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act became law.
Listen to the words he wrote on “They Didn’t Listen:”
And I told them not dig for gold
For if they did the eagles would die
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And I told them if the Eagle died
There would be no keeper of the land
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And if there was no keeper of the land
Machines would come and soon pollute the sky
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And I told them if they pollute the sky
Man would have to move into the sea
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And I told if they destroy the sea....
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
Floyd was singing about climate change before Al Gore even went to Vietnam.
After singing for the better part of five decades, Floyd got to see the United Nations sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As a true artist of the people, he was able to provide a unified message by using the power of music to promote the issues that the grassroots activists were working on. He never hesitated to support anything positive going on in Indian Country.
Floyd wrote “Wounded Knee” in 1973, long before most of the Spirit Riders, who are now retracing the steps of Chief Big Foot from Standing Rock to Wounded Knee, were ever born. I know Floyd would want us all to lend any support we could to these courageous young people as they continue the Wounded Knee Memorial Ride.
His passion to help Indian people any way he could was uncompromising to the end.
I first met Floyd when I was an impressionable teenager in Minneapolis and his music touched me because he sang about what the Native leaders and activists of the day were talking about.
The first concert I ever promoted was a benefit for a Native school in Rapid City, S.D., featuring Floyd with Buffy Saint Marie and actor Will Sampson. While Floyd may have found success in Hollywood, he never became a Hollywood Indian. What I mean is he always stayed in touched and involved with those on the front line of the most pressing issues facing Native people.
In September of this year, I had the honor to give Floyd a Tanka Bar at Morongo Pow-wow in the desert. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Tanka Bar.
In a quiet moment when there wasn't a crowd around, he told me how sick he was as he sat by our side lending his voice to an organization that asked for his help. I asked what he was doing out in the sun? He said something to the effect of: “This is what I do and I am going to do it till I am gone!”
His spirit of giving and energy touched each person who came by asking for his autograph, to take a photo, or to just say “Hi.”
He so much loved the Tanka Bar that he told everyone about this great new energy bar from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
One young volunteer said she could not taste it because she was a vegetarian. But that did not faze Floyd's enthusiasm. He told her, “But this is not meat, this is Buffalo protein. Natural protein, not meat.”
Everyone had a good laugh and I told Floyd, “You know it is meat, right?” He said, “Not in a commercial way.”
Well, the other day I was reading a USDA regulation that said Buffalo is a “non-amenable species” and NOT MEAT under the USDA regulations.
Why should I be surprised that Floyd was right again when he has been right about everything else for the last 50 years?
Note from Tanka Bar: This blog posting was written by Mark A. Tilsen, President of Native American Natural Foods.
A reporter asked me what the passing of Floyd Westerman meant.
The question took me off guard, so I mumbled something about him being a Native American Woody Guthrie because he was an artist of the people.
But after I hung up the phone, I thought to myself that that was a completely inadequate tribute for a man of such great stature.
I think we need to celebrate and honor the life of such a great man whose music helped unite and motivate the modern Indian Movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s. So much has been said about his successful career as a musician, actor, and world diplomat, it’s more than I can list. You can Google him and find the list of awards and tributes from around the world.
Floyd was an artist whose songs of the ‘60s are almost prophetical when you look at the issues facing Indian country or read today’s headlines. His album, “Custer Died for Your Sins,” is filled with songs about events that were yet to pass.
The song “B.I.A.,” with his powerful lyrics, “I am not your Indian anymore,” was written more than six years before the Indian Self-Determination Act was signed and more than three decades before the BIA was declared an incompetent trustee by Judge Royce Lamberth in the Cobell class action lawsuit.
His song, “Missionary,” was written nine years before the Indian Freedom of Religion Act was passed giving Indian people freedom of religion for the first time. That same year, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) gave Indian tribes jurisdiction over Indian children for the first time. Floyd had been singing “Here Come The Anthros” more than 20 years before the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act became law.
Listen to the words he wrote on “They Didn’t Listen:”
And I told them not dig for gold
For if they did the eagles would die
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And I told them if the Eagle died
There would be no keeper of the land
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And if there was no keeper of the land
Machines would come and soon pollute the sky
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And I told them if they pollute the sky
Man would have to move into the sea
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
And I told if they destroy the sea....
They didn’t listen, They didn’t listen
They didn’t listen to me
Floyd was singing about climate change before Al Gore even went to Vietnam.
After singing for the better part of five decades, Floyd got to see the United Nations sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As a true artist of the people, he was able to provide a unified message by using the power of music to promote the issues that the grassroots activists were working on. He never hesitated to support anything positive going on in Indian Country.
Floyd wrote “Wounded Knee” in 1973, long before most of the Spirit Riders, who are now retracing the steps of Chief Big Foot from Standing Rock to Wounded Knee, were ever born. I know Floyd would want us all to lend any support we could to these courageous young people as they continue the Wounded Knee Memorial Ride.
His passion to help Indian people any way he could was uncompromising to the end.
I first met Floyd when I was an impressionable teenager in Minneapolis and his music touched me because he sang about what the Native leaders and activists of the day were talking about.
The first concert I ever promoted was a benefit for a Native school in Rapid City, S.D., featuring Floyd with Buffy Saint Marie and actor Will Sampson. While Floyd may have found success in Hollywood, he never became a Hollywood Indian. What I mean is he always stayed in touched and involved with those on the front line of the most pressing issues facing Native people.
In September of this year, I had the honor to give Floyd a Tanka Bar at Morongo Pow-wow in the desert. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Tanka Bar.
In a quiet moment when there wasn't a crowd around, he told me how sick he was as he sat by our side lending his voice to an organization that asked for his help. I asked what he was doing out in the sun? He said something to the effect of: “This is what I do and I am going to do it till I am gone!”
His spirit of giving and energy touched each person who came by asking for his autograph, to take a photo, or to just say “Hi.”
He so much loved the Tanka Bar that he told everyone about this great new energy bar from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
One young volunteer said she could not taste it because she was a vegetarian. But that did not faze Floyd's enthusiasm. He told her, “But this is not meat, this is Buffalo protein. Natural protein, not meat.”
Everyone had a good laugh and I told Floyd, “You know it is meat, right?” He said, “Not in a commercial way.”
Well, the other day I was reading a USDA regulation that said Buffalo is a “non-amenable species” and NOT MEAT under the USDA regulations.
Why should I be surprised that Floyd was right again when he has been right about everything else for the last 50 years?
Note from Tanka Bar: This blog posting was written by Mark A. Tilsen, President of Native American Natural Foods.
9-13-07
I know it seems like we have been selling buffalo hides without the buffalo, but that is at an end. I am here in the office at the packing plant, where all the industrious folks are working hard while I'm nerding out on MySpace. It is an awesome experience to see something that just started out as an idea become a reality. We are streamlining our final production and packaging process, and the Tanka Bar is delicious and looks great.
I am looking forward to everyone getting a taste of the Tanka Bar. Sometimes, it seems like the odds are stacked against us, and I am asking all of you to help spread the news and let everyone know about the Tanka Bar. No matter how fast-paced our world becomes, the best way to spread the news is still word of mouth.
We are launching Tanka Bar at Black Hills Pow Wow at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Oct. 5-7. We have passed on other opportunities to debut Tanka Bar because we felt that it was most fitting to have it in the heart of where we are from. The Black Hills does not belong to just one nation and neither does the Tanka Bar. It is for all of us.
We are having a whole slew of events at the pow wow, and we are kicking it off by sponsoring the Youth Day events. We will be providing some tea and a tasty snack (I wonder what that might be?) for the youth in attendance.
We will also be hosting an honoring ceremony for the Buffalo Nation and the dedicated people who have protected the buffalo and have helped them come back in such a huge way. Our fate has long been tied to the Buffalo, and I feel their return is a sign of emergence of strength among our people. We will be honoring the Buffalo to show our respect for the sacrifice they make. What we do would not be possible without them. It makes sense to do this near the Black Hills, where there is so much significance in the land to us and the Buffalo People.THIS SENTENCE IS SCRAMBLED. SEPARATE YOUR IDEAS AND STATE THEM MORE CLEARLY.
As many of you all know, I love to write about serious things, but this is a celebration. We get to see some of our best dancers, singers, and artists all come together in one spot! Be sure to keep your eyes opens for the Tanka XXXXX. He – or she – is the ‘Where's Waldo?’ of the pow wow and will be handing out gifts to people lucky enough to track him or her down. You gotta be sharp because it may not be the same person the whole time. Tanka XXXXX will be handing out temporary Tanka tattoos that will allow you to get a free sample of the Tanka Bar.
One of the things to look for is that Tanka Bar is going to be everywhere! Keep an eye out for our street teams at the baseball diamonds, in the parade, at the 5K run and at the mall. For a sample, all you have to do is smile big and get your picture taken with the Tanka Bar. We are going to be handing out Tanka Bites, the 35-calorie little brother to the Tanka Bar. It has the same great taste and packs the same hunger fightin' punch in a smaller size. We will be out and about town generally just having a good time! If you see us, come say ‘Hi’ and don't be shy. I'll be the guy with Tanka Bar shaved into his head.
Remember to tell your friends about us and we will see you all at Black Hills Pow Wow, Oct. 5th, 6th and 7th at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
I am looking forward to everyone getting a taste of the Tanka Bar. Sometimes, it seems like the odds are stacked against us, and I am asking all of you to help spread the news and let everyone know about the Tanka Bar. No matter how fast-paced our world becomes, the best way to spread the news is still word of mouth.
We are launching Tanka Bar at Black Hills Pow Wow at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Oct. 5-7. We have passed on other opportunities to debut Tanka Bar because we felt that it was most fitting to have it in the heart of where we are from. The Black Hills does not belong to just one nation and neither does the Tanka Bar. It is for all of us.
We are having a whole slew of events at the pow wow, and we are kicking it off by sponsoring the Youth Day events. We will be providing some tea and a tasty snack (I wonder what that might be?) for the youth in attendance.
We will also be hosting an honoring ceremony for the Buffalo Nation and the dedicated people who have protected the buffalo and have helped them come back in such a huge way. Our fate has long been tied to the Buffalo, and I feel their return is a sign of emergence of strength among our people. We will be honoring the Buffalo to show our respect for the sacrifice they make. What we do would not be possible without them. It makes sense to do this near the Black Hills, where there is so much significance in the land to us and the Buffalo People.THIS SENTENCE IS SCRAMBLED. SEPARATE YOUR IDEAS AND STATE THEM MORE CLEARLY.
As many of you all know, I love to write about serious things, but this is a celebration. We get to see some of our best dancers, singers, and artists all come together in one spot! Be sure to keep your eyes opens for the Tanka XXXXX. He – or she – is the ‘Where's Waldo?’ of the pow wow and will be handing out gifts to people lucky enough to track him or her down. You gotta be sharp because it may not be the same person the whole time. Tanka XXXXX will be handing out temporary Tanka tattoos that will allow you to get a free sample of the Tanka Bar.
One of the things to look for is that Tanka Bar is going to be everywhere! Keep an eye out for our street teams at the baseball diamonds, in the parade, at the 5K run and at the mall. For a sample, all you have to do is smile big and get your picture taken with the Tanka Bar. We are going to be handing out Tanka Bites, the 35-calorie little brother to the Tanka Bar. It has the same great taste and packs the same hunger fightin' punch in a smaller size. We will be out and about town generally just having a good time! If you see us, come say ‘Hi’ and don't be shy. I'll be the guy with Tanka Bar shaved into his head.
Remember to tell your friends about us and we will see you all at Black Hills Pow Wow, Oct. 5th, 6th and 7th at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
8-14-07
Several days ago, I posted a blog where I described the work being done at Tusweca Tiospaye (Dragonfly Community). I’d like to pick up this week on the ideas about “what is Tanka” that were discussed in that posting
Tusweca Tiospaye is only one of the examples of “being Tanka” on our reservation. It is very easy to focus on the hardship and negativity of where we live, and ignoring the situation won't make it go away. But, it is my belief that by pointing out the positive work of others in our community, we are one step closer to making a better place for us all. There is an energy emerging in Native communities all over this hemisphere. You can see it here and there, pockets of hope that are beginning to spread outward. Some places are using music. Others are coming together in prayer. Some Native youth are joining forces to protect their lands and sacred places.
This week, I want to talk to you about Thunder Valley. It is a small community between Rocky Ford and Sharp's Corner out here on Pine Ridge. Some people have jokingly called it Prairie Dog Flats due to the flatness of the land and the abundance of prairie dogs. The truth is that Thunder Valley is more than a geographic location or just a group of people. It is a place of prayer that lives in the hearts of the people that go there. People who don't even live in the same state still call Thunder Valley their home.
Out of respect for that circle, I will not discuss spirituality here on the Internet. I don't believe this is the proper venue for it. I want to talk about what else is going on there.
Thunder Valley is a non-profit organization structured as a Community Development Corporation. The first project of Thunder Valley CDC is a community house built by the people there. Almost all of the labor put into this project is volunteer. It has come a long way from an idea spoken around a fire, to the beautiful building we see today. There has been a solid core of people always there, moving it along. But hundreds of hands have put work into this project. This building will be used for community events, birthdays, gatherings and workshops. This is something that the community can be proud of and say, “This is ours, we built it!”
We often see that people with the money come to our reservation and, in one brief visit, manage to find the root of all our problems for us. They soon pool their resources together, put their ideas on paper and now all they need is some helpful local person to do all the work. Some have called this “Save the Indian syndrome.” It is refreshing to see an organization spring up from the grassroots.
Thunder Valley CDC's stated goal is:
“To empower native youth and families through cultural education and preservation.”
The current flavor in the non-profit scene is “youth leadership,” which many people take to mean that teenagers are in charge of the ideas and implementation of projects. At Thunder Valley, they look at youth leadership as a transition from one generation to another. The children who are now singing the songs and remembering the stories are going to be the leaders of this community. One of the ways they impart knowledge onto the youth is by taking them to the seasonal rituals; welcoming back the spring and giving thanks for making it through the hard winter, picking the medicines they will need all year, and helping prepare for the summer ceremonies.
“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.” – Sitting Bull
As Native people, we have gone as far into despair as we could, we hit bottom. Now, in this generation, we are picking ourselves up and building upon what our parents and grandparents have given us. Thunder Valley is building a cultural foundation for the members of its community so they can take Lakota teachings and apply them to their lives. By doing this, they hope to build strong families and a strong community. In this way, Thunder Valley is not so much an organization as a way of life. These people are striving to live with no separation in their belief and their reality. To me, that is great. That is Tanka.
After saying all that, I feel it is a little out of place to plug our product. But the truth is, that is what I am here to do. The Tanka Bar is food that fits into this way of life. It is modern and built on the traditions of our ancestors. It will transcend all previous protein, health bar, and dried meat snacks. This is not some outside product I am pushing onto you. It is a blessing I am introducing to you. It is my hope that people accept this, share it, and make it their own.
In my previous blog I have asked, “What does Tanka mean to you?” Now I ask, what are examples of this powerful energy in your community? What are the stories that you want to share?
I humbly thank you for your time.
Tusweca Tiospaye is only one of the examples of “being Tanka” on our reservation. It is very easy to focus on the hardship and negativity of where we live, and ignoring the situation won't make it go away. But, it is my belief that by pointing out the positive work of others in our community, we are one step closer to making a better place for us all. There is an energy emerging in Native communities all over this hemisphere. You can see it here and there, pockets of hope that are beginning to spread outward. Some places are using music. Others are coming together in prayer. Some Native youth are joining forces to protect their lands and sacred places.
This week, I want to talk to you about Thunder Valley. It is a small community between Rocky Ford and Sharp's Corner out here on Pine Ridge. Some people have jokingly called it Prairie Dog Flats due to the flatness of the land and the abundance of prairie dogs. The truth is that Thunder Valley is more than a geographic location or just a group of people. It is a place of prayer that lives in the hearts of the people that go there. People who don't even live in the same state still call Thunder Valley their home.
Out of respect for that circle, I will not discuss spirituality here on the Internet. I don't believe this is the proper venue for it. I want to talk about what else is going on there.
Thunder Valley is a non-profit organization structured as a Community Development Corporation. The first project of Thunder Valley CDC is a community house built by the people there. Almost all of the labor put into this project is volunteer. It has come a long way from an idea spoken around a fire, to the beautiful building we see today. There has been a solid core of people always there, moving it along. But hundreds of hands have put work into this project. This building will be used for community events, birthdays, gatherings and workshops. This is something that the community can be proud of and say, “This is ours, we built it!”
We often see that people with the money come to our reservation and, in one brief visit, manage to find the root of all our problems for us. They soon pool their resources together, put their ideas on paper and now all they need is some helpful local person to do all the work. Some have called this “Save the Indian syndrome.” It is refreshing to see an organization spring up from the grassroots.
Thunder Valley CDC's stated goal is:
“To empower native youth and families through cultural education and preservation.”
The current flavor in the non-profit scene is “youth leadership,” which many people take to mean that teenagers are in charge of the ideas and implementation of projects. At Thunder Valley, they look at youth leadership as a transition from one generation to another. The children who are now singing the songs and remembering the stories are going to be the leaders of this community. One of the ways they impart knowledge onto the youth is by taking them to the seasonal rituals; welcoming back the spring and giving thanks for making it through the hard winter, picking the medicines they will need all year, and helping prepare for the summer ceremonies.
“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.” – Sitting Bull
As Native people, we have gone as far into despair as we could, we hit bottom. Now, in this generation, we are picking ourselves up and building upon what our parents and grandparents have given us. Thunder Valley is building a cultural foundation for the members of its community so they can take Lakota teachings and apply them to their lives. By doing this, they hope to build strong families and a strong community. In this way, Thunder Valley is not so much an organization as a way of life. These people are striving to live with no separation in their belief and their reality. To me, that is great. That is Tanka.
After saying all that, I feel it is a little out of place to plug our product. But the truth is, that is what I am here to do. The Tanka Bar is food that fits into this way of life. It is modern and built on the traditions of our ancestors. It will transcend all previous protein, health bar, and dried meat snacks. This is not some outside product I am pushing onto you. It is a blessing I am introducing to you. It is my hope that people accept this, share it, and make it their own.
In my previous blog I have asked, “What does Tanka mean to you?” Now I ask, what are examples of this powerful energy in your community? What are the stories that you want to share?
I humbly thank you for your time.
7-28-07
Tanka Bar Simple
Welcome to the TANKA BAR Blog. This where you can come and look for news about the TANKA Bar, read a weekly blog and find a place to share ideas.
What is TANKA?
In Lakota, Tanka means large or great. It changes depending on how it is used when spoken. What Tanka means to me is a little different. When I see people doing good for themselves and their families, that is Tanka. When I see people saying good words and backing it up with good actions – when there is no separation in someone's belief and their reality – that is Tanka.
I was taught that at the last stage of life, our elders leave this world with a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainty. I sometimes wonder, what are the kinds of questions our elders have? Are the lives of the people going to get better or worse? Will our language still live? Did the teachings they left behind take hold in our hearts? There are many people doing great works for all of our Peoples, and it is my wish to share an example.
Who is TANKA?
Tusweca Tiospaye
I first heard about the language classes that Tusweca Tiospaye (Dragonfly Community) is holding this summer by talking a friend of mine who lives off the rez. He brought his family to Pine Ridge for ceremony, and while he was helping out, he needed a place for his children to be while he was busy during the day. He took them to several different youth camps, but he said they did not reflect the values that he wanted to teach his children. He found Tusweca Tiospaye and saw that it was a perfect fit for what he wanted for his children.
“ Tusweca Tiospaye has been created to develop a strong, healthy, and prosperous
environment in which Lakota wakanyeja (children) and their tiwahe (families) can learn
and incorporate the Lakota language into their daily lives.”
– excerpt taken from Tusweca Tiospaye flier
Our children now have a safe and welcoming place where they can be introduced to their own language so they will always carry it with them. Mike Carlow, Jr., is one of the founders of the organization, and he is a young man who many people on my rez have much respect for.
Pine Ridge is one of the last, great reservoirs for our Lakota language. But like all bodies of water during a drought, it is drying up. The average age of a speaker is nearly 65, and only 14 percent of our people are speaking the language right now. There may come a time when one of our elders stands up to address the people in Lakota at a gathering, and no one there can understand them. We are so close to losing our language, it's scary. But there is hope.
A great teacher once said, “You cannot have language without the culture; you cannot separate the two.” I was told that in our spiritual way, the Creator can understand all languages, but our Lakota language was a gift to us. Inside of our language, there are teachings and understanding that cannot be translated. They reflect the Lakota perspective of life and our way of being. It is a gift worth fighting for!
Languages that youth do not speak, die. It is within the grasp of this generation to save the language or lose it. Tusweca Tiospaye is one community taking a stand to preserve our way of life, and for that, they have my respect. They are a new organization with a great mission ahead of them. It is my hope that if I make it to being an elder, I can leave this life behind knowing our language will endure.
The work Mike Carlow, Jr., and the others at Tusweca Tiospaye are doing can touch many lives for the better. To me, that is what being Tanka is. I ask everyone who reads this to think about the examples they see in their communities. Who are your examples?
What does being Tanka mean to you?
Welcome to the TANKA BAR Blog. This where you can come and look for news about the TANKA Bar, read a weekly blog and find a place to share ideas.
What is TANKA?
In Lakota, Tanka means large or great. It changes depending on how it is used when spoken. What Tanka means to me is a little different. When I see people doing good for themselves and their families, that is Tanka. When I see people saying good words and backing it up with good actions – when there is no separation in someone's belief and their reality – that is Tanka.
I was taught that at the last stage of life, our elders leave this world with a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainty. I sometimes wonder, what are the kinds of questions our elders have? Are the lives of the people going to get better or worse? Will our language still live? Did the teachings they left behind take hold in our hearts? There are many people doing great works for all of our Peoples, and it is my wish to share an example.
Who is TANKA?
Tusweca Tiospaye
I first heard about the language classes that Tusweca Tiospaye (Dragonfly Community) is holding this summer by talking a friend of mine who lives off the rez. He brought his family to Pine Ridge for ceremony, and while he was helping out, he needed a place for his children to be while he was busy during the day. He took them to several different youth camps, but he said they did not reflect the values that he wanted to teach his children. He found Tusweca Tiospaye and saw that it was a perfect fit for what he wanted for his children.
“ Tusweca Tiospaye has been created to develop a strong, healthy, and prosperous
environment in which Lakota wakanyeja (children) and their tiwahe (families) can learn
and incorporate the Lakota language into their daily lives.”
– excerpt taken from Tusweca Tiospaye flier
Our children now have a safe and welcoming place where they can be introduced to their own language so they will always carry it with them. Mike Carlow, Jr., is one of the founders of the organization, and he is a young man who many people on my rez have much respect for.
Pine Ridge is one of the last, great reservoirs for our Lakota language. But like all bodies of water during a drought, it is drying up. The average age of a speaker is nearly 65, and only 14 percent of our people are speaking the language right now. There may come a time when one of our elders stands up to address the people in Lakota at a gathering, and no one there can understand them. We are so close to losing our language, it's scary. But there is hope.
A great teacher once said, “You cannot have language without the culture; you cannot separate the two.” I was told that in our spiritual way, the Creator can understand all languages, but our Lakota language was a gift to us. Inside of our language, there are teachings and understanding that cannot be translated. They reflect the Lakota perspective of life and our way of being. It is a gift worth fighting for!
Languages that youth do not speak, die. It is within the grasp of this generation to save the language or lose it. Tusweca Tiospaye is one community taking a stand to preserve our way of life, and for that, they have my respect. They are a new organization with a great mission ahead of them. It is my hope that if I make it to being an elder, I can leave this life behind knowing our language will endure.
The work Mike Carlow, Jr., and the others at Tusweca Tiospaye are doing can touch many lives for the better. To me, that is what being Tanka is. I ask everyone who reads this to think about the examples they see in their communities. Who are your examples?
What does being Tanka mean to you?
1-24-07
Wan Woihamble Tanka, A Big Dream
All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
-- Chief Seattle
People often ask me what I do, and I tell them I run the MySpace for Tanka Bar and I'm an online customer representative. I sometimes help people place orders and answer questions about our products and our company. Those are my duties, but I feel my real role is in articulating the possibilities that are part of Tanka. In the few blogs I have written, I have tried to honor and present positive people and organizations from our community that I feel symbolize what Tanka is about.
Thunder Valley, Tusweca Tiospaye, Beau LeBeaux, Floyd Westerman, Uncle John Around Him. These are some of the people in my community that represent the best of the best in Indian Country.
When I think of Tanka, the message I reflect on most is one of greatness and transformation. It is my belief as we grow stronger as individuals and communities, we are doing our part of making a better world. Every choice we make influences the world around us, and it is up to us to decide if we leave a positive or negative impact. Pretty over the top and grandiose for a snack bar, eh?
If we fail at being a successful company, nothing happens. People will shake their heads and tell us we gave it our best shot. If we are successful, though, things begin to change a little bit. One of the interesting things about Tanka Bars is that we don't really have to push them too much. Once people try them, they sell themselves.
How is this all connected?
We have this beautiful dream of a healthy world filled with strong nations living with respect for themselves, each other, and Unci Maka Mother Earth. Right now, we are a new business with great food and a big dream. But how does this one food lead to the dream? It is my hope to cover many issues, and this is a small preview of the topics I hope to address:
The Buffalo
As more and more people hear about us, they'll want to try out the Tanka Bar. We will sell more Tanka Bars and we will buy more buffalo and cranberries to make them. The buffalo are looking us right in the face telling us that they are here for us. All we have to do is let them be part of our lives and almost immediately we begin becoming stronger. When the buffalo return to the land, they bring back all sorts of wildlife with them and the grasses and land become more vibrant and full of life. The buffalo are a people and remember the medicines they need when they are sick. They only eat when they are hungry, and they drink water with respect to all the other animals that need water to survive. They only take what they need. I will talk to different people from my community to help us all better understand the incredible power and beauty of the Buffalo Nation.
The Economy
For Pine Ridge, it will mean a few more jobs as our team expands. We will have a healthy Native food in stores across the country, but what will that mean for all of us? We are the first Native brand that will go from our reservations to being in storefronts across the country. After that, the sky is the limit for us. If we look at the models of the most successful companies, their real value is in their brands, not just in the machinery of their plants and the things they own. It’s their brands that represents who they are. What we are trying to do is work within the new mind-frame of business. The old way of doing business was to open a plant and hope to get contracts for it. What we are doing is something truly unique in Indian Country.
When people think of Indians and economics, they typically think of casinos and the fact that we don't pay taxes. Both are inaccurate portrayals of the true economics on most of our lands. Every time Natives have tried to advance our economy, there have been systematic and institutional obstacles. We are doing our best to overcome all of these. We are not just making snacks here. We are creating a new way of doing business in Indian Country. Over time, I hope to visit with leaders of enterprise from our Native communities and share their stories of struggle and triumph.
The Environment
We are now living in a very exciting and frightening time for our planet and all of its people. Yesterday, the temperature was 50 degrees and now it is zero. Over the weekend, there were winds in the state clocked at more than 100 miles an hour. This wouldn't be shocking if it was tornado season, but it is the middle of winter. We are now living in a world where Global warming should not be debated, it is a fact for any of us who can remember what normal weather looks like. How we live our lives deeply affects our world. What future are we leaving for our children with our environment in such a delicate state?
It seems that the only motivator to really change our society is money, and I am not sure that this is entirely a bad thing. If the world was motivated by morality, we would see people doing their best to only buy what they need. And companies would be investing in technology to safely maintain and grow our economy, but that is not case. The green movement is a growing phenomenon and some of our native communities are leading the pack with innovative ideas and strategies to create sustainable energy and housing for our people.
Health
When I think of health, I usually think of not being sick and being able to perform my daily tasks with ease. The more I learn about the Lakota perspective on health, the more my thinking changes. A man can be strong in body, but if he does not balance his heart and spirit, that is not true health. There is a deep connection between mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. I am not the healthiest person myself, but it is a journey and not just a destination.
These are just some of the topics I wish to cover in the coming months, and I am open to ideas. Chances are, there will be some things we talk about that will fall outside of the few topics I list here.
If you'd like to write a piece for Tanka Bar, drop us a line and we will visit about it.
Wopila.
All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
-- Chief Seattle
People often ask me what I do, and I tell them I run the MySpace for Tanka Bar and I'm an online customer representative. I sometimes help people place orders and answer questions about our products and our company. Those are my duties, but I feel my real role is in articulating the possibilities that are part of Tanka. In the few blogs I have written, I have tried to honor and present positive people and organizations from our community that I feel symbolize what Tanka is about.
Thunder Valley, Tusweca Tiospaye, Beau LeBeaux, Floyd Westerman, Uncle John Around Him. These are some of the people in my community that represent the best of the best in Indian Country.
When I think of Tanka, the message I reflect on most is one of greatness and transformation. It is my belief as we grow stronger as individuals and communities, we are doing our part of making a better world. Every choice we make influences the world around us, and it is up to us to decide if we leave a positive or negative impact. Pretty over the top and grandiose for a snack bar, eh?
If we fail at being a successful company, nothing happens. People will shake their heads and tell us we gave it our best shot. If we are successful, though, things begin to change a little bit. One of the interesting things about Tanka Bars is that we don't really have to push them too much. Once people try them, they sell themselves.
How is this all connected?
We have this beautiful dream of a healthy world filled with strong nations living with respect for themselves, each other, and Unci Maka Mother Earth. Right now, we are a new business with great food and a big dream. But how does this one food lead to the dream? It is my hope to cover many issues, and this is a small preview of the topics I hope to address:
The Buffalo
As more and more people hear about us, they'll want to try out the Tanka Bar. We will sell more Tanka Bars and we will buy more buffalo and cranberries to make them. The buffalo are looking us right in the face telling us that they are here for us. All we have to do is let them be part of our lives and almost immediately we begin becoming stronger. When the buffalo return to the land, they bring back all sorts of wildlife with them and the grasses and land become more vibrant and full of life. The buffalo are a people and remember the medicines they need when they are sick. They only eat when they are hungry, and they drink water with respect to all the other animals that need water to survive. They only take what they need. I will talk to different people from my community to help us all better understand the incredible power and beauty of the Buffalo Nation.
The Economy
For Pine Ridge, it will mean a few more jobs as our team expands. We will have a healthy Native food in stores across the country, but what will that mean for all of us? We are the first Native brand that will go from our reservations to being in storefronts across the country. After that, the sky is the limit for us. If we look at the models of the most successful companies, their real value is in their brands, not just in the machinery of their plants and the things they own. It’s their brands that represents who they are. What we are trying to do is work within the new mind-frame of business. The old way of doing business was to open a plant and hope to get contracts for it. What we are doing is something truly unique in Indian Country.
When people think of Indians and economics, they typically think of casinos and the fact that we don't pay taxes. Both are inaccurate portrayals of the true economics on most of our lands. Every time Natives have tried to advance our economy, there have been systematic and institutional obstacles. We are doing our best to overcome all of these. We are not just making snacks here. We are creating a new way of doing business in Indian Country. Over time, I hope to visit with leaders of enterprise from our Native communities and share their stories of struggle and triumph.
The Environment
We are now living in a very exciting and frightening time for our planet and all of its people. Yesterday, the temperature was 50 degrees and now it is zero. Over the weekend, there were winds in the state clocked at more than 100 miles an hour. This wouldn't be shocking if it was tornado season, but it is the middle of winter. We are now living in a world where Global warming should not be debated, it is a fact for any of us who can remember what normal weather looks like. How we live our lives deeply affects our world. What future are we leaving for our children with our environment in such a delicate state?
It seems that the only motivator to really change our society is money, and I am not sure that this is entirely a bad thing. If the world was motivated by morality, we would see people doing their best to only buy what they need. And companies would be investing in technology to safely maintain and grow our economy, but that is not case. The green movement is a growing phenomenon and some of our native communities are leading the pack with innovative ideas and strategies to create sustainable energy and housing for our people.
Health
When I think of health, I usually think of not being sick and being able to perform my daily tasks with ease. The more I learn about the Lakota perspective on health, the more my thinking changes. A man can be strong in body, but if he does not balance his heart and spirit, that is not true health. There is a deep connection between mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. I am not the healthiest person myself, but it is a journey and not just a destination.
These are just some of the topics I wish to cover in the coming months, and I am open to ideas. Chances are, there will be some things we talk about that will fall outside of the few topics I list here.
If you'd like to write a piece for Tanka Bar, drop us a line and we will visit about it.
Wopila.
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