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We believe In 1987, Lakota war-hero Clarence Wolf Guts launched the Native American Tea Company in Aberdeen, South Dakota, to keep traditional herbal knowledge alive and create economic opportunity for Native communities. After steady growth—including a 1990 relocation to a larger facility in Aberdeen—the founders invited angel backing from the Aman family in 2000. Seven years later, the original owners sold 100 percent of the business to Dr. Tom Aman, who stepped in as president and reorganized the firm for national distribution. Tom immediately tied the brand to service: in 2008 Sitting Bull College dedicated the Dr. Thomas & Danielle Aman Business Education Center, and the company pledged 5 percent of profits to SBC scholarships—an ongoing commitment that threads education into every box of tea. Native American TeaSouth Dakota Magazine

 

Early tribal connection

Founding family – Turtle Mountain Chippewa (Ojibwe).
NativeAmericanTea.com traces back to 1987, when a Chippewa (Ojibwe) family from the Turtle Mountain Band established the Native American Tea Company in Crow Agency, Montana. The site of their first tiny blending room was on the Crow Nation Reservation, but ownership rested with the Turtle Mountain Chippewa family rather than with a tribal government. Native American TeaRateTea
How that heritage shows up today

 

After the original Chippewa founders moved operations to Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1990 and eventually sold the firm in 2007, the company kept the “Taste of Tradition” story on its packaging and website to honor those Turtle Mountain roots.
The business now layers in additional Native ties—most visibly its 5 %-of-profits pledge to Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation—but the only tribe directly linked to the company’s origin and early ownership is the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, with the Crow Nation providing the geographical setting for the launch. Native American Tea

 

In the decade that followed the acquisition, Aman’s passion for regenerative agriculture and Lakota economic self-determination led him to co-found Brownotter-JetCo Buffalo Ranch, LLC alongside Standing Rock rancher Ron Brownotter. The partnership manages 600 free-roaming bison on 20,000 acres of ancestral prairie, supplying USDA food-assistance programs, hosting cultural eco-tours, and modeling low-impact land stewardship. Profits—and Aman's personal foundation grants—loop back into the same scholarship fund and community programs Native American Tea supports, completing a virtuous circle that ties herbal wellness, buffalo restoration, and higher-education access into a single, continuous story of Lakota-led enterprise. agriculture.com

Native American Owned

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Originally established in 1987 in a humble building on the Crow Nation Reservation in Crow Agency,by a family of Turtle Mountain Chippewa, the Native American Tea Company continues to be the leader in quality and innovation.

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Sitting Bull College Entrepreneurial Center Dedication: The Dr. Thomas and  Danielle Aman Business Education Center - August 27th, 2008.  Forefront from left to right: Dean of Academic Affairs Coreen Ressler, Danielle Aman, President of Sitting Bull College, Dr. Laurel Vermillion.  Background: Dr. Thomas Aman.

Each herbal tea was designed with a Native American legend, story or myth in mind and later, art work was painted to reflect each unique tea and added to the box. In Montana, the teas, then mixed and bagged by hand, became sought after and the company began to grow.

In 1990, recognizing the company’s rising business success, the company relocated to Aberdeen SD where it continued to develop and grow.

In 2000, the original founders began a partnership with angel investors in the Aman family. They decided to sell the company in July of 2007, and the Amans respectfully assumed ownership.

As owner/managers, the Aman family had a long-standing connection to Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa Band of Lakota Sioux. Barely one generation after Chief Sitting Bull was killed in 1890, the Aman family located on Sitting Bull’s Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. The mother and father of the Native American Tea Company’s new president, Tom Aman, met at a PowWow in 1926 at Little Eagle, SD in the Running Antelope District. The family has a long history of trading and assisting with economic development on the reservation. Mr. Aman served as the National Chairman of the New Campus Twenty Million Dollar Building Fund for Sitting Bull College in Ft. Yates, ND.

A wing of the new Entrepreneurial Education Center at Sitting Bull College was named in his honor and 5% of the Native American Tea Company’s profits are dedicated to SBC for scholarships. He also partners in the development of the Brown Otter/Jet, LLC Buffalo Ranch at Bullhead, SD in the Rock Creek District.

The Company has continued its growth into new markets and has added increased bagging capacity always with attention to meticulous quality control. By demand, we have also added green and black teas to the popular herbal selections.

New sales have expanded through the Internet and our teas are featured at The Smithsonian, the National Museum of the American Indian, Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial as well as in grocery stores, gift shops, restaurants, hotels and Native American Casinos. They have been showcased on QVC and are sold worldwide and in all 50 states!

The Native American Tea Company is proud of its heritage, and mindful of its responsibility and commitment to the preservation of Native American culture. Each box of our highest quality tea not only features beautiful representative artwork, but also its story and tradition.

We are honored to present “Our Story” and we invite you to enjoy the experience and taste of tradition.

 

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