Relationships/Beauty/Health
Native Naturals: Bath
and Body Care For You
Company profile
by Christy Marshall
W
e’d like to introduce you
to Native Naturals, a botanical
skin and hair care
company. Native
Naturals is owned and operated by a
Native woman, Mary Boardman. She,
along with her former husband, Keith
DeHaas (think Rez Dog Clothing),
has expanded the bath and body care
product line to bring women something simple, effective, and well the
stuff just smells great too!
When was the company founded:
“Rez Dog Clothing Company, our
parent company, was founded in
1997. We added the Native Naturals - American Indian Spa Line, first
in hand crafted soaps, scrubs and
lotions in 2001, and then the next year
- fall of 2002 - we added the professionally produced full product line to
our offering.”
Most popular product currently:
“Probably our Chokecherry Hand &
Body Lotion. Because our lotions
are Aloe Vera based, they don’t dry
greasy or oily, they moisturize, then
dry DRY. That has been a big selling
point. The Chokecherry smells just
edible!”
What motivated you to start Native
Naturals? “A couple of factors: when
I married Keith and moved from
California to Oklahoma, I was unable
to find an arts administration or music
entertainment business position
here. (Those were my fields of study
and expertise and the fields I’d been
working in for many years.) I needed
to reinvent myself. So I thought about
my hobbies and interests. Keith and
I discussed the fact that every other
clothing designer out there has their
own fragrance and skin care or bath
products....but there was nothing like
that in Indian country. What
a perfect compliment to our clothing
line! So we started the test marketing
and experimenting with recipes. My
mother had studied Native American Ethnobotany at the University of
North Dakota and was instrumental in
getting us started on recipes, formulations and ideas.
The entire line is Aloe Vera based. The
finest hydroponically grown Aloe Vera
in the world is right here in Oklahoma,
so we contracted with a company here
to help us further develop the recipes
and line. We bring out a new product
as we can afford to. We have many
products already developed that aren’t
available for sale yet, just because of
the financial difficulty in bringing a new
product to light. We’ve never had a
loan or grant to do this - it has all been
done with our own financial resources
- so that is probably the most difficult
part of the business.
We have the line available in hotel
amenities size as well, and currently
have it in a dozen of the Native American hotel casinos. With 25 different
bottle shapes and sizes to choose
from, and 12 different scents. For so
many people their only impression of
Indians is in our casinos and hotels.
We introduce a little Indian art, a little
culture, but when they get to their
www.redhoneymag.net
rooms, they have Pantene. What’s Indian about that? Nothing! So why not
carry that theme into the rooms with
an indigenous product like our Native
naturals hair and skin care!
Now just to get the purchasing
managers at the properties to get the
concept of this and the concept of
‘BUY INDIAN’.”
Why is it so great for Native Women? “It introduces Indigenous herbs,
botanical and scents to an international audience. I have developed an
entire facial line as well, and can conceive of one day having the line out,
available for sale like Avon, Mary Kay,
Beauty Control....so Indian women all
over the country could be using and
selling the Native Naturals line and
promoting our great traditional healing
properties....instead of one of those
lines.”
Where can you get these products?
Native Naturals can be purchased
online at: www.nativenaturals.com
or in any one of the 100 or so Native American gift shops around the
country. If you would like your tribal
gift shop or art gallery to carry Native
Naturals, Mary says “Just ask them to
contact us, we would be happy to add
them to our family.” ()ɍ