5''x7'' greeting card - art by Susanne Stewart, Montana

About Fierce Warrior Women

Not long ago I remembered something that my grandmother told me - that buffalo tallow was a wonderful way to moisturize your skin. And my grandmother was not wrong advising me to use tallow as my daily moisturizer... it has been proven to be a super moisturizer for the ages. My traditional indigenous moisturizer is made right here in Montana using free range buffalo tallow, avocado oil and some essential oil‘s - nothing is in it that I can’t pronounce and there’s no preservatives. I took an old recipe and tweaked it a bit to make it available for my family and friends. Being a small company, it is made fresh and it is made in small batches so I can supervise quality control on my product.

In Susanne's words: 

“As an elder in my community, I frequently received requests from young Native American women seeking assistance. As I was living on a fixed income, it became challenging to support them as much as I wished. Coincidentally, I found myself in need of a moisturizer made from bison fat, which is cleaner/richer than beef tallow. I had a family recipe, however, after rendering five pounds of bison fat, I ended up with 25 jars of moisturizer! Realizing I couldn’t use all of it on my own, my son-in-law suggested I take it to the powwow and set up a small table to sell it. An idea struck me: I could sell my moisturizer and channel some of the proceeds into an emergency fund for the young Native women in need. My concern for the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women in MT weighed heavily on me, as it has affected our reservation for years. Tragically, in 2018, my grandniece was reported missing and subsequently found murdered, motivating me to become proactive in addressing this crisis. The funds we raised were directed toward raising awareness about the issue, including funding billboards that offered rewards for information on missing and murdered women. We also assisted with emergency funding and, importantly, sponsored self-defense courses. The Fierce Women Warrior Society nonprofit covers the workshop fees using proceeds from our sales, reaching about 30 young women annually. The plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women in MT remains a pressing concern for our community, and I am dedicated to making a difference in any way I can."