Tanka Bar

Tanka Bar was founded in 2006 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota by Karlene Hunter and Mark Tilsen. The idea was direct: take a traditional Lakota food — wasna, or pemmican, made from buffalo and wild berries — and give it modern distribution. Not to dilute it, but to fund something bigger: a return of buffalo-based economies to Native lands, and with them, real health and food sovereignty for indigenous communities.

The company is a certified Native American-owned and Minority-owned Business, and a certified B Corporation. Current CEO Dawn Sherman, a member of the Lakota, Shawnee, and Delaware tribes, is the second generation of Native leadership at the helm. That matters: this isn't a brand that borrowed cultural imagery. It came from the people it represents.

Tanka bars are built on a deceptively simple recipe: grass-fed bison and tart-sweet cranberries. It's the same pairing Lakota people made for centuries. No gluten, no dairy, no nuts, no antibiotics, no nitrites. The fat from bison is a different animal than conventional beef — leaner, richer in omega-3s, and from herds raised on open grassland. The slight smokiness and sweet-tart contrast hit differently than the usual protein bar.

Beyond the product, Tanka is a genuine mission vehicle. The Tanka Fund, a related nonprofit, works to convert a million acres of prairie to regenerative buffalo-based agriculture. Dawn Sherman co-founded the Tanka Resilient Agriculture Coop, a South Dakota collective specifically designed to return bison to tribal lands. This is one of the rare cases where the social mission is structural, not decorative.

They're the only nationally distributed Native American packaged snack brand in the natural foods industry.

Products

• Tanka Bar — original bison + cranberry (various flavors)
• Tanka Bites — bite-sized, snackable version
• Tanka Sticks — slim, portable format
• Tanka Warrior Bar — higher protein, larger format

All products: gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, antibiotic-free, nitrite-free

Why We List Them

• Founded on and operated from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
• Certified Native American-Owned Business — no outside corporate ownership
• Certified B Corporation with verified social and environmental performance
• Second-generation Native leadership; mission is food sovereignty for indigenous communities
• Only nationally distributed Native American packaged snack brand in natural foods
• Tanka Fund working toward 1 million acres of regenerative buffalo-based prairie agriculture
• Product rooted in traditional Lakota wasna/pemmican recipe, not invented for marketing