NAFPS Forum

This small business is located in the Sierra Mountains in California. The business owner has a partner whose family owns a "Native plant" farm, and she sells various holistic health products with Native American branding. People of color can also be frauds and engage in native american cultural erasure if they get the opportunity to. Please call her business out. The plants are growing on occupied Mi-wuk territory and she probably does not know why it is harmful to be using Native American branding in her region.
Feel free to find her on instagram: @le_ekani
www.wildlifeherbs.com

She is Vietnamese to make that clear.

This should be posted under Research Needed.

I don't see any sign of claiming to be Native, either the people or the products. Could you point to that?

The company and the two partners are on Facebook, too:

https://www.facebook.com/Wildlife-Herbs-424514508287031/ [Wildlife Herbs]

https://www.facebook.com/ekanile88 [Ekani Le]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009103339520 [Kern Houghten]

Ekani Le has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsCgPUkZsSalqBXtTPBQgcw

@educatedindian
Sure, if that is where it needs to go I am fine with that. I am still new to this forum. Just hear me out on this. When I met the seller in-person I asked her what was Yerba Santa and she told me that it was used by Native Americans to smoke and to use as a tonic. She then politely wanted to know about my cultural background, and she reported that was Vietnamese. I politely asked why the Native Americans use this herb and she gave me some vague information, not ever mentioning the tribe's name or the Native territory that they harvest from.  Also, if you visit her webpage and look at the photos posted under the "blog" section they are new age frauds using chakra banners at "Cultural events" in white majority communities. They are from a white-majority area called, Twaine Harte. I have visited that place a few times. Here are the demographics of the region:

https://datausa.io/profile/geo/twain-harte-ca#demographics

Quote from: educatedindian on August 04, 2020, 01:20:12 AM
I don't see any sign of claiming to be Native, either the people or the products. Could you point to that?

I noticed the same thing when perusing their Internet presence. This is the closest I came:

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/about
We are a small family living off the land, we consider ourselves "back to the lander's."

Practicing permaculture and primitive skills. Our mission is to make medicine from nature. We are a firm practitioner and believer of conscious wild harvesting.

Recently, we have been recovering from a forest fire that devastated 80,000 acres of our community. A positive outcome of this tragedy was the fertilization of the land, which allowed the native herbs to rebound in abundance and health. We harvest from native landscapes ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the High Sierra Mountains.

We minimize our environmental impact whenever possible, including shipping our products in reused, recyclable packaging. We are a family and team sharing our important values of ecology and stewardship and giving our appreciation and prayers back to the land.

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/product-page/smoke-blend
Our Smoke Blend is an impressive blend of native herbs that were all gathered in the Californian sacred mountains. Smooth, bold, aroma that get's you naturally uplifted. If you enjoy smoking, this will be a great addition to help you to cut back on tobacco.

Use this sacred herb to do rituals & prayers. This blend is inspired by the Native Americans and Shamanic wisdom of the past.

Quote from: Sparks on August 04, 2020, 01:42:24 AM

Quote from: educatedindian on August 04, 2020, 01:20:12 AM
I don't see any sign of claiming to be Native, either the people or the products. Could you point to that?

I noticed the same thing when perusing their Internet presence. This is the closest I came:

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/about
We are a small family living off the land, we consider ourselves "back to the lander's."

Practicing permaculture and primitive skills. Our mission is to make medicine from nature. We are a firm practitioner and believer of conscious wild harvesting.

Recently, we have been recovering from a forest fire that devastated 80,000 acres of our community. A positive outcome of this tragedy was the fertilization of the land, which allowed the native herbs to rebound in abundance and health. We harvest from native landscapes ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the High Sierra Mountains.

We minimize our environmental impact whenever possible, including shipping our products in reused, recyclable packaging. We are a family and team sharing our important values of ecology and stewardship and giving our appreciation and prayers back to the land.

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/product-page/smoke-blend
Our Smoke Blend is an impressive blend of native herbs that were all gathered in the Californian sacred mountains. Smooth, bold, aroma that get's you naturally uplifted. If you enjoy smoking, this will be a great addition to help you to cut back on tobacco.

Use this sacred herb to do rituals & prayers. This blend is inspired by the Native Americans and Shamanic wisdom of the past.

Thank you, Sparks

I posted this on the "New members welcome" thread: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5468.0

Feel free to research this brand called, "Wildlife Herbs"

Sparks, helped me out quote some of their products they claim to be Native American, when in fact, they do not have any NA heritage. I met the seller at and she never mentioned anything about the Mi-wuk territory that they harvest native plants from.
She is Vietnamese and her partner owns the native plant farm. They live in a white-majority hill town in Calaveras county.

Instagram: le_ekani

https://www.facebook.com/Wildlife-Herbs-424514508287031/ [Wildlife Herbs]

https://www.facebook.com/ekanile88 [Ekani Le]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009103339520 [Kern Houghten]

Ekani Le has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsCgPUkZsSalqBXtTPBQgcw

Quote from: Totonacjv on August 04, 2020, 02:31:55 AM
I posted this on the "New members welcome" thread: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5468.0

Quote from: Sparks on August 04, 2020, 02:32:02 PM
Totonacjv started a new topic in Research Needed:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5469.0
[Hello, I want to call out a Native American fraud on my first post- repost]

I am suggesting these two threads be merged in Research Needed, with the topic name I coined.

Quote from: Totonacjv on August 04, 2020, 01:36:22 AM
When I met the seller in-person I asked her what was Yerba Santa and she told me that it was used by Native Americans to smoke and to use as a tonic. [...] I politely asked why the Native Americans use this herb and she gave me some vague information, not ever mentioning the tribe's name or the Native territory that they harvest from.

Yerba Santa on the website (my bolding above and below):

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/product-page/cold-allergy-relief
Yerba Santa is known as "Holy Or Sacred Herb." This healing herb is best known to fight off sinus conditions, useful for the lungs, like asthma and runny nose. Helps clear mucus from the respiratory tract and allievating congestion.  This plant ally is great for the seasonal allergies, and hay fever. This has been used when Natives roames around the indigenous lands and adopted by the Spanish settlers.

When there is an experience of grief, emotions to the heart and lungs, this is a sacred herb to feel full vitatlity into the spaces where it's contracted.

Yerba Santa is one of five ingredients in the Smoke Blend that I mentioned before:

Quote from: Sparks on August 04, 2020, 01:42:24 AM

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/product-page/smoke-blend
Our Smoke Blend is an impressive blend of native herbs that were all gathered in the Californian sacred mountains. Smooth, bold, aroma that get's you naturally uplifted. If you enjoy smoking, this will be a great addition to help you to cut back on tobacco.

Use this sacred herb to do rituals & prayers. This blend is inspired by the Native Americans and Shamanic wisdom of the past.

Quote from: https://www.wildlifeherbs.com/product-page/yerba-santa-dried-herbs-2-oz
Yerba Santa is known as "Gum Weed," ...

So, what is Yerba Santa, generally speaking?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_santa

Of those mentioned there, this is the most likely candidate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eriodictyon_californicum

Merging posts:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5468.0

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5469.0

Quote from Sparks:

The company and the two partners are on Facebook, too:

https://www.facebook.com/Wildlife-Herbs-424514508287031/ [Wildlife Herbs]

https://www.facebook.com/ekanile88 [Ekani Le]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009103339520 [Kern Houghten]

Ekani Le has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsCgPUkZsSalqBXtTPBQgcw

Threads merged.

Quote from: Totonacjv on August 03, 2020, 11:36:43 PM
Feel free to find her on instagram: @le_ekani

Quote from: Totonacjv on August 04, 2020, 02:31:55 AM
Instagram: le_ekani

Complete URL: https://www.instagram.com/le_ekani/