Mary Jane Oatman, Executive Director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association – Interview Series

A proud member of the Nez Perce tribe located around the gorgeously sprawling Columbia Plateau, Mary Jane Oatman is a passionate activist for cannabis reform and awareness of the many pressing matters that still greatly impact the lives of Indigenous people across the continent. Oatman currently serves as Executive Director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, an organization dedicated to “creating opportunities and equity for Indigenous people while empowering their communities through policy, programming, and outreach initiatives”.

Tell me about yourself and both your personal and professional background.

I was born and raised on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho in a small town called Kamiah, which means “Valley of Hemp” in Nimiipuutimpt, or Nez Perce language. I was pretty blessed to be raised with both sets of grandparents and all of my aunts, uncles and cousins living in the same town. Truly shaped me and also helped get through the difficult years of my grandparents being federally incarcerated for growing weed on the reservation.

Even into college, striving to make the President’s and Dean’s list every semester, hiding my cannabis use but always using cannabis. It became a part of my medicinal regiment in high school to handle the anxiety I was experiencing from competitive athletics and continued into my adulthood. But I have always been a closet cannabis user, because as an athlete I signed a pledge and in my first big time job for my tribe I was wearing a badge and carrying a gun so I definitely had to keep my smoking very secretive, even carrying “clean pee” with me to work when I got word the tribe was conducting random drug tests. Scary times.

My college experience opened up so many new opportunities that would have never been possible, including minoring in the Nez Perce language and graduating from college with three generations- my mom, grandmother and myself. While I was serving in law enforcement, 9-11 occurred and a lot changed. I decided to return to school after learning that the federal law enforcement officer training center was changing its family dorm room protocols and that my family would not be able to go with me. I had just had my first son and that was not even an option. So, I hit a hard reset and enrolled in a public four-year college for Justice Studies with a minor in Nez Perce Language. And I was able to make this accomplishment alongside my mother and grandmother, pretty historic to have three generations graduate together.

How is cannabis viewed in some Native American tribes? Does it have a sacred/ceremonial value to certain tribes and does the Nez Perce in particular have a special view of the cannabis plant and its possibilities?

Cannabis still has a long way to go to overcome the negative stigma that is still associated with the war on drugs that included plant medicines. Sadly, many of the tribes across the lands have also lost a deep connection with their pre-contact relationships with sacred smoking cultures and the evolution of this practice over thousands of years.

How did you become first involved in cannabis advocacy and industry?

I was basically born into the wide world of plant medicine, not just as an Indigenous woman but more from the deep roots that my family has always had for cannabis. My grandparents both went to federal prison, so they are certainly my biggest inspiration as an advocate, activist, policy wonk and protector of the plant. My first entry into advocacy for the adult use and medicinal cannabis markets came while serving on the board of directors for the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA). I was working as a budtender in a dispensary in the i502 when Jason Ortiz came to the shop while visiting the Nez Perce homelands in 2017. The board was in the process of recruiting additional members so he invited me to serve and represent the Indigenous communities. I started diving into the data and learning about what tribes were regulating cannabis, operating cultivation, processing centers, testing labs and expanding beyond dispensaries as the first movers for tourism concepts like consumption lounges. It was then that I truly realized that the Indigenous advocacy could really suffer if we did not have our own, laser focused and uber organized efforts to provide education, advocacy and empowerment of our people.

How did the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association form and what are your duties with the organization?

The ICIA was formed by progressive tribal visionaries in Wisconsin. Our president, Rob Pero (Bad River) is a CBD grower and owner of a shop in Cambridge, WI. As a hemp grower in a state with no legal cannabis, he was eager to connect with others in the industry to learn from them and expand his technical industry knowledge. That was how he and I connected. I had featured Rob’s company and brand in THC Magazine after coming across a press release for Canndigenous. We connected in Las Vegas during the annual Reservation Economic Summit hosted by the National Center and planted the seed.

The following spring I invited Rob to attend the National Cannabis Festival and policy summit, to learn alongside the other national cannabis policy organizations. It was just a few months later that the ICIA was created and I was brough on to serve as the organization’s founding Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer and help grow the movement.

In the first year we hosted our first annual Washington DC policy summit while also engaging the National Congress of American Indians as a partner to help advance the cannabis policy conversation. Because of the long standing negative stigma still associated with the plant compounded by the fear and fact that cannabis is still federally illegal, many tribes are still uncertain what health and economic development look like in an entirely new industry. That is another reason why ICIA has been so pivotal, because we are connecting the tribes in their infancy with resources, technical assistance, education and a network of tribal operators that have already blazed the trails, made the mistakes and more importantly learned from them and want to share the pathway and journey to provide safe, quality access to medicine.

Why is the work of the ICIA important to both yourself and the further advancement and success of Indigenous people in the cannabis industry?

One of the most powerful aspects of the work we do is elevating environmental equity. In this so-called green-rush, people with a purely capitalistic mindset are not taking into account the harms that we could be doing to our land, water and air. We are in an era where most leaders and business folks lead with data informed decision making, yet in the expansion of cannabis economies we are lacking important facts related to the time, place and manner in which cannabis is being produced and the impacts on our environmental health. We have tribal communities that have a long history and experience with the illicit cannabis markets and the depredations that they caused to the communities. Northern California tribes are salmon people, and much of the historical cannabis markets in that region have been predatory to the watersheds that their cultural and traditional lifeways depend upon.

Everytime we speak, I’m always excited to hear about new ways that Indigenous people  are changing the industry and becoming incredibly successful in doing so (such  examples are the NuWu/Sky High Lounge in Las Vegas and the The Mille Lacs Band of  Ojibwe’s 50,000 sq. ft cultivation facility). What have been some more recent examples  of Indigenous people making a name for themselves and simultaneously changing the  industry? 

It has been exciting to be a fly on the wall and witness tribal brands outside of the tribal enterprises rise to the top in the markets, especially for newer categories such as beverages. We have seen Indigenous women-owned brands on the rise as well, with so much intentionality in the way they are building their PR campaigns and launching into the space such as Dana Thompson and Rob Pero.

There are also some major movements in states like Michigan, where it is refreshing to see tribal entrepreneurs having access to licensing and permitting opportunities under the cannabis ordinances. In 2022 I had the honor of meeting a family that was going all in on their project and on 4/20 hosted one of the first large gatherings at the Grassy Knoll. Selina Shananaquet comes from a family of medicinal caregivers, and serves as the General Manager of the dispensary. I was honored to meet the family when they attended our first Washington DC policy summit. They returned to Michigan and immediately formed the Michigan Tribal Cannabis Association so that they could network and organize other tribal cannabis business leaders in their state.
I am very passionate about breaking the tribal corporate monopoly mindset as it pertains to cannabis economic development. When it comes to cannabis social equity, it is our elders, veterans and families that have been harmed by the war on drugs- not the tribal governments. And we still have tribal citizens incarcerated over cannabis, including life sentences in federal prison.

What are some exciting future plans for yourself and the ICIA?

I look forward to eventually expanding into some merchandize lines through some partnerships a few women owned brands that are currently on the market. I have learned a tremendous amount about co-branding and private labeling and realize that when things pop in Idaho I will be overly prepared to be a major industry player not just on my reservation but internationally because of the lessons I have learned just as a policy leader and advocate for the plant. I do have plans to grow hemp and focus more attention on the industrial fiber side for my own community, but while that is aligning I want to see my own products in tribally owned and operated stores across the nation.

The ICIA is growing rapidly, and we have set some big goals for 2025 that include our first gathering of tribal brands, products and expanding our trade association beyond the policy work to help network our tribal communities on cannabis. The partnerships that we have formed and will form in the next two years will also be critical for our work to help meet the needs of protecting tribal sovereignty as federal legalization timelines ramp up. We want our tribal nations prepared to act versus react.