We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Big Bull-Lewis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mary , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My name is Mary Big Bull-Lewis. I am a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes of the Moses, Entiat, and Wenatchi bands, and a descendant of the Blackfoot Tribe. I am an Indigenous Entrepreneur, co-owning two small businesses alongside my husband, Rob Lewis.
Our first business is R Digital Design, a graphic design firm that we launched in 2013. Over the next few years we found ourselves talking about starting a clothing brand, and we were inspired most when we were out on the land backpacking. We wanted the clothing brand to represent our love for the land.
Growing up in the Wenatchee Valley, I always felt like something was missing. It wasn’t until my mid 30s that I started digging into how to change that, as I saw an extreme lack of Indigenous history and representation growing up. I began seeking cultural connections, a Native counselor (as there are none in the Wenatchee area). It was important to find healing ways, speak with a counselor that understands the generational trauma that many Native families experience. I began traveling 4 hours round trip to participate in a traditional ceremony called a sweat lodge. The woman who taught me how to build a sweat truly transformed who I am today. After my first sweat, I felt like I was home and that this was the connection to my ancestors that was missing my entire life.
This moment in my life empowered me to be my authentic self, recognizing that I do not have to change who I am, I do not have to assimilate. I then spent the next year defining what this clothing brand could be.
Much like our first business, I did know how to bookkeep, run a business. So, I set out to learn. I learned how to build a e-commerce website and set a launch date. We wanted this brand to be more than just a t-shirt. Wenatchi Wear is passionate about creating awareness & empowering Indigenous Peoples through authentic threads. We design with a purpose, sharing stories and history of local Native American Tribes through wearable art. One of our first designs was Two Bear. A p’squosa (Wenatchi) Tribal tale of the landmark and hiking trail that is located in Wenatchee, WA. and colonized referenced as Saddle Rock goes as: ml̓x̌aƛ (black bear) and štǝm̓tám̓ǝl (grizzly bear) are seen squaring off with one another. The two bears bickered nonstop & šǝmyáw (coyote) was tired of them arguing, so Coyote turned them into stone.

I was taught to give back to our community and create a better future for our next seven generations. I began fundraising for land back in late 2019. This lead to founding a nonprofit, the Indigenous Roots & Reparations Foundation was launched in 2021.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My husband & I met working together 23 years ago. He attended the Art Institute in Phoenix, AZ. after high school and then moved to Wenatchee, WA. in 2000. We began working together and dating a few months later. Launching Wenatchi Wear in 2019, we were able to apply branding & marketing knowledge from our other business to help create a strong presence. Utilizing marketing products and design expertise has helped us alleviate our brand. I began looking for places we could set up a pop up shop and found farmers markets and other locations to do so. 2020 rolled around and we were just under 1 year of being in business and the pandemic hit. I was not sure how this would effect either business, but in person pop-up events were not an option. A local TV station reached out to do an interview with me & my uncle about the local p’squosa (Wenatchi) Tribe. This 30 minute interview played daily on the local TV station and really helped with online sales. I had seen many small businesses without ecommerce websites struggle during this time & was thankful that I learned how to build ours.
Similar to our first business, we started with low overhead keeping our costs to a minimum. Coincidentally in 2019, we moved our first business into its first commercial shop space. We hadn’t planned on moving into a commercial space, but the location became available and the time seemed right. We moved into the space & launched Wenatchi Wear. In 2020 we decided to invest in a Direct to Garment (DTG) printing equipment. We were sourcing our printed garments from local silk screen printers, but wanted to be able to control the final quality of the designs – colors, and quantities. It was a learning curve, but was the best option for our needs. Since then, we market garment printing to our clients while continuing to print new design & options for Wenatchi Wear.

We quickly outgrew that location and began looking for the unicorn space that we needed: garage space with large bays for vehicle graphics with a small separate retail space. We visited many locations but nothing fit our needs. One day we drove by a brand new building in the neighborhood I grew up in and we set up a time to look at the space. In late 2021, we moved into the new location that allows Wenatchi Wear to have its own brick & mortar location while keeping the businesses together.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

An illustration of resiliency – I am proud to be an Indigenous women who launched a Native clothing brand on the homelands of my ancestors. Choosing to create space when space was not created.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn is that our history books do not tell the truth. I am proud to be Native, Indigenous, First Nations woman. Our ancestors have endured many hardships, that include residential schools, genocide, assimilation and more. Our stories are important and many of our relatives have forgotten our languages and taught to not be proud of who we are. We are all part of the sacred circle. Pieces of this circle have been missing because of residential schools, colonization, genocide. As we continue to tell our stories we are remembering. The opposite of dismembering is remembering.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wenatchiwear.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wenatchiwear/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wenatchiwear
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mary-big-bull-lewis-077b2849