Susan didn't set out to start a business. She set out to help.

Living on a fixed income in Bozeman, Susan had spent years as the person her community turned to. People came to her door for guidance, for traditional knowledge, sometimes just to be heard. As an elder in the Apsáalooke (Crow) community, that's a role she carries seriously. But she wanted to do more than listen. She wanted the means to actually help.

The answer had been in her family the whole time.

"I remembered something my grandmother told me, that buffalo tallow was a wonderful way to moisturize your skin," Susan says. "And she was not wrong."

So she rendered five pounds of bison fat using her family's recipe, the same one passed down from her grandmother, Carries The Warstaff "Katie Yarlott." She ended up with far more jars than she could ever use herself. Her son-in-law had an idea: bring them to the powwow, set up a table, see what happens.

Something clicked. If she could sell the tallow, she could put the proceeds toward an emergency fund for the young Native women who kept showing up at her door needing help. A family recipe had found its purpose.

When Grief Became Purpose

Then 2018 happened. Susan's grandniece was reported missing, and later found murdered.

The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women is something Susan had always known was real. Now it had reached inside her own family. Native American women face murder rates more than ten times the national average, and an estimated 60 percent of cases go unreported, buried under fear and institutional silence.

Susan wasn't willing to let that silence stand. In 2019, she founded the Fierce Women Warrior Society alongside a multigenerational group of Native women. That December, they held their first self-defense workshop at Montana State University.

Every jar of tallow sold since has helped fund that mission: self-defense and mindfulness training for around 30 women a year, billboards offering rewards for information on missing women, and emergency support for families in crisis. Susan still renders every batch by hand and the label art is her own design.

Why the Tallow Itself Holds Up

The mission is the heart of Fierce Women Warriors, and the product backing it is just as considered. Made from 100% grass-fed, free-range Montana bison, the tallow is free of growth hormones, steroids, and antibiotics. Its molecular structure closely resembles human sebum, which means it absorbs instead of sitting on top of your skin or clogging your pores, whether your skin runs dry or oily. It's a recipe indigenous women have trusted for generations, made the same simple way it always has been: bison tallow, avocado oil, and essential oils, nothing else.

Why We're Featuring Her This Month

Montana Month is our chance to shine a light on the people who make this state what it is: the farmers, ranchers, and producers building something real, often for reasons that go far beyond the product on the shelf. Susan's story is exactly that. A jar of tallow that started in her grandmother's kitchen is now funding self-defense workshops and emergency aid for Native women across Montana.

This month, Fierce Women Warriors moisturizer is on sale for 20% Off all month long. Picking up a jar is a small thing. What it supports isn't.