Better for You

by Ben Halley, Honest Cannabis

In today’s marketplace, where quick, cheap, and artificially flavored beverages dominate the shelves, it is rare to find something made with intention, rarer when it reflects the culture and values of an underrepresented community. This hemp-derived THC beverage line, developed by the Prairie Island Indian Community, is more than just a new product; it is a quiet revolution in a can.

Prairie Island enters a market shaped by imbalance, which scientists and healers alike refer to as dysbiosis— a state where systems fall out of coordination, where what we consume harms more than it heals. Prairie Island’s goal was to create something rooted in symbiosis, a return to harmony between flavor and function, body and spirit, tradition, and innovation.

The Vision— Nourishment Over Novelty

In a contemporary food and beverage market devoid of Indigenous representation, Prairie Island saw an opportunity to challenge the status quo not just in flavor, but in philosophy. From the outset, the Tribe knew that any product they brought to market needed to reflect their values: sustainability, community, healing, and cultural sovereignty.

They also recognized the beverage as a tool to confront deeper public health challenges, particularly those linked to nutrition and chronic illness. Indigenous communities suffer disproportionately from conditions like Type 2 diabetes. According to the CDC, Native Americans are more than three times as likely as white Americans to be diagnosed with the disease. The historical trauma of colonization, paired with the widespread introduction of processed and sugar-heavy foods, has led to an ongoing health crisis. These beverages were designed to be an intentional counterpoint, a better-for-you choice rooted in Indigenous ingredients, accessibility, and wellness.

Supply Chain, Sourcing, and Shared Values

Creating a meaningful beverage meant building a meaningful supply chain. Prairie Island and its development partners carefully selected each ingredient and vendor, ensuring that the values of those involved aligned with the mission behind the drink.

Every element was selected for a reason. Maple syrup, honey, and raw cane sugar replaced corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. Core botanicals such as juniper, sumac, hyssop, marigold, gooseberry, American skullcap, yarrow, northern white cedar, white sage, sweetgrass, and American ginseng were selected for their historical relevance, therapeutic value, and deep connection to Indigenous traditions.

These ingredients did not just add flavor; they told a story. Many of them have been used for generations in ceremonies, in medicine, and in nourishment. By focusing on components endemic to North America and emphasizing pre-colonial foodways, the tribe honored ancestral relationships with plants while promoting natural balance, an act of cultural restoration through flavor.

Community Collaboration— Multi-Generational Input

The Tribe’s foray into the beverage market is not the product of corporate market research, it is the result of tribal collaboration, cultural consultation, and shared experience. The formulation was completed in partnership with Perfectly Dosed. The flavor making with Earl Giles, an esteemed team of beverage innovators based in St. Paul. Together with Prairie Island’s cannabis board and consultants, the team underwent months of tasting and testing, guided by voices from within the tribe including Prairie Island’s oldest living male elder. His participation was not symbolic; it ensured that the final product carried generational integrity.
This multi-generational involvement helped shape a beverage line that resonates not only with broader consumers but with the community itself.

Two Brands, One Unified Mission

Too often, beverages are built for shelf appeal, not substance. They chase sweetness, ignore the land, and overlook the people whose ingredients they borrow. We wanted to do something different. These two beverage lines speak to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences. They take familiar drink formats and reimagine them through a more thoughtful lens, avoiding excess, honoring the land, and reconnecting flavor with origin.

Grasslandz pays tribute to the classic sodas found across generations, rebuilt with ingredients and perspectives that reflect the Great Plains and the Dakota homelands. These are bold, approachable sodas with subtle layers of botanical history. They bring forward wild and seasonal flavors that have shaped our diets and stories for centuries.

Island Peži offers a quieter, more botanical approach to refreshment. Focused on wild fruits, herbs, and functional flora, these drinks carry the wisdom of seasonal cycles and traditional foodways. They invite a different pace, one rooted in ceremony, clarity, and wellness.

Ingredients were sourced in rhythm with the land, spanning from Appalachia to the Rockies, the Gulf Coast to Hudson Bay. The focus was always on flavors that connect to memory and place, never designed to overwhelm with sugar. These beverages are not just refreshments. They are subtle acts of education and return. Each one reflects a commitment to flavor, to integrity, and to the enduring knowledge of the Prairie.

From Cultivation to Creation— Shared Standards of Integrity

Much like their regenerative soil-building practices Prairie Island applied the same level of care to Island Peži. This is not a brand chasing trend. It is an extension of the tribe’s broader mission to bring healing to land, people, and economy. Each flavor carries the same ethos present in their cannabis flower; thoughtful inputs, ecological stewardship, and an unwavering commitment to wellness and cultural sovereignty.

The goal was not just to create a premium beverage. It was to make sure that it remained affordable and accessible, especially in the Native and BIPOC communities where healthforward choices are often either unavailable or unaffordable.

Replacing Soda with Something Intentional

Island Peži offers a meaningful alternative to soda and artificially sweetened drinks, especially for those trying to reduce sugar without giving up flavor or ceremony. Instead of removing sweetness entirely, the tribe replaced it with functional sweetness layered, earthy, natural.

Rather than wag a finger at historical dietary patterns, the team aimed to offer a gentle, attractive substitute, something people could choose because it tasted good and felt good.

“We began with a question: Could we craft a full-flavored beverage that authentically represents our people in a space where Indigenous voices are so often absent? More importantly, could we do it in a way that honors our values, supports our health, and remains accessible to the very communities we come from?” — Prairie Island Indian Community

With hemp derived, low dose THC, this beverage offers a gentle entry point into cannabis for those seeking calm, mood elevation, or wellness without intoxication. It is nonalcoholic, plant forward, and grounded in respect for the body, for the earth, and for tradition.

For the Prairie Island Indian Community, this is more than a product. It is a cultural expression of sovereignty, healing, and self-determination. It reflects a future shaped with intention, where flavor, wellness, and Indigenous values live in balance.