Brooke Wawatie

Biography

Sequoia is an Indigenous-owned business based in Kahnawake, Quebec, and was founded in 2002 by Michaelee Lazore. She is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesáhsne and Northern Paiute from Nevada. (2020, Sequoia) Before Sequoia came to fruition, Michaelee got her degree in Mechanical Engineering and started a career in the Civil Engineering field. She spent ten years of her life working on a specific career path, which required her to design roads, sewers, and ditches. However, she was not passionate about her job every day, so she decided to pursue her dreams of owning a business, soon to become Sequoia. Michaelee came a long way from working in her kitchen, making soaps that weren’t available on the market yet. Michaelee is now a mother of 4, who is focused on her children and business. She balances her day-to-day life, keeping fit and healthy while traveling across the country to give presentations about Indigenous entrepreneurship.

Creative Story

“When choosing a name for my company, I fell in love with the name Sequoia. To me, it not only represented nature but also strength” says Michaelee. The kind of strength Sequoia trees are known for is from their size; giant trees that can live up to 2000-3000 years. “The name also has a native connection as well. It’s the name of the Cherokee chief who developed their alphabet so that the language could be written. A technical-minded person just like me!” (2020, Michaelee). Michaelee mentions her inspiration for Sequoia Soaps, one who made cradleboards, beadwork, and hide work all her life. That woman was her grandmother. Feeling empowerment and being shown she can create beautiful crafts as well, Michaelee decided to trust her intuition. Michaelee loved the smells of traditional medicines, such as cedar, sage, and sweetgrass but at the time, those weren’t common scents on the market. One of the reasons she decided to create Sequoia Soaps is that the market didn’t sell scents like that at the time, as well as wanting to support Indigenous businesses in the process. Today, Sequoia is highly successful, selling all sorts of herby soaps/scents, such as the Medicine Woman soap, and the Red Clover soap. Michaelee hopes to build a larger chain of shops in the future and hopes to continue to empower fellow Indigenous Entrepreneurs. (2021, Freshmag)