Tanka Bar given Editor's Choice Award

Industry’s most coveted award honors best new gear and essentials for outdoor enthusiasts

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, Jan. 21  – Tanka Bar Spicy Pepper Blend, a product of Native American Natural
Foods, has been honored as a recipient of a 2010 Backpacker magazine Editors’ Choice Award, the
most prestigious award in the outdoor industry, given annually to products in recognition of their
outstanding innovation in design, materials and/or performance.

Backpacker Editor-In-Chief Jonathan Dorn and his staff of editors and testers presented the award
to Native American Natural Foods at the annual Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City,
Utah, Thursday, Jan. 21.

The Backpacker Editors’ Choice Awards, bestowed annually since 1993, honor the products that
Backpacker editors have chosen as the best of the year based on months of trail testing by teams
of highly experienced hikers and climbers. With no set categories for the awards and no set
number of recipients, the products and the testing process drive the award categories.

Tanka Bar Spicy Pepper Blend, which pairs prairie-raised buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries with a
mix of four peppers, was one of only 15 innovative products that have been honored with a 2010
Backpacker Editors’ Choice Award. The Tanka Bar, which is available nationally at REI and more
than 3,000 other retail locations as well as TankaBar.com, is a modern artisanal take on a
traditional Native American recipe for "wasna" or "pemmican," which has been described by many
nutritionists as the perfect energy food. The 100 percent natural bar is 70 calories, 7 grams of
protein and 1.5 grams of fat per 1 ounce serving, with no trans fats.

“In an era of dime-a-dozen digital gear reviews, consumers are looking for product evaluations
that they can really trust,” said Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Dorn. “And no one does more than our
test team to make sure that our selections earn the respect that Backpacker awards get. Led by
Gear Editor Kristin Hostetter, the dozen or so core members of our crew hiked more than 15,000
miles this year, then finished our testing for Editors’ Choice with a 100-mile route through the
Swiss Alps that entailed more than 60,000 feet of elevation gain, hours of waist-deep postholing,
and weather conditions that challenged every piece of gear we packed. The result of the team’s
hard work is a collection of smart, durable products that will deliver comfort and performance for
many years to come.”

According to Karlene Hunter, CEO of Native American Natural Foods, the Editor's Choice Award
honors not just the Tanka Bar, but centuries of Lakota ancestors who developed the natural
methods for preserving buffalo meat with fruit.

"Wasna, which is the recipe our Tanka products are based on, has been the traditional trail food for
the Lakota people for centuries," Hunter said. "We are honored that the Tanka Bar has been chosen
for this prestigious award, and we believe that this recognition from Backpacker magazine
illustrates that pure, real ingredients can be just as relevant today as they were for our ancestors."

The Backpacker Editors’ Choice Awards are the gold standard against which all outdoor products
are measured, and are a seal of approval that can help put an outdoor company or product on the
proverbial map. Each year at the Outdoor Retailer show, retail buyers use the awards
announcements as a must-buy shopping list, knowing that their customers will be asking for these
products in the spring.

Since their inception, the Backpacker Editors’ Choice Awards have come to be regarded as the most
sought-after award for outdoor equipment and apparel found in the industry.  The impeccable
outdoor credentials and rigorous field-testing standards of the Backpacker staff guarantee that
these awards are an undisputed mark of quality for the companies and products selected.

All winners must excel under extensive field-testing conducted by Backpacker’s team of editors,
who take hundreds of new products every year into the backcountry to put them to the test.  This
rigorous process ensures that the performance of the winners is truly worthy of distinction and
meets the guiding principle behind the program: gear that is of real value to the readers of
Backpacker magazine, who are very active, long-term outdoor enthusiasts.

The complete list of Backpacker 2010 Editors’ Choice Award winners will be officially announced to
the general public in the magazine’s April Gear Guide issue, on newsstands March 2, 2010.

About Native American Natural Foods:
Native American Natural Foods, which is based in Kyle, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,
provides a category of natural healthy products by adding value to traditional Native food products,
using modern scientific methods, the least amount of processing, and the lowest-stress animal
handling methods possible.

About Backpacker:
Backpacker (www.backpacker.com) brings the outdoors straight to the reader's doorstep, inspiring
and enabling them to go more places and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active
adventure, Backpacker is the world's first GPS-enabled magazine and website, and the only outdoor
media whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish.
Backpacker's Editors' Choice Awards, an industry honor recognizing design, feature and product
innovation, has become the gold standard against which all other outdoor-industry awards are
measured. In the last four years, Backpacker has won five National Magazine Awards, the
publishing industry’s highest honor.