In 1834, at the height of Andrew Jackson’s brutal crusade against American Indigenous nations, Congress enacted the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act, a law prohibiting the distillation of alcohol on Native land. Decades passed. The frontier closed, America celebrated its centennial and bicentennial, the nation entered the Digital Age and the 21st century—and yet this flagrantly racist policy remained on the books, largely forgotten. That is, until 2018, when the Chehalis Tribe set out to launch a distillery in Washington state.
“We were all set to open Talking Cedar. We had purchased equipment, hired a distiller, and brought on a marketing team,” Harry Pickernell Sr., Chehalis Enterprises’ chief operating officer, told me. “Then, out of nowhere, we ran into this absurd 19th-century law. Fortunately, we met with a congresswoman and prepared a bill to repeal it. It became the fastest bill to move through Congress since the Patriot Act.”
With the benighted legislation tossed into the dustbin of American history, Talking Cedar has flourished as a Pacific Northwest boutique distillery, crafting gin and whiskey expressing the damp, lush terroir of that emerald corner of the lower 48. The distillery’s name is an homage to the rich oral storytelling tradition of the Chehalis and the centrality of the cedar tree to their traditions. For the Chehalis, a nomadic tribe, the cedar tree provided wood for fishing weirs and fiber to weave baskets for foraging mushrooms, ferns, and wild berries.
Helmed by Master Distiller and Head Brewer Ryan Myhre, formerly of Big Time Beer Company, Talking Cedar’s small-batch spirits are superb—treats to be savored neat or in cocktails. And you can feel good about supporting them, too, as all profits go towards humanitarian and cultural preservation initiatives on the Chehalis Reservation. “The Chehalis language is dying out, but we are now funding programs to teach our ancestral tongue to the youngsters,” says Pickernell, himself a member of the Chehalis nation. “We are also supporting initiatives to revive Chehalis leatherworking and weaving.”
While Talking Cedar also boasts a well-reviewed brewery, my favorite offerings are their Kayak Gin and Blenders American Blended Malt Whiskey, crafted in partnership with Westland Distillery, an internationally acclaimed Seattle whiskey producer.
