Natural American Spirit, often referred to simply as American Spirit, is an American brand of

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

s and other

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

products, currently owned by

Reynolds American Reynolds American, Inc. is an American tobacco company which is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. Its holdings include R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Compan ...

and manufactured by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company.

History

The company was founded in 1982 by Bill Drake, author of ''The Cultivator's Handbook of Natural Tobacco''; Robert Marion, an acupuncture student at the Kototama Institute in Santa Fe; and Chris Webster, a Santa Fe entrepreneur and

realtor Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agent ...

. Startup investments came from Edward Wikes, a Santa Fe

plumber A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, hot-water production, sewage and drainage in plumbing systems.

/contractor who took out a loan to support the venture; Robert Wolf, an

oil rig An oil rig is any kind of apparatus constructed for oil drilling. Kinds of oil rig include: * Drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construc ...

roughneck A roughneck is a person whose occupation is hard manual labor. The term applies across a number of industries, but is most commonly associated with the workers on a drilling rig. The ideal of the hard-working, tough roughneck has been adopted by ...

; and Philip Naumburg, an heir to the Elkan Naumburg fortune. In January 2002, the company was acquired by

and is now a wholly owned independent subsidiary of Reynolds American, which is in turn owned by

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

Japan Tobacco The (JT) is a Japanese diversified tobacco company and parent company to Japan Tobacco International, one of the three largest international Big Tobacco product manufacturers in the world. It was established in 1985 as a that inherited the ri ...

announced in September 2015 that it acquired the right to sell Natural American Spirit products in markets outside the United States.

Markets

American spirits sales promotion advertisement

Natural American Spirit cigarettes have been sold in the

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Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

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Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Products

Natural American Spirit offers various types of select filter cigarettes which are color-coded to denote the nicotine and tar contents, which are altered by using different filters and cigarette paper. American Spirit also has a ''Perique Blend Filter cigarette'', which contains 10% Perique tobacco, and an ''Organic Filter cigarette'', which contains organic tobacco. Natural American Spirit also offers several "Roll Your Own" tobaccos in tins and pouches. In the UK, American Spirit rolling tobacco comes in Blue (regular) or Yellow (light). American Spirit cigarettes are sold in packs of 20. They come as follows: *Orange – Smooth Mellow Original Taste *Yellow – Original Blend Mellow Original Taste *Blue – Original Blend Full-bodied Taste *Light Green – Organic Mellow Menthol *Dark Green – Organic Full-Bodied Menthol *Gold – Organic Mellow Taste *Turquoise – Organic Full-Bodied Taste *Black –

Perique Perique () is a type of tobacco from Saint James Parish, Louisiana, known for its strong, powerful, and fruity aroma. When the Acadians made their way into this region in 1776, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes were cultivating a variety of tobac ...

Rich Robust Taste *Light Blue – Full-Bodied Taste *Dark Blue – U.S. Grown Premium Full-Bodied Taste *Tan – U.S. Grown Premium Mellow Taste *Sky – Smooth Taste, charcoal filter *Celadon Green – Unique Balanced Taste *Hunter Green – Full-Bodied Balanced Taste *Gray – Perique Rich Taste *Agate (Japan Only) – Rich Sweet Taste *Brown – Unique Non-Filtered

Controversies

The claim of additive-free cigarettes

Natural American Spirit products in the year 2000 were advertised as "100%

Additive Additive may refer to: Mathematics * Additive function, a function in number theory * Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation * Additive set-function see Sigma additivity * Additive category, a preadditive category with fin ...

-Free

Tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

California Attorney General The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The ...

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

announced on March 1, 2010, that his office had secured an agreement with the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company to clearly disclose that its organic tobacco is "no safer or healthier" than other tobacco products. Attorneys general from 32 other states and the District of Columbia signed onto the agreement.

Use of Native American imagery

The use of Native American/American Indian imagery by the brand, such as the depiction of an Indigenous person on the package and the use of fake folktales, has been criticized as

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or cultural identity, identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. Such a controversy typically ari ...

and promoting stereotypes. Research found that the use of this imagery led to many smokers, including Indigenous peoples, having the misperception that the brand was owned or operated by a tribe/on tribal land and that it was more "natural" and thus healthier. In response, Robin Sommers, the CEO and majority owner of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, stated that "Native Americans are not a target market for American Spirit", stating that the use of this imagery was due to the company's goal to bring tobacco usage more in line with a perceived "moderation" by Indigenous peoples in the 15th century and that proceeds from sales support Native communities.

References

{{Cigarettes R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company brands