Tim Agne/KJZZ

Diné tea, made from the Thelesperma plant, and blue corn-based croissants are a few of the Navajo-inspired beverages and pastries sold at Skoden Coffee & Tea.

One Diné entrepreneur, who closed up a coffee shop in Window Rock, is now working to build a new following in Phoenix. It’s called Skoden Coffee & Tea. That uniquely Native name, according to co-owner Natasha John, is “a colloquial way to say, ‘Let’s go then,’” a phrase largely popularized by the Peabody Award-winning Hulu series “Reservation Dogs.”

Her budding urban business, once based in the capital of the Navajo Nation, has since moved to the Valley last month. Now, they’re nestled inside the Uptown Phoenix furniture and design store, For the People, located off North Central Avenue.

Leaning upon her society’s matrilineal roots, this Diné entrepreneur and her Japanese American wife, Sabrina Sugimura, sought to create a comforting space, “where everybody feels like they're welcome, children, elders, matriarchs, everybody, our queers, our two-spirits,” added John.

The cafe menu is filled with thirst-quenching signature beverages, from caffeinated drinks like matcha and brown sugar lattes to Diné tea, made from their greenthread, or thelesperma, a perennial plant, gathered from outside of Gallup, New Mexico. Freshly baked and locally-sourced sweet treats, including blue corn croissants and Skonuts, their take on blue corn-flavored donuts, are also often in short supply at the counter.

Despite leaving their brick-and-mortar building in Window Rock behind, John says “I’m still mourning the loss of that space.” She even hesitated in uprooting their caffeine-infused operations by relocating nearly 300 miles southwest of her ancestral homelands to the Valley.

“I was really against having it in Phoenix, actually,” added John, “but I had a conversation with another Native business, and they had given me this really great piece of advice: ‘You can have a presence for our queer, Indigenous relatives in Phoenix that are displaced.’”

Tim Agne/KJZZ

The staff at Skoden Coffee & Tea stand behind the counter at their new location in Phoenix.

A recent study, co-authored by Change Labs, a Native-led organization offering entrepreneurial support to Navajo and Hopi business owners, found it takes seven times as long to start a business and costs twice as much on the Navajo Nation than off-reservation. A burdensome regulatory environment was cited as a reason why.

Acquiring a business license to finding leasable buildings are a few obstacles that entrepreneurs face. Diné, Mandan and Hidatsa restaurateur Bleu Adams, who created the Skoden concept and later sold it at-cost through an asset purchase to John, shared that staying in business on Navajoland can be difficult.

“There’s story after story from everybody that has brick-and-mortar to digital and creative types that want to do business on the reservation, but because there’s a lack of supportive services for entrepreneurs, they end up going to the cities,” says Adams. “They’re starting over again. We wish them all the success.”

Prior to the new launch in early December, locals might’ve seen staff like Skoden’s lead barista, KaLynn Yazzie, set pop-up stands across the Valley at Native art markets and festivals starting this summer.

Those highly-anticipated appearances helped raise the profile and popularity of the Skoden brand, but John admitted that her team can’t do pop-ups anymore, at least for the “first few months, but we will start them back up again.” Not until sometime late next month, she added, “So, I think it would be a shame not to do them. Also, it’s really great exposure for us, too.”

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