About 20 years ago I bought some fresh frybread from two indigenous ladies running a concession at Mission San Xavier del Bac on the Xavier Reservationm south of Tucson. It was sort of like a doughnut, minus a hole in the center...
Frybread
en.wikipedia.org
Frybread (also spelled fry bread) is a flat dough bread, fried or deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard. Made with simple ingredients, generally wheat flour, sugar, salt, and fat, frybread can be eaten alone or with various toppings such as honey, jam, powdered sugar, venison, or beef. Frybread can also be made into taco-like meals.
History
According to Navajo tradition, frybread was created in 1864 using the flour, sugar, salt and lard that was given to them by the United States government when the Navajo, who were living in Arizona, were forced to make the 300-mile journey known as the "Long Walk" and relocate to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico, onto land that could not easily support their traditional staples of vegetables and beans; New Mexican-style sopapillas also share this origin due to Pueblos and Hispanos of New Mexico having a similar subsistence at this time.[1][2] Boarding schools also helped to spread frybread in Native American diets.[3]
For many Native Americans, "frybread links generation with generation and also connects the present to the painful narrative of Native American history".[1] It is often served both at home and at gatherings. The way it is served varies from region to region and different tribes have different recipes. It can be found in its many ways at state fairs and pow-wows, but what is served to the paying public may be different from what is served in private homes and in the context of tribal family relations.
Controversy
Frybread's significance to Native Americans has been described as complicated[4] and their relationship with it conflicted.[5] Although frybread is often associated with "traditional" Native American cuisine, some Native American chefs reject it as a symbol of colonialism. Indigenous chef Sean Sherman calls it "everything that isn't Native American food",[6] writing that it represents "perseverance and pain, ingenuity and resilience".[7]
Frybread became a symbol of resilience as it was developed out of necessity using government-provided flour, sugar, and lard.[8] However, indigenous chefs such as Sherman consider it a symbol of colonial oppression,[8] as the ingredients were being provided because the government had moved the people onto land that could not support growing traditional staples like corn and beans.[4][9]
The journalist and documentary filmmaker Patty Talahongva, who identifies as Hopi of the Corn Clan, calls frybread "Die Bread" and associates it with diseases endemic to Native Americans, including gallbladder disease, diabetes, and more. She attributes the spread of frybread to boarding schools, like the Phoenix Indian School, which she attended in the late 1970s. She also describes the movement toward indigenous food sovereignty, which promotes healthy foods like corn, beans, and squash, instead of starchy, high-fat foods like frybread.[3] |
