Frybread

Frybread(also spelledfry bread) is a dish of the indigenous people of North America that is a flat dough bread,friedordeep-friedin oil,shortening, orlard.
Made with simple ingredients, generally wheat flour, water, salt, and sometimes baking powder, frybread can be eaten alone or with various toppings such ashoney,jam, powdered sugar,venison, or beef. It is the base forIndian tacos.
Frybread has a complex cultural history that is inextricably intertwined withcolonialismanddisplacement of Native Americans. The ingredients for frybread were provided to Native Americans to prevent them from starving when they were moved from areas where they could grow and forage their traditional foods to areas that would not support their traditional foods. Critics see the dish as both a symbol of colonization and a symbol of resilience.
According toNavajotradition, frybread was created in 1864 using the flour, sugar, salt andlardthat was given to them by the United States government when the Navajo, who were living inArizona, were forced to make the 300-mile journey known as the "Long Walk" and relocate toBosque Redondo,New Mexico, onto land that could not easily support their traditional staples of vegetables and beans.To prevent the displaced Native Americans from starving, the United States government provided a small set of staple food items, which included the ingredients with which to create a simple quick bread which was cooked in a pan of hot lard over coals and became known as frybread.The food eventually spread to other tribes.Boarding schoolsalso helped to spread frybread in Native American diets.
Frybread was named the official state bread ofSouth Dakotain 2005.That same year, activistSuzan Shown Harjowrote a piece against frybread inIndian Country Today, calling the dish "emblematic of the long trails from home and freedom to confinement and rations...It's the connecting dot between healthy children and obesity, hypertension, diabetes, dialysis, blindness, amputations, and slow death"; critics have accused Harjo of overstating her case and unfairly blaming frybread for problems facing Native Americans.In 2012 the Phoenix restaurantThe Fry Bread Housewas named an American Classic by theJames Beard Foundation.
Frybread became inextricably intertwined with Native American culture and feelings toward colonialization and displacement, and also with pride in the resilience of a people and culture.
According toSmithsonian Magazine, for many Native Americans, "frybread links generation with generation and also connects the present to the painful narrative of Native American history".
Frybread's significance to Native Americans has been described as complicatedand their relationship with it conflicted.Although frybread is often associated with "traditional" Native American cuisine, some Native American chefs reject it as a symbol of colonialism. Indigenous chefSean Shermancalls it "everything that isn't Native American food",writing that it represents "perseverance and pain, ingenuity and resilience".Frybread became a symbol of resilience as it was developed out of necessity using government-provided flour, sugar, and lard.However, indigenous chefs such as Sherman consider it a symbol of colonial oppression,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.
The journalist and documentary filmmakerPatty Talahongva, who isHopiof 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 thePhoenix Indian School, which she attended in the late 1970s.  She also describes the movement toward indigenousfood sovereignty, which promotes healthy foods like corn, beans, and squash, instead of starchy, high-fat foods like frybread.
A typical frybread recipe consists of flour, water, salt, a small amount of oil or lard, and sometimes baking powder or more rarely yeast.The ingredients are mixed and worked into a simple dough, and covered with a cloth for 30 minutes to an hour, until the dough rises. It is then formed into small balls, and are either rolled or pulled into flat discs prior to frying in hot oil.
It is served both in homes and at gatherings such aspow-wowsandpotlatchesas well as at state fairs and other festivals.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.
They may be eaten plain, salted, or with sugar or honey, or as a base forNavajo tacos.