Native American Fry Bread
Delicious food with a dark past
Fry bread is a dish of the indigenous people of North America that is a flat dough bread, deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard. It can be served with sweet or savory toppings. I’m not sure if it’s the tasty goodness I like the best or perhaps it’s because I usually buy it when I’m on vacation that makes it special to me.
Fry bread is tradition in many Native American cultures; however, I would like to share a sad and painful history of fry bread of the Navajo Nation before sharing recipes.
The Navajo People
The Navajo (they call themselves the Diné) lived off the land as their ancestors had for generations. They were planters and also raised livestock to feed their family. Their homeland, Dinétah, was bordered by the four sacred mountains: the San Francisco Peaks in north central Arizona, the Hesperus Peak in southwestern Colorado, Mount Blanca in south central Colorado and Mount Taylor in northwestern New Mexico.
The “Long Walk”
As settlers expanded west, skirmishes and disagreements followed. Around 1864, after peace negotiations went badly, the federal government rounded up Navajo people and forced them to walk between 250 to 450 miles from their homeland (depending on their starting location) within the Four Sacred Mountains to eastern New Mexico at Bosque Redondo (near the military Fort Sumner). For many, the Long Walk Trail began at Fort Defiance, an internment camp located in northeast Arizona.
As with most government relocation efforts of the 19th century, most Navajo felt they had no other choice but to comply. Over 8,000 people made the journey and nearly 2,500 died enroute or in the squalid conditions of Bosque Redondo. While it was intended to be a reservation, Bosque Redondo functioned as an internment camp and the government stationed soldiers to make sure that the Navajo could not leave.
Life at Bosque Redondo
The Diné were forced onto land that could not easily support their traditional foods. They were hundreds of miles away from lands where they could forage, hunt, and grow familiar crops. To prevent the displaced Native Americans from starving, the United States government provided a small set of staple food items and among them were flour, salt, baking powder, powdered milk and lard. At first, the people had never seen these ingredients before and didn’t know how to use them. With ingenuity they came up with a recipe to create a simple quick bread which was cooked in a pan of hot lard over coals. Fry bread is a symbol of survival and perseverance.
The Return Home
The 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo was negotiated with the Navajo, and they were allowed to return to their homeland. On June 18, 1868, the Diné, set off on the return journey, the "Long Walk" home. This is one of the few instances where the U.S. government permitted a tribe to return to their traditional lands. The Navajo were granted 3.5 million acres of land inside their four sacred mountains. The Navajo also became a more cohesive tribe after the Long Walk and were able to successfully increase the size of their reservation since then, to over 16 million acres.
Interesting Facts about Fry Bread
Today, fry bread is most commonly eaten at Native American ceremonial events, feast days, and powwows, intertribal fairs that include traditional dances and vendor markets. Just because it’s not indigenous doesn’t mean that it’s not part of Native American culture. Many tribes other than the Navajo have their own fry bread recipes and traditions stemming from similar circumstances. Some tribes received rations that included yeast instead of baking powder and therefore, their recipes use that substitution.
However, due to its dark past, in 2017 the Miss Navajo Nation contest ended the fry bread–preparation portion of the pageant and opted to have participants prepare traditional foods such as blue corn mush instead.
Traditional Fry Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered milk
1/2 to 1 cup warm water (depending on the humidity)
Canola oil for frying
Instructions:
Combine and mix dry ingredients well.
Start with 1/2 cup warm water and knead well using hands or stand mixer. Add more water if necessary to make a smooth and soft dough.
Cover and let rest 15 to 20 minutes.
Heat enough oil (about 1 1/2 inches deep) in a wide-bottomed pan to 375 degrees F.
Divide into four portions and pat into a disk about 7 inches in diameter.
Fry one at a time and flip after first side is golden brown.
Drain on a paper plate lined with paper towels.
Top with your choice of sweet or savory toppings.
Fry Bread Toppings
You can top fry bread with pretty much anything. Sweet toppings can include honey, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, or your choice of fruit.
You can top it with any savory toppings just like you would a tortilla. I love Navajo Tacos which can include, beans, meat (beef or chicken), cheese, lettuce tomatoes and onions.
Next Time
One of my travel buddies has come down from the Great White North (aka Toronto, Canada) and is wintering here in Tucson. We’ve begun planning a national parks and monuments road trip for April. So, I think I will discuss some of the parks advance reservations that will be needed. Requiring advance reservations to enter a national park is a good idea to guard against overcrowding, however, advanced planning is necessary.
Jan, I am playing catch-up and binge reading your post I’ve missed the last a few weeks! I'm fascinated always by the history I haven't learned. I had no idea Navajo flatbread was born from the need for preservation, just like some of the biscuit type dishes created during the great depression.
Jan, I'm catching up on Four Corners of the Southwest. You do such a wonderful job reminding me of (particularly) The Land of Enchantment, my New Mexico home. Fry Bread. Although it is ubiquitous in the Southwest and indisputably delicious it does have a complicated and dark side. I'm glad you touched on that in your offering here and discussed The Long Walk and the unusual return of the Dine people to their home. My people, the Choctaw were the first removed from ancestral land by The Removal Act of 1830 so the Long Walk of the Navajo (Dine) resonates with me.