I wrote about fry bread in my Saturday newsletter (https://patwillard.substack.com/p/saturday-news-scraps-newsletter-6fa?s=w) and appreciate so much your in-depth understanding of the conflicting, at times very personal, relationship to the bread . It's one of those recipes that define our country's history, a through-line between what we were and who we are. Again, thank you for such a fine post.!
Awesome story, Hanna. As a side note, I'm always interested to see how tribal casinos choose to incorporate culture, including cuisine, into their ventures. Some folks are adamant that tribal culture should be separate from casinos, for perhaps obvious reasons; others insist casinos can help elevate the knowledge of tribal culture to non-Indigenous visitors. Generally, it feels like non-Native people, if they know a casino is Native owned, expect some level of "tribalness" presented to them as part of the experience, but I'm not sure how much they care whether it is authentic. This piece starts to get into that idea, and I would selfishly love to see you explore it more (with food as your gateway to the stomach and mind) in the future. The Food Section is always delicious, and it's nice to see you include Indian Country in your important work.
I did try frybread twice when visiting the Southwest and ended up with wicked indigestion each time. Perhaps the cooks' skills were lacking but after two painful nights coping with the aftereffects, I'm not eager to try again. But hey, a lot of people turn up their noses at the foods of my culture, too. As long as you're willing to try, think, and engage.
I left Charleston in the 90’s when there were 2 culinary schools and it was well nigh impossible to earn a living wage as a line cook in a buyer’s market.
I was given a fantastic opportunity with the Ojibwe Chippewa of Michigan. Highly competitive salary, paid health benefits and 6 weeks paid vacation, and worked 5 years there & 5 years with the Mdwektanon Sioux in the Twin Cities, where Chef Sean Sherman is flipping the concept of historic fine dining on its head still!
I’d first become aware of frybread’s traditions and complex history reading from Chef Mark Miller, and thought “If frybread is such an intrinsic aspect of native food tradition, shouldn’t we then also feature it in our restaurants?”
What followed, as you might suspect, was an absolute comedy of errors and a hard lesson in cultural appropriation. Even though for all intents and purposes a frybread is little more than a quick bread biscuit, with the same use of artificial leaveners that drove Southerners to bake biscuits during the deprivations of Reconstruction, MY frybread was not THEIR frybread because I was the one making it.
Duly noted / lesson learned. So I paired duck confit with wild rice in the fine dining restaurant, and learned to better suggest a conversation with guests than to force one. A lesson I frequently remind myself of when I have those “hot damn eureka I’m going to make a million dollars” moments.
One quick query though- I’m aware of the Western NC tradition of the collard green sandwich that to my understanding occurred due to the overlap of local Native & Af/Am foodways. In your travels have you or any readers run into collard green frybreads?
Not surprised that this Cherokee fry bread is surfacing in 2022. While many of us may have been holding our breath, creatives are busy taking in the changes at warp speed and adapting to the new. Love this.
Interesting!
I wrote about fry bread in my Saturday newsletter (https://patwillard.substack.com/p/saturday-news-scraps-newsletter-6fa?s=w) and appreciate so much your in-depth understanding of the conflicting, at times very personal, relationship to the bread . It's one of those recipes that define our country's history, a through-line between what we were and who we are. Again, thank you for such a fine post.!
Awesome story, Hanna. As a side note, I'm always interested to see how tribal casinos choose to incorporate culture, including cuisine, into their ventures. Some folks are adamant that tribal culture should be separate from casinos, for perhaps obvious reasons; others insist casinos can help elevate the knowledge of tribal culture to non-Indigenous visitors. Generally, it feels like non-Native people, if they know a casino is Native owned, expect some level of "tribalness" presented to them as part of the experience, but I'm not sure how much they care whether it is authentic. This piece starts to get into that idea, and I would selfishly love to see you explore it more (with food as your gateway to the stomach and mind) in the future. The Food Section is always delicious, and it's nice to see you include Indian Country in your important work.
Very cool. Thanks! I'll put this up in my Saturday round up and have it as part of my shout out to your post
Cultural tourism not top of list? How sad.
I did try frybread twice when visiting the Southwest and ended up with wicked indigestion each time. Perhaps the cooks' skills were lacking but after two painful nights coping with the aftereffects, I'm not eager to try again. But hey, a lot of people turn up their noses at the foods of my culture, too. As long as you're willing to try, think, and engage.
This is so interesting. I would have never known this was even a thing, but would love to try it.
Thanks as always Hanna; great research & insight!
I left Charleston in the 90’s when there were 2 culinary schools and it was well nigh impossible to earn a living wage as a line cook in a buyer’s market.
I was given a fantastic opportunity with the Ojibwe Chippewa of Michigan. Highly competitive salary, paid health benefits and 6 weeks paid vacation, and worked 5 years there & 5 years with the Mdwektanon Sioux in the Twin Cities, where Chef Sean Sherman is flipping the concept of historic fine dining on its head still!
I’d first become aware of frybread’s traditions and complex history reading from Chef Mark Miller, and thought “If frybread is such an intrinsic aspect of native food tradition, shouldn’t we then also feature it in our restaurants?”
What followed, as you might suspect, was an absolute comedy of errors and a hard lesson in cultural appropriation. Even though for all intents and purposes a frybread is little more than a quick bread biscuit, with the same use of artificial leaveners that drove Southerners to bake biscuits during the deprivations of Reconstruction, MY frybread was not THEIR frybread because I was the one making it.
Duly noted / lesson learned. So I paired duck confit with wild rice in the fine dining restaurant, and learned to better suggest a conversation with guests than to force one. A lesson I frequently remind myself of when I have those “hot damn eureka I’m going to make a million dollars” moments.
One quick query though- I’m aware of the Western NC tradition of the collard green sandwich that to my understanding occurred due to the overlap of local Native & Af/Am foodways. In your travels have you or any readers run into collard green frybreads?
YES. PLEASE!!!
Not surprised that this Cherokee fry bread is surfacing in 2022. While many of us may have been holding our breath, creatives are busy taking in the changes at warp speed and adapting to the new. Love this.