American Indian History and FryBread Recipe

We often hear the words Native Americans and American Indians and think of the same group of individuals. The aboriginal culture of the Untied States should not be grouped togeether. There is not a singular culture shared. the federal government through the bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognized 564 tribes but there are many more that have been recognized on the state level or in process of petitioning for recognition. The groups may share customs, languagee and culture but each of them have a separate self governing entity with distinct cultural I.D's.

One dish fry bread can be found in nearly every Native American tribe. The Navajo have been created with creating the frybread but it was under painful, forcibly removed time. In 1864 during th tragic "long walk" nearly 6000 Navajo were forcibly removed from the land their ancestors had clamed. They were forced to march on foot over 300 miles east to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. There they were incarcerated in a tiny area that the Navajo and a small group of Apaches were left without traditional food of wild game , fish and fruits. No way to grow corn because of the poor land and limited water and pest infestation. The U.S. Army provided wheat flour and lard and using the supplemented food the Navajo made frybread.

4 cups flour
3 tbl powder milk
1 tbl baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cups hot water
3 tbl blue corn meal; for bluecorn frybread onl

Mix first four ingreadients add the oil and hot water and knead slightly as for bisquit dough. Devide into 6 balls of dough, brush with oil and store in air tight container. Punch down the dough ball into flat pancake and cook in hot oil turning once to brown both sides.
Contributor: Burning Tree Restaurant (Award Winning)
Yield: 6 fry bread

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