Use the same ingredients and make Navajo tortilla instead. Use a makeshift grill over the electic grill or heated skillet.

Our family or five have visited Monument Valley a number of times. This one time there was a Navaho woman and her daughter selling a cooked dough. Not knowing what it was,we spent time finding out what the fried dough was about. Each of us ordered one and while i was waiting the rest of the family went to the car. Selecting one of the shakers sitting on the table I coated them liberally. We all took a hugh bite out of each of the fried doughs. Surprise I had picked up the salt container instead of the sugar. Needless to say it was a profitable day for them as we reordered and enjoyed every bight Duane Rose

My husband is the frybread maker in our house. His recipe came from a vision. We have shared it with many people.

Marsha(White Eagle Feather, Swafford

@Timbo, yes! "Poverty and ignorance cause poor dietary choices in all of us, not just Native Americans." These are the enemies, not an occasional frybread. This article leads me to the question, What am I doing about poverty and ignorance among the folks who can most benefit from learning and better opportunities?

I have lived among the Apaches & Navajo, but I myself am a Nez Perce from the norther tribes. Besides being a native, I am a Cook who is facinated by the various breads that our tribes have. The process of a Navajo frybread is different from the nothern tribes, it is larger & fluffier, whereas the north it is more dense. I rarely get to get an authentic Navajo frybread unless I visit a pow wow where an authentic Navajo is preparing it, you can tell the difference! They should do an article on the other types of breads that are healthy, some made with blue corn, some are bannock breads, or some are made on the ashes of a fire. Our natives have had to be creative with the ways we prepare our food. Would love to see more articles!

For so many years my family made this wonderful bread that has since become a guilty pleasure, but I had no idea of its history. My knowledge of my father's family history is very limited and I don't believe they have ever lived on a reservation; however, they evidently carry on many of their Native American traditional culinary habits, including hominy stew. Thank you so much for the history.

Interesting article. I just had fry bread today on my reservation, Tule River, to honor a Navajo Code Talker we had as guest of honor. He was so grateful as were the attendees.It is well known that fry bread makers are held in high esteem throughout Indian Country, no matter what tribe.
Please, the thought of using wheat flour and olive oil in the dough would make my mother turn over in her grave, it would be that sacrilegious. Some things are best left alone, or why bother. We make them for special occasions and they are as harmful as an occasional doughnut.
I have beautiful memories of my now deceased mother and I making the dough together, frying it up and serving it to our families, it is a labor of love, as are many comfort foods. Sometimes to make extra money, we would hook up our little Indian Taco wagon and drag it to events here in Central California, so tired at the end of the day, we could hardly stand. Somehow the recipe now is never as good as mother's, nonetheless, I think I will warm up my leftover fry bread and slather it with honey, yum!

Frybread as a "story of survival" reminds me of nothing else than the use of unleavened bread (matza) by the Hebrews escaping their enslavement in ancient Egypt. The story of this food, repeated at the holiday of Passover until this very day during the annual Seder supper, centers around eating "the bread of our affliction" baked in the rush to flee to freedom. It is both a beloved symbol and a beloved food used to make matza balls for chicken soup and other favorite Jewish dishes. A bit like eating a form of cement, we look forward to eating it during the required 8 days of Passover(and even during the year-buttered matza with a dash of salt is a comfort food) as much as we look forward to not eating it and returning to digesttion. Reading about Frybread created a connection and a level of understanding I had not had before. Thank you.

when i was young my mom could,nt afford to buy me stuff for my field trip with school so she made these stuffed bannoch about four of them stuffed with hamburger rice an tomatoes on are way on are trip my teachers seen what i was eating and were very curiuos so i sold a couple for five dollers each then i was able to buy other food i did,nt have like drinks chips etc.so that was long ago now i do it in a more better way an still sell them for 5$ each .i call them neechi pops fried bread stuffed with ?

My family learned the art of making frybread while living on the Ute Indian reservation at Red Mesa, Colorado. My grandfather was 1/2 blood, and my mom learned to make frybread because it pleased him. It was the only version of fry bread I knew until I attended my first Pow Wow in the early 1980's. The version I grew up with is based on bread dough (leavened with yeast), while the Navaho version I had at the Pow Wow is made from buiscuit dough (leavened with baking soda). Both are wonderful, but it is true they are packed with calories, and should be enjoyed sparingly. My Grandmother developed type II diabetes in her 50's and I fear the same might happen to me. I still remember it used to be an every Firday affair that my mom would make a fresh pot of beans (pinto) and serve it with frybread. For me it will always be the ultimate in comfort food.

Don at the top of the article on the right hand side there is a box that says Frybread Recipe where you can find a recipe for Frybread. Hope this helps! If you don't see the article at the top here is the URL http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/frybread-recipe.html

I first had frybread at a Sundance in northeastern South Dakota in the spring of 1982. I am disappointed that no recipe was posted in this article and my older Smithsonians are packed away. Could i get the recipe online? The Sundance, the fasting ,the dancing and speeches were fanatastic, something I hope to always remember.

Many cultures have this "poor-folks" food. What are Southern biscuits but flour and lard? For us Slovenian-Americans in northern Minnesota, it was "pohennas"; when there was dough left over from the morning bread-baking, my Mom would roll, cut and fry it as an after-school snack. With sugar sprinkled on it! None of us were fat - we ate vegetables from the garden all year round; deer, rabbit and fish from the woods; and a chicken from the coop on Sunday. The pohennas were a special treat.

Interesting article on Frybread. What I'm reading reminds me of the intervention process. I never thought frybread would be viewed negatively to make a point on the diseases of overindulgence. Instead of bashing frybread, why don't we take a proactive stance and change some of the ingredients, such as substituting wheat flour for white flour and olive oil instead of lard. I believe encouragement of innovation is more effective than bashing.

I was immediately struck by the authors comment on frybread's "conflicted status - it represents both perseverance and pain" , and how many other cultures share this type of cultural association with simple breads, i.e. the Passover matzoh, or from my own Irish descendants, brown soda bread. I can remember times growing up when the ubiquitous corned beef & cabbage was financially out of reach, but that simple bread was baked every St Patrick's Day. To this day, my family bakes that bread, fully remembering the perseverance and pain of our parents, grandparents and all those who've gone before us.

Frybread is a food group, or if it isn't, it should be. A lotta tribes eat their version of frybread and not just those in the Southwest. Try a piece wrapped around a slab of roasted mutton and a massive green chili pepper. Its yummy eaten in concert with a bowl of Mutton Stew, too. Mostly, I've eaten frybread as the vehicle for Navajo Taco, but you can sprinkle it with powdered sugar or drizzle it with honey and experience happiness too. My fondest memory of frybread though, comes from a stop at the restaurant on Hopi Second Mesa. There, the frybread is square, not round, and the taco (though identical in ingredients) is an Indian Taco, not a Navajo Taco. The maintenance of tribal identity is important and frybread will be made to conform. You can make frybread below 6 thousand feet elevation, but it's not the same and no amount of baking powder will be adequate compensation. As for the relative health merits of frybread, it's no worse and perhaps a lot better than donuts for you. All things in moderation. Though I understand and even sympathize to some degree with Ms. Harjo's perspective on frybread, I seriously doubt that she will succeed in convincing the majority of Indians that frybread it a tool of oppression. I'm off to the kitchen. The Crisco can is rattling around in the back of the cupboard again.

I live in the southwest, just off the Navajo reservation. I have very good friends who are Navajo, make frybread, and yes, it's very much a part of their culture, not just foodwise. Frybread and Navajo taco's are delicious, but very much needed in moderation. I can see so much how the diabetes is affecting the tribe, especially the older ones who are very much keeping to their native ways. Excellent article, I very much enjoyed it! Come down to Southeast Utah sometime to really experience this life and food.

As a type 2 diabetic, I fully understand the role food plays in my disease. I believe most people do, too. I was raised a Christian, and understand the role bread plays in that religion, as do most people. Frybread raised almost to a level of reverence in the Native American belief system cannot in itself be harmful; it only becomes harmful when misused. Poverty and ignorance cause poor dietary choices in all of us, not just Native Americans.

George, it started in the Southwest, though, as page 1 attests. I grew up in Gallup, N.M., also ("Indian Capital of the World"), so I've had plenty of experience with eating frybread with mutton stew from an old ram and other interesting foods.

I first had frybread at a feast that members of the Ho-chunk Nation threw for the conclusion of an archaeological field season in the Kickapoo River Reserve near La Farge, Wisconsin. It haunted my culinary dreams until I had it again at a pow-wow in a state park near Madison. I still think of it often and look forward to trying the provided recipe. It appears as a regular in pow-wows and feasts in the Upper Midwest, so this is not solely a Southwestern tradition.

If my memory serves me correctly, my family and I were introduced to "Fry Bread" at the first Folk Life Festival on the Mall. It was called Squaw Bread and the recipe I found in The Art of American Indian Cooking by Yeffe Kimball and Jean Anderson on page 118. I have had the pleasure of making Squaw Bread for my family many times since. Uses milk instead of water. Try it. Cordially.

What an interesting article. I remember when Native Americans came to Washington DC in the 70's to protest before Congress. There were so many tribal groups from all over the country,many had nowhere to stay. Some of the area colleges and universities invited native groups to camp out on their campuses. What an amazing scene to see huge colorful teepees camped out in the valley of the Howard University campus, between Founders Library and the Chemistry Bldg. It was a humbling feeling to see solidarity among human beings during a time of political and social change. I have a great respect for Native Americans and their legacy. bj