Every culture has some kind of flatbread in its cuisine, usually dating from time immemorial. In the case of the Navajo/Diné people of the American Southwest though, the time is recorded. The fluffy, chewy frybread that’s still served in restaurants and in Diné households all over New Mexico was created in 1864 during the Navajo Long Walk. The forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homes in Arizona to New Mexico disrupted traditions and cultural knowledge—including ways of gathering and preparing food.
During the Long Walk, the United States government furnished the Diné people with rations of dry foods: flour, coffee, white sugar, lard, and some spare canned goods. In other words, all foods that they had never seen before, and didn’t know how to cook. They eventually came up with the recipe for frybread, and a survival food and cultural icon was born. The fluffy, greasy, pan-fried bread is satisfying and easy to make, and an ideal tool to sop up that last bit of chile after a meal. The formula–flour, sugar, salt, lard–has survived largely unchanged ever since, though today it is usually made with Blue Bird Flour, whose logo you’ll see sported on t-shirts and patches all over the Navajo Nation.
Now, modern Native American cooks have a troubled relationship with frybread. It is symbolic of their people’s darkest time, but also of their ingenuity and ability to survive despite the odds. Chef Sean Sherman, popularly known as The Sioux Chef, does not serve frybread on his menus and has removed it from his own diet as well. But other people argue that it’s essentially Native American ‘soul food,’ and should be celebrated as such. Whatever the larger cultural agreement is, frybread is certainly delicious—especially piled high with taco fillings. It will likely remain a contentious yet crucial part of the New Mexican diet, and if we choose to consume it, we should also remember its origins.
