“Are we food secure? Do we have enough food to last? If the road slides out on both ends, if the lights go out, what are we going to do for 5 days? We realized we needed to grow a diversity of produce and learn how to use these things in our diet. And then we started raising more animals, and we realized that the resiliency that we’ve always had was through food sovereignty. “It’s how we actually survived as Hupa people, we went up into the hills and hid, we waited them [the National Guard] out. The military put bags of flour out to entice the Hupa out of the hills but they just dumped the flour out and used the bags to leech acorns. We’re gonna do what Native people have done since the beginning of time and the way we’re gonna do that is through food sovereignty,” when things get tough, Native people need to know how to go to the hills.

She also points out an interesting disconnection. During the 100 Year Flood of ’64, when the National Guard brought food to the Native people that were there farming and ranching in the valley, the emergency food wasn’t necessary. They had larders and cellars, and pantries full of food, they were secure—she asks, “How is it, with all of this technology today that we were more food secure during the worst flood in a hundred years than we are right now?""

-An Interview with Meagen & Emily Baldy, Summer 2019

I’m grateful to every Native ancestor that kept themselves alive, that fought for survival, that bore indescribable pain, that went to the hills so that we could be here today.

We don’t always agree on everything in Indian Country and we don’t all make the same kind of frybread. But this is the best way and that’s all you need to know.

FRY BREAD

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
½ cup water
Additional ¼ cup flour for shaping
2 cups oil for frying I use lard or avocado oil or a mix of both

INSTRUCTIONS

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Combine milk and water in a separate cup.
Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir with a fork to mix well. You will have a soft dough.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, this will make sure your fry bread is extra fluffy.
Flour your countertop well with the remaining ¼ cup flour and coat your hands, too.
Pull off golf ball sized pieces of dough and pat each piece out into a circle about 1/3″ thick (1 cm) and 6″ across, dipping your fingers in the flour to keep it from being sticky.
Heat the oil to 350 degrees and fry breads one at a time, for about 2 minutes on each side.
Drain, then layer with paper towels.

Frybread: A Pan-Indian Party in Your Pantry