Fry Bread and Indigenous People Tacos

Yeah, the title is a poke at political correctness. Until the Indian Country News changes its name, I'm not going to bother insisting on being called a Native American or indigenous person or first person or whatever. Every once in awhile another committee comes along, pushing to change the names of local landmarks like Squaw Flat. Which I'm okay with, as long as they don't mess with Chief  Mountain:

But back to the subject at hand: Fry Bread and Indian Tacos. It has come to my attention that some of you have never had the pleasure of these culinary delights. So look and learn.

Fry Bread is a hunk of fried bread dough. Go figure, huh? Any bread dough will do, although for the purpose of Indian Tacos you may not want to use sweet dough. Yes, you non-baking types can even use frozen bread dough from the grocery store (I'm looking at you, CPosey). Let it thaw and rise first. Whack off a chunk of dough about the size of a tennis ball. Stretch it out to about an inch thick and poke your finger through the center to make a small hole. Then fry it in hot oil. (No, I don't know how hot. Somewhere between smoking and the dough just sitting in there like a big pale lump. Or you could be nitpicky and get out a cookbook and see how hot the oil is supposed to be to fry donuts.)

I also don't know exactly where Fry Bread came from, although I believe it is a variation on the traditional Indian bannack bread. A much improved version in my opinion, since in the old days Indians didn't have yeast or any other kind of leavening agents, so real bannack bread is has all the tenderness and flavor of baked wallpaper paste.

As for Indian Tacos, who knows, but the first indigenous type to put chili on a piece of fry bread and top it with lettuce and sour cream and cheese and tomatoes and olives and salsa deserves a place in the Indian Hall of Fame, if there is such a thing.

So plunk your fry bread on a plate. Top it with a generous serving of your favorite chili. Go wild with the toppings. Enjoy.

Then fry up one more piece of bread, because no meal of Indian Tacos is complete unless you finish it off with fry bread drenched in melted butter, then drizzled with syrup, spread with huckleberry jam, or sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Or in our case, dunked in honey provided by the Bee Man, who sets up his hives alongside our alfalfa field every summer.

Hope you enjoy yours as much as I'm going to enjoy mine, as I sit here gazing out my window, across Indigenous Woman Flat at what had better remain Chief Mountain.