Our work of peace includes dispelling the singular and historical symbol of Indian to see and hear the varied living, breathing, and frybread-eating tribes across the land. Books like Frybread are important tools for peace in that they expand the awareness of hundreds of unique cultures through story. Native American tribes have been deliberately silenced and preferably unheard. Yet Native tribes are here, as Frybread states, “learning, changing and surviving.” This final image solidifies the symbol of American Indians as historic. Denigrating Native Americans as savage others eventually became dismissing them as consenting to vanish, willingly riding off toward the horizon. The idea of the American Indian has changed over time to suit the needs of the ruling élite. White Americans have historically mimicked Native Americans’ clothing, tradition and ceremonies, hoping to build a legitimate insider identity while simultaneously stealing land from the native peoples. Deloria explores the history of the symbol of Indian over the course of US history. The magic of food can be an instrument of peace. Learning about the central food of a people, if done well, is access to the history, heritage, resourcefulness and perseverance of a cultural community. At the center of a gathering, at the center of a culture is a foundational grain that sustains life - naan, tortilla, rice, ugali, injera, and fry bread to name a few. When combined with love, they nourish and sustain a people. The ingredients in bread are so elemental. Sharing bread with friends, family, and neighbors has become a delightful part of our days.īread brings people together. They love mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough, and watching it rise through the oven window.

Now, my two little boys run into the kitchen when they hear my spouse pulling the bin of flour out of the cupboard. For years now, I have savored the taste of homemade bread. I am lucky to say I married a bread baker.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE, including resources for teaching the book to kids.

My newest article is up at Bookology Magazine. “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” (Arundhati Roy) Peace as Seeing the Deliberately Dismissed

Fry bread native american story