...I don't remember calling for a cultural anthropologist....

Mhays wrote:...I don't remember calling for a cultural anthropologist....

But I'm glad we got one! Thanks much for the contribution, Diannie; I learned a lot and enjoyed what you had to say.

I also enjoyed the company and the fry bread on Friday. Fresh from the frying pan/pot, it was warm and absolutely exquisite. And how often do we get a chance to hear about Gary's Brazilian/Korean-shaved-head, latex-fetishwear model friend? Eagerly awaiting pictures...(I think).

Diannie wrote:Anyway...back to Fry Bread. While it is a pan-Indian food today, it really grew from the great reservations in the west and Southwest (Sioux, Apache, and Navajo) established by the US Government in the mid-19th Century. The Government took away most peoples native lively hoods and substituted handouts of flour and fat. Hence foods built on those staples. Call it a riff on familiar foods but with newly available ingredients.

Diannie, thank you for clarifying and putting fry bread in context. I've been doing a project that involves foodways in the Western U.S. in the 1850's. The combination of bacon fat and flour seems to have been what the white settlers and U.S. Army used for bread, particularly when they were on the move. I uncovered this reference to such a bread in a letter written to my great-great grandmother in Joliet by my great-grandfather Reed on June 21, 1865, while he was working for the Union Pacific Railroad:

"After breakfast which consisted of bad bacon and flour mixed with water, without salt or salerates, baked in bacon grease, we resumed our ride towards the head of Spanish Fork, exploring the country on both sides of the stream where there appeared to be a possibility of finding an opening through the [Wahsatch] mountains."

BTW, I just returned from a symposium at the Longone Center for American Culinary Research at the University of Michigan. They would certainly be interested in any materials-- cookbooks, ephemera, family recipes, photos, oral history, videos, etc. on fry bread or Native American foodways in general. The collections include lots of recent materials, so don't assume that what you have is not of interest because it is not that old. If anyone out there has anything to offer, I'd suggest contacting Jan Longone at the Clements Library. Here is the link:
http://www.clements.umich.edu/culinary/contact.html

Figured I'd throw a net out again - any leads on fry bread tacos outside of the Anawim center in the greater Chicagoland area?

Your best bet would be to attend a pow wow or other event associated with the American Indian Center. Look at their Facebook page for notices:
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanIndianCenter

Over the weekend at the mushroom event, I met a guy from the Indian Center. They are in the process of selling their building. Their hope is to be out of there by the end of the year. They cannot keep up with the maintenance with last straw a blown boiler.

It also means they may be redefining their mission. They feel they have done the job they set out to do. The younger generation is getting college and advanced degrees. It is not as needy for their services as before.

I inquired if they still offered the Indian tacos on the first Friday of the month. He indicated they stopped doing this sometime ago.

Just in case this is wrong information, I suggest calling in advance to verify Indian tacos are still being offered.

Regards,
Cathy2