The idea of Fry Bread being a traditional food is a common misconception held by many people in America today. We believe that when discussing Native foods, it's important to also address non-traditional foods, and their impact on Native cultures.
Fry Bread, also known as Navajo Fry Bread, originated about 144 years ago when the United States government forced Navajos living in Arizona to walk 300-miles and relocate to a reservation in New Mexico. This journey was known as the "Long Walk", and the reservation they were forced to move onto contained land that couldn't easily support their traditional foods of vegetables and beans. The United States government gave the Navajo various canned goods, as well as flour, sugar and lard. These became the basics of making fry bread.
Today, many native cultures across America add fry bread to part of their diet. however, fry bread is incredibly unhealthy and it is blamed for the issues of diabetes and obesity, which plague many native tribes across many different reservations.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a piece of fry bread, about the size of a large paper plate, contains about 700 calories and about 25 grams of fat. That is more than a third of the average person's daily calorie intake! Not to mention that it has no nutritional value as well; fry bread basically consists of empty calories.
So now you know, Fry Bread is not a traditional food!
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