Spilyqy Tymoo, Wqrm Springs, Oregon
September!, 2005
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---.rrT7: ,
Tribal members traveled to Mt. Hood
Meadows recently for huckleberry
picking. Mount Hood Meadows hosted
the outing, in cooperation with the
tribes. Some who made the trip used a
ski-lift to travel to higher elevations to
look for berries (photo above).
Meanwhile, Bobby Brunoe, general
manager of tribal Natural Resources,
and Louie Pitt, director of Government
Affairs, and others spent time at the
Mt. Hood area with congressmen Greg
Walden and Earl Blumenauer . They
discussed future management policy of
Mt. Hood, and the off-reservation treaty
rights of the Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs. (At right, Pitt
discusses resource management.)
Photot courtwy ol Rch Tdmtdg
The great debate over fry bread
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(AP) - When you first sec it,
plopped down on a paper plate
in all its caloric bliss, the round,
doughy (rent is so appealing, so
alluring it's hard to believe this
wondrous sight can cause any
thing but delight.
Hut fry bread, that fluffy
concoction American Indian
women lovingly make in their
kitchens and people line up for
at powwows and western fairs,
has come under attack as a haz
ard to health,
Suan Shown I larjo, a Chey
enne and Muscogee Indian,
wasn't trying to cause a debate.
She just was exhausted with yet
another one of her relatives
dying of diabetes. She zoned in
on fry bread as a culprit and
whipped out a January column
for Indian Country Today de
claring it junk food that leads to
fat Indians.
She made a New Year's reso
lution to abstain from fry bread.
Then she did something some
Indians consider insane: She
asked them to give it up, too.
Word spread through Indian
Country. Outrage! The nerve of
I larjo! What started as a
woman's disdain for the yummy
delicacy suddenly became the
great fry bread debate. Ask any
Indian about it and you'll either
be greeted with rolled eyes - or
sparkling, hungry eyes.
After all, fry bread is synony
mous with Indian culture. South
Dakota has just made it the of
ficial state bread. And many In
dians don't want anyone com
ing between them and their hot,
greasy skillets.
"It's like giving up turkey at
Thanksgiving," said Gayle
Weigle, an Anishinabe Indian
who runs a Web site celebrating
fry bread stories and recipes. "It
is a tradition."
Indian women like Margarita
Gonzalez on the Tohono
O'odham reservation here rise
before dawn to start making fry
bread. Gonzalez makes four
dozen each morning and makes
her living selling them in an
empty lot in Sells.
"It's like a craving you get for
it, the aroma of it. You have to
try to keep yourself from it,"
she said, taking a break from
serving the lunch crowd.
To say fry bread is tasty isn't
doing it justice. It's scrumptious,
sweet, and puts a crazy spell on
anyone who craves it,
But it's loaded with pesky
calories - at least 700 for one
paper-plate size piece - plus a
whopping 27 grams of fat, ac
cording to a nutritional analysis
by the U.S. Department of Ag
riculture. "Those things are awesome,"
tribal police officer Mario
Saraficio said, getting excited at
the thought. "It's bad, but it's
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good. If (lie doctor told me I
had to give if up, I'd say prob
ably not."
Fry bread came to be by ne
cessity. When the government
moved Indians off their land
and onto reservations in the
1800s, they were kept from
their traditional foods such as
elk, corn, deer and rabbit. In
their place were rations of flour,
salt and lard, and Indian women
did what they could with it, cre
ating the wonderful fry bread
that would become part of their
culture.
Ingredients vary today, but
the main ones a,re still white
flour, salt, sugar and lard. Some
call it a popovcr, and options arc
endless for how to eat it. There's
the Indian taco, fry bread with
red chili and beans, or the extra
sweet version with powdered
sugar or honey on top.
In Phoenix, there is the popu
lar Fry Bread I louse restaurant,
where you can get fry bread
pretty much anyway you want.
The most sinful? Fry bread
topped with gooey chocolate
syrup and oozing with butter.
Sure, folks there talked about
the fry bread flap, but it didn't
seem to make much difference.
"They're still in line," said res
taurant owner Cecelia Miller.
Fry bread is so embedded in
the culture many Indians can't
imagine going without. T-shirts
declare "Fry Bread Power For
ever!" or "FBI - Fry Bread In
spector." There's an entire Web
site dedicated to warm, fuzzy
memories about fry bread.
So Mar jo's column was the
equivalent of taking spray paint
to sacred petroglyphs.
I larjo, who heads the Morn
ing Star Institute, an Indian
rights group, compared fry
bread to a "lead Frisbee" and
even likened it to "hard-core
porn, No redeeming' qualities,'!
"It's the connecting dot be
tween healthy children and obe
sity, hypertension, diabetes, di
alysis, blindness, amputations
and slow death," Ilarjo wrote,
deeming it, quite simply, "Rot
ten stuff."
On the national radio show
Native America Calling, the fry
bread furor was one of the
most popular topics this year.
One man boasted that he
downed 12 pieces in one sitting.
Another man said he was des
perate for fry bread and couldn't
find any.
"Anytime you say fry bread,
people smile. F.xcept Suzan
Harjo," Weigle said. "It's almost
sacred. It just makes you
happy."
Weigle originally started her
Web site www.frybreadlove.org
to talk about a benefit concert
for the homeless children she
worked with in Minneapolis.
"The attitude is, 'I'm
going to get (diabetes)
anyway. ' And to some
extent, it's true. They
will get it."
Or. Paul Weintraub
Why that name? To her, fry
bread means comfort, Soon, she
was posting fry bread recipes,
pictures and heartwarming sto
ries. She's thinking now of a
recipe book.
Not every case of obesity
and diabetes among Indians can
be blamed solely on fry bread,
of course. But Ilarjo has a
point.
Among Indians, the preva
lence of Type 2 diabetes - the
most common form - is more
than double what it is in the gen
eral population. Fueled by obe
sity, poor diet and a sedentary
lifestyle, Type 2 diabetes is oc
curring a full decade sooner in
Indians, when people are be
tween 20 and 29 years old.
Many believe the diabetes
rate began to skyrocket when
Indians stopped living off the
land and began using govern
ment rations. For decades, re
searchers with the National In
stitutes of Health have been
studying the Pima Indians in
Arizona, who have the highest
incidence of diabetes in the
world, to determine if there is
a genetic reason they are more
susceptible to the disease.
Here on the Tohono
O'odham reservation near Tuc
son, more than half the 14,000
residents have diabetes. A $4
million dialysis center is under
construction, necessary to serve
all the people who have devel
oped kidney disease from dia
betes. 'At the Sells hospital, it's un
usual for doctors to sec a tribal
member who doesn't have dia
betes. It is so prevalent, doctors
and nutritionists struggle to con
vince Indians they can help pre
vent it.
The attitude is, "I'm going to
get it anyway," Dr. Paul
Weintraub said. "And to some
extent, it's true. They will get it."
Gloria Maldonado has lived
with diabetes for 22 years. Her
mother had it, so does her
brother and her 24-year-old
daughter.
"I figured sooner or later I
would get it," she said as
Weintraub examined her.
Fry bread didn't get
Maldonado, 53, in this situation
by itself, of course. She struggles
to give up junk food and doesn't
exercise. But she has switched
from cooking fry bread in lard
to dipping it in oil.
See FRY BREAD on 10
4Mb tmilMmw tmaib
A his Smith IV is
13, and will be in the
seventh grade at
Jefferson County
Middle School. His
younger brother
Mateo, 8, is going
into the third grade
at Warm Springs
Elementary School.
In school Alris
likes Social Studies.
Mateo likes drawing.
A favorite part of
school for both Alris
and Mateo is PE.
Alvis and Mateo Smith
And after school they
like to practice base
ball at the Commu
nity Center ball
fields.