Few foods carry as much layered meaning as fry bread. Simple in ingredients yet profound in history, fry bread is a traditional fried dough of the Indigenous peoples of North America, cooked until light, golden, and comforting. Today it appears at pow-wows, family gatherings, and community celebrations, but its origins are rooted in survival, adaptation, and resilience.
According to Greg Bellanger, owner of Northland Visions – a Native American goods store – the story of fry bread begins when tribes were forced to abandon nomadic lifestyles and relocate to reservations. As part of treaty agreements, the U.S. government provided staple rations intended to help tribes transition to farming. Those rations – flour, salt, baking soda, and lard – were unfamiliar to many Native communities, who had no baking traditions. Rather than baking loaves, people mixed the ingredients into a dough and fried it in lard. Through experimentation and necessity, fry bread was born.
“Everybody kind of had their own combination,” Bellanger explains, describing how recipes developed through trial and error. What started as a survival food became something much more: a shared tradition passed down through generations. Over time, fry bread became a fixture at gatherings, a food that brought people together even in the face of hardship.
Bellanger’s own memories of fry bread are deeply personal. “Every family has an auntie or somebody that makes the best fry bread,” he says. In his family, one auntie’s recipe stood out so much that his uncle later converted it into a fully dry mix. That mix is now what Northland Visions sells – transforming a family recipe into something that can be shared more widely while still honoring its roots.
Traditionally, fry bread was served as a treat. Bellanger recalls it hot and fresh, topped simply with butter, powdered sugar, or jam. It wasn’t dessert exactly, but it wasn’t just bread either. He describes it as something in between—light, flaky, and comforting. In more modern settings, fry bread has also evolved into the base for the popular “Indian taco,” where it replaces a tortilla and is topped with savory ingredients like meat, beans, lettuce, and cheese.
This versatility is part of fry bread’s enduring appeal. It can be sweet or savory, eaten on its own or alongside a meal, broken apart and shared. Bellanger compares its cultural role to that of a croissant in France: familiar, beloved, and symbolic. “It’s bread, but it’s not bread,” he says. “It’s not cake either. It’s kind of its own thing.”
At Northland Visions, fry bread is offered in one-pound gift packages that require only water and oil to prepare. The mix reflects what fry bread has always been—accessible and rooted in community. When cooked properly, Bellanger notes, it should be light and golden brown, often palm-sized, sometimes with a small hole in the center to ensure even cooking.
While fry bread carries a complicated history tied to displacement and colonial policies, it also represents perseverance and continuity. For many Native families, it remains a “comfy dish,” a food that connects generations and cultures.
861 E Hennepin Ave. suite 130 | 612-872-0390 | northlandvisions.com