fry bread a native american family story

But there is an enormous range of hair textures and skin colors. Most people think Native Americans always have brown skin and black hair. The final pages of Fry Bread can help you interrupt that kind of harmful statement. That's such a damaging statement! When you hear an adult say that to anybody-but especially a child-stop them.

That expectation means that adults don't hesitate to tell a Native child like the girl holding the cat that they are 'not really an Indian' (or some variant of that phrase). Fry Bread pushes back on the expectation that Native people look the same (black hair, dark skin, high cheekbones etc.). Rich with smells and sounds, Fry Bread radiates with Native American pride, the sharing of traditions and the love of family.After the lecture, a family approached me to say how deeply moved they are by seeing a child with lighter skin and hair. With a list of additional references and resources, Fry Bread’s backmatter serves as an accessible resource tucked inside a children’s picture book. Maillard, who is an enrolled citizen of the Seminole Nation, also raises current issues, including health and medical care, racial diversity within today’s Native communities and the continuing struggle for recognition. Over several pages, Maillard details the origins of fry bread as well as the complicated and often overlooked history of Native Americans in the United States. Soft and subdued, Fry Bread is warm, inviting and uplifting.Īlthough Fry Bread’s narrative stands on its own, its message continues in a comprehensive author’s note.

Family names (written by the illustrator’s children) and an image of the author’s aunt (who taught him to make fry bread) give Fry Bread an incredibly personal, cherished feel. Echoes of ancient cave art, symbolic tattoos, handmade baskets and ceremonial designs tell a story of tradition. They may be making fry bread, but what they are truly creating is family, tradition and abiding pride in both.ĭeftly illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, every page of Fry Bread is imbued with Native American history and culture. For each step-mixing, frying and waiting-the bread represents an important aspect of their heritage. In Kevin Noble Maillard’s Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a family gathers to prepare a traditional Native American fry bread meal.

Fry bread a native american family story