What are Indian tacos? Why this controversial food became a South Dakota food favorite
Makenzie HuberThis article is one of 18 South Dakota food favorites. For the complete list, go here.
Indian tacos: Tacos served on fry bread instead of taco shells. Fry bread is flattened dough made of yeast and is cooked in hot oil until browned and puffy.
Fry bread has a controversial role in South Dakota.
While it's the state bread, it's a symbol of oppression for some American Indians, said Lisa Ironcloud, who works with food sovereignty programs regarding Lakota-style cooking.
"It symbolizes a lot of things — our people's struggle, a time in our history where we were forced to stay put in one area and couldn't live the lifestyle we were used to, when we started having more lifestyle diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure," Ironcloud said.
After American Indians were relocated onto reservations at the end of the 1800s, they were rationed flour, powdered milk, salt and lard. While fry bread is common in American Indian cultures across the United States, fry bread in South Dakota is traditionally made with yeast instead of baking soda like the "Navajo taco." This is because tribes in South Dakota were rationed yeast instead of baking soda on the reservation.
Ironcloud said that at first, Lakota people would trade some of their rationed items because they didn't know how to use it. Along the way, they were taught, likely by surrounding tribes, to make fry bread with the rationed ingredients.
"They made it because it filled their stomachs. It was food and it was all about survival," Ironcloud said.
Ironcloud typically associates frybread with powwows and wacipis, where people would gather together and vendors would sell food. The gatherings started in the first half of the 20th Century and still continue today. The food is also used for family celebrations and holidays, Ironcloud said.
"The conflict is whether people want to accept fry bread or not as a traditional food. Grandma made fry bread, they grew up on fry bread, all they know is fry bread — so it's a traditional food," Ironcloud said. "My family makes bone broth and other food that we consider to be more traditional than what the Indian taco would be."
The South Dakota legislature established fry bread as the state bread in 2005 as a way to "improve race relations between the white majority and Indians, the state's largest racial minority," according to a 2005 article in the Rapid City Journal.
"As diverse as our cultures are, we are all united by the common goal of making this state a place where our children can grow and thrive, and where we can make a decent living and where we can live in peace and harmony with each other," the article quoted former state Sen. Theresa Two Bulls from Pine Ridge, who brought forward the measure.