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Project 57 Week 22: Bannock / fry bread

Published May 15, 2024 by Ashley Edwards

First Nations communities had been making bread without flour (aka, unleavened bread) for many generations. Before colonizers introduced wheat flour to Indigenous nations in North America, there was “lichen bread, corn bread, moss bread, cattail bread” and many more (NBCC). In an examination of pre-contact Coast Salish agriculture along the West Coast, Wayne Suttles describes how “eleven species of native plants were said to have grown in plots,” including “Camas” (known as “Kwetal”) and “Bracken fern” which “grew in abundance” and were used for making bread (Coast Salish Resource Management, 2005). According to Cheryl Bryce, a Songhees knowledge holder, "Kwetlal’s white bulb is a complex carbohydrate that becomes sweet when cooked” (How to Decolonize your Garden). Suttles adds, that the “roots (rhizomes) of [Bracken ferns] were singed and then pounded to convert the edible material into a dough that was eaten in that form or baked as a ‘bread’” (Coast Salish Resource Management, 2005). These unleavened breads were “cooked in open fires, on rocks, in sandpits, and in vessels” (NBCC).

After contact, and the introduction of wheat flour to Turtle Island, bread began to be made using flour first acquired through trade. While bannock, either baked or fried, is a post-contact food, it became a necessity when access to traditional lands was prohibited (Consuming Colonialism). Facing starvation and forced to rely on the colonizer for sustenance, Indigenous nations continued to make bannock using cheap and readily available flour.

The use of white or oat flour for bannock instead of “lichen” or “cattails” is one example of how the systematic disconnection from land immediately and directly impoverished Indigenous people (Consuming Colonialism). There is a tension in the white flour bannock because it provided sustenance for Indigenous communities when access to land was taken, and it is appreciated for that, but if not for the colonizer there would be no need for dependence on it. For this reason, it is important to recognize that not all Indigenous nations consider bannock as part of their culture or traditional cuisine.