2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:We used to get frybread or fry bread in New Mexico when we went to the pueblos for various events or at concession stands at fairs. It was often called Navajo bread.It wasn't topped with anything in my memory. It has a long and twisted history. Here's one source:
https://www.cowboysindians.com/2013/10/more-than-an-indian-taco-2/
Fry bread is a simple wheat bread that is deep fried. I don't know how the term "Indian taco" originated; At least during my time in NM--the late sixties and early seventies-- it wasn't something we saw on menus. Tacos of course are typically made with corn tortillas, so I believe the intention was to use fry bread as a base for Americanized taco fillings such as beans, ground beef and grated cheese. It would be impossible to fold such a construction the way you fold a taco. Flour tortillas are usually made with white flour, so the ingredients may for them may indeed be closer to the ingredients of flour tortillas, but cooked in a completely different way.
How fry bread migrated into NM and Arizona is a long story itself, but how it migrated into eastern Canada must be an even longer one. How it became associated with or called bannock must be another strange tale, as bannock is a Scottish oat cake. There's a wealth of online analysis about the history of Indian fry bread and its travels.
In the mid 1800's thousands of Scots came to British Columbia to help build the colony. I believe a lot of them married Indians. That's how bannock got to the West Coast of Canada. It's known as a First Nations bread often served with salmon. Any corrections gratefully accepted.
